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evaners · Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 12:15 am

oooh oooh oooh! I like this thread now! Let me add one very small item; when you are saying that there is an extra amount of something, or if you are saying that something is also included, you use the word "too", not "to".

So, the shadows in a photo may be too dark. And maybe that's a problem that I have in my photos, too. See, that's not too hard now, is it?

barnabychambers · Joined: 23 Jan 2009 Posts: 264

Alright then. I have a question. What is the difference between affected and effected?

I have looked this up on the internet before and have never found an explanation that has stuck with me. I worked as an English teacher for a few years and did everything I could possibly think of think of not to be asked this question.

digigandalf · Joined: 11 Jun 2005 Posts: 5404 Location: Twinsburg, OH

cdkeyser · Joined: 22 Feb 2012 Posts: 17 Location: over the moon

Hmmm... never thought I'd come across this kind of discussion on a photography forum - but I love it!

Allow me, as a non-native English speaker dealing with a lot of other non-native speakers, to add a pet peeve of mine. If only I got a penny for each time someone tells me they are looking forward to meet me... You can't look forward to "do" something; the "to" is a preposition as part of the expression "looking forward to". It does not indicate an infinitive of the verb. So as far as I'm concerned you can look forward all you like, as long as you're looking forward to doing something!

ajancso · Joined: 18 May 2009 Posts: 1889 Location: Right Behind You

I apologize to the OP, but I guess this thread has been permanently hijacked...

Another common mistake is to assume that when a point is "moot" it is excessive or superfluous. Actually, a moot point is one that is open to discussion or disputable.

And how about anxious? How often have you heard that someone is anxious about seeing someone or doing something. Well, unless this person is afraid, anxious is not the right word. It should be happy, excited, etc (et cetera).

Here are a few pairs that also generate a lot of confusion:

- Because and Since
- Farther and Further
- Whether and If
- Lay and Lie

pharm · Joined: 09 Jul 2006 Posts: 9406 Location: Never quite sure

jeffbanke · Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 11:11 am

Why stop there?
words that sound alike:
Weather and Whether
been (when correctly pronounced and not like bin) and bean

Words closely related but with different meanings
component, composite and composition

or words with multiple meanings like:
compound; meaning a combination of elements
or compound; meaning an enclosure containing a building

Concourse
1. A coming together
2. A crowd
3. large place for assembling or passage of crowds

There are hundreds of these, isn't the English language wonderful? :-)

Of course there are also then the differences between English - English, and American (meaning the US and not to slight the rest of the American peoples) English,
where one has adopted the common use of one meaning of a word with multiple meanings, and the other has adopted a second meaning of the same word, the most humorous of these is of course the use of "lift" and "Elevator".
Brits adopted the french word for a vegetable: Courgette, while the US adopted the Italian word: Zucchini

And the list goes on, making it the hardest language to understand, as we have rules, but then there are the exceptions, which makes it a bit like photography in that one needs to understand the rules, and then know when to break them :-)

cdkeyser · Joined: 22 Feb 2012 Posts: 17 Location: over the moon

hhltdave5 · Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 1:22 pm

Or how about words that are spelled exactly the same but mean two different things such as Polish (having reference to Poland) and Polish (to shine something or a polishing agent).

And what about flammable and inflammable? They both mean something that can be set on fire.