# Words one can get confused **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 18, 2022, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772 "2022-09-18T20:10:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2022, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/121 "2022-09-20T19:36:35Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Yin, tan, tethera, when one is counting sheep in celtic Scotland. ;-D In Wales it’s swipe right, swipe left, swipe right. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2022, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/122 "2022-09-20T19:38:59Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > In Wales it’s swipe right, swipe left, swipe right. Those poor sheep! ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2022, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/123 "2022-09-20T22:24:20Z")
> [@Nyvaak](#): > > **Jive** : to engage in deceptive or meaningless talk, to attempt to fool My mama no raise no dummies. I dug her rap! 🙂 ETA: A serious response to this thread that I don’t think has been covered: **Emigrate** - To leave a place to settle somewhere else. **Immigrate** - To come to a place from somewhere else. In other words, you immigrate _to_ a place. You emigrate _from_ a place. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2022, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/124 "2022-09-20T23:57:53Z")
hanged vs. hung aisle vs. isle silicone vs. silicon Celsius vs. Centigrade ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2022, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/125 "2022-09-21T00:04:07Z")
> [@dolphinboy](#): > > there is used as an adjective I did not know that and admit I am having some problem seeing how that is so. I looked it up just now and don’t see it listed as an adjective but I miss things in the fine print sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2022, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/126 "2022-09-21T00:06:38Z")
Through and though. I often forget the _r_. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2022, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/127 "2022-09-21T00:08:22Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > I did not know that and admit I am having some problem seeing how that is so. I’m pretty sure “adverb” was meant there. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2022, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/128 "2022-09-21T00:19:23Z")
This may be the case. However, the post listed “there” being used as an adjective, as a noun, and as an adverb which suggests the author might indeed believe “there” can be an adjective. > [@dolphinboy](#): > > there is used as an adjective, “he is always there for me,” a noun, “get away from there,” and, chiefly, an adverb, “stop right there” ETA: I see that this case was already adjudicated further down in the thread ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2022, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/129 "2022-09-21T00:42:21Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > Celsius vs. Centigrade Had to look this one up. _Very_ technically, Celsius is defined using the triple point of water as a reference while Centigrade uses the standard freezing point of water. Also, “centigrade” both is used refer to other measures and in nomenclature could refer to any temperature scale divided into 100 parts. Purists use Celsius. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2022, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/130 "2022-09-21T00:54:41Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > ETA: I see that this case was already adjudicated further down in the thread Ah. Missed all that. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2022, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/131 "2022-09-21T01:31:56Z")
**Capital** - a city which is a/the seat of government of a nation, state or province. **Capitol** - a building which may be in the above city, where the legislature sit. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2022, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/132 "2022-09-21T01:49:54Z")
**Founder:** “to sink” or “to collapse” or “to fail.” **Flounder:** “to struggle to move” or “to proceed clumsily.” ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2022, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/133 "2022-09-21T01:50:13Z")
Spelling desert and dessert correctly was a big fetish of my junior high teachers. I’d pester them with “Doesn’t a cowardly soldier desert?” ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2022, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/134 "2022-09-21T02:06:41Z")
If they’re with the French Foreign Legion, they desert from the desert. ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2022, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/135 "2022-09-21T05:56:34Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > That reminds me: The phrase is “just deserts”, not “just desserts”. Deserts are what is deserved. I once read a book review in the New York Post that snarkily quoted the reviewed book thus-- ‘“just deserts” (_sic_)’. I was tempted to write in in ridicule but decided it was pointless. “Jibe” and “gibe” are another pair. “Defuse” and “diffuse”. GHW Bush contributed to the spread of “honing in”, just as GW advanced “nucular” proliferation (off topic, but I couldn’t resist). ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2022, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/136 "2022-09-21T09:24:32Z")
Sorry, but this is a nitpick thread: yan, tan, tethera and simular sheep counting systems are from Northern England, mainly around Cumbria, not Scotland. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2022, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/137 "2022-09-21T09:49:53Z")
We can do this all day (and then wonder which pairs **do** get confused IRL) > [@Nyvaak](#): > > **Jibe** : to agree or closely correspond with > > **Jive** : to engage in deceptive or meaningless talk, to attempt to fool vs gybe vs gyve… lie vs lay abduct vs obduct observe vs obverse wake vs awake vs awaken… ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2022, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/138 "2022-09-21T16:22:48Z")
Discrete vs. discreet Tenet vs. tenant ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2022, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/139 "2022-09-21T16:33:27Z")
@Filbert good to know, thanks!! ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2022, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/140 "2022-09-21T16:38:23Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > abduct vs obduct I would bet that these two are never confused, since the world is partitioned into a majority who have never heard of the word obduct, and a minority who know the difference. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772.md?page=8)