2016-07-26 14:36:14
What is it that makes a word tricky? Is it the fact that it’s funny and hard to pronounce, likediscombobulate? Or is it the fact that it has many meanings, like the verb to set? Irregular verbs are, by their nature, tricky little words and they have to be learned by heart. Compound words can be tricky as well. For an English language learner, a person who’s yet to discover all the rules and rhythms of the language, some of the trickiest words to learn are tricky simply because they are confusing.
Lie, Lay, Lain
To lie is as tricky as verbs can get. It’s an intransitive verb, so it cannot have a direct object, and it means “to recline.” Lie is tricky because its past tense, lay, looks the same as the transitive verb to lay. To lay has a similar meaning (“to put down”), but because it is a transitive verb, it requires an object. So, you can say:
Last night, I lay (past tense of to lie) in bed knowing the morning would come all too soon.
And you can say:
She lays (present tense of to lay) a dress on her bed.
But you can’t say:
As I lay here in bed, I think about how tomorrow will be a very long day.
Beside/Besides
Beside and besides are two commonly confused prepositions. Beside is used to determine a spatial relationship between two objects:
He sat beside the piano while she played.
Besides can be used as a preposition and as a linking adverb. If used as a preposition, it means “in addition to”:
She wants to learn how to play other instruments besides the piano.
If used as a linking adverb, besides means “also:”
It was too late to get back on the road, and, besides, we are feeling too tired.
Discrete and Discreet
Here’s a tricky pair of words for you. Discrete anddiscreet are homonyms, words that are pronounced the same but have different meanings.
Discrete means separate or distinct:
The space was divided into discrete areas for working, eating, exercising, and sleeping.
Discreet has a sneakier meaning, having to do with privacy and not attracting too much attention:
John gave Pete a discreet nudge under the table.
There, They’re, and Their
It wouldn’t be fair to speak about homonyms and not mention the most famous trio among the commonly confused and misspelled homonyms in the English language—there, they’re, and their.There is an adverb, they’re is a contraction of they are, and their is a pronoun. When used correctly, they look like this:
They’re going to their house—the one over there.
Whom
“For Whom the Bell Tolls” is probably the most recognizable usage of the pronoun whom. Given that it’s the title of a famous novel, and that it’s been used as a title for a well-known song, one would think that it would suffice to remind us when to use who and when to use whom. But it gets tricky for English language learners. Even those who speak English as their first language sometimes don’t get it right.
Who is a subject pronoun, and it is used in a sentence like this:
He who enters this website shall find all the secrets of English grammar.
Whom is an object pronoun, and it is used in a sentence like this:
The person to whom the correct usage of commas comes easily shall find happiness in life.
Everyone
Everyone is not a particularly tricky pronoun to use. When you want to say something about a whole group of people, you use it like this:
Everyone remembers where they were when humans first landed on the moon.
The tricky part comes when everyone is separated into every one because then it changes its meaning from “the whole group” to “every discrete member of the group.” It can seem a subtle difference, and that’s what makes it tricky. Here’s how every onelooks in a sentence:
Gifts were given to each and every one of the linguists who attended the convention.
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