Every time I start reading a lot of fanfic, especially unbetaed fanfic, I feel a rant coming on ...
Tense:The past tense of "cast" is "cast," not "casted."
The past tense of "sink" is "sank," not "sunk." "Sunk" is an adjective describing a submerged object.
Spelling:'A lot' is two words.
'All right' is two words
'Could have' (or could've) not 'could of' unless you are doing it deliberately in colloquial dialect.
Definite, not definate.
'Each other' is two words
Erection has only one 'r.'
Furniture not furnature.
It's
stockings not 'stalkings.' Yes, I know there was a TV show called "Silk Stalkings" but it was a PUN, guys.
Truly has no 'e' in it.
Unfortunately has only two n's. (i.e., it's not 'unfortunantly.')
Whoa is not spelled woah unless you're deliberately using netspeak. (Courtesy of
shayheyred)
For the
seventy-bajillionth time, it is
navel not 'naval' unless you are talking about military ships and not the site of the umbilical.
Other homophones (sound alikes) and lookalikes a writer should learn the difference between:* Affect and Effect (affect = to influence, effect =
several things but not the former.)
(a simple mnemonic to remember this: "Special effects affect us.")
* Bare and Bear (You bare your soul, or possibly your body, but you bear a weight or a burden. Alternately you may see a bear in the woods. You can have bare skin, or a bear-skin.)
* Break and Brake (you break a glass but you brake a car)
* Breath and Breathe (you take a breath, but you breathe air)
* Clothes and Cloths (clothes = garments, cloths = pieces of cloth)
* Complement and Compliment (complement =
various, compliment = an expression of praise)
* Desert and Dessert. A desert (noun) is a wasteland, usually arid and uninhabited. In its verb form, it means 'to abandon or forsake.' A dessert, however, is something yummy to eat after a meal. On very rare occasions, you may run across 'deserts' pronounced the same as 'desserts' with the meaning of a reward or punishment which is deserved (as in:
He got his just deserts.). Note: Desert (noun) and Dessert are not properly homophones, the two words do not SOUND alike but they LOOK enough alike to confuse people.
* Discreet and Discrete (discreet = with discretion, discrete = separate)
* Faze and Phase (faze = To disrupt the composure of; disconcert. phase =
a bunch of different things but
not 'to disconcert.')
* Humorous not Humerous. (Humorous = something funny {from the word 'humor.'}, Humerus = the long bone of the arm, and "Humerous" is not a word at all.)
* Lose and Loose (lose = lost, loose = not tight)
(also applies to Loser and Looser.)
* Peaked, Peeked and Piqued
(peaked = coming to a peak or point)
(ETA4: "Peaked" can also mean "to be wan, fey, or ill.") (peeked = peering furtively)
(piqued = a state of vexation, also, to provoke)
* Principal, Principle (the former means 'First, highest, or foremost in importance' and can also be related to money, the second 'basic truth, law, or standard of behavior.')(If you are talking about the head administrator of a k-12 school, it's *-pal* not *-ple*)
* Prostrate, prostate (the first means to lie on the ground, the second is the small gland much beloved by slash-writers)
* Rein, Reign (Reins are the things by which a rider controls a horse. To Reign is to rule over. You don't reign in your passions, you rein them in.)
* Shown and Shone (shown = displayed,
shone = to give or reflect light, to excel, or to polish, among other things.)
* Speeches and Speaches (speeches = a form of communicating, speaches = nonexistent word.)
* Their, They're, and There
(their = Used as a modifier before a noun. ex: their home town.)
(they're = contraction of 'they are')
(there = can be used
variously but not in place of either of the above.)
* Then and Than
(than =
various but primarily used to introduce a second element or clause of an unequal comparison.)
(then =
various, primarily time-related)
* Throws and Throes
(throws = the physical act of throwing something.)
(throes = 1. A severe pang or spasm of pain, as in childbirth; or 2. A condition of agonizing struggle or trouble: a country in the throes of economic collapse.)
You cannot be in the
throws of passion. (Okay, unless you and your partner are into recreational nude karate or something), you are in the
throes of passion.
* To, Too, & Two
(to = toward)
(too = in addition/also)
(two = the numeral 2)
* Viscous, Vicious (the first means thick and/or sticky, the second means evil, immoral, depraved, malicious, etc.) Note: This is not properly a homophone, the two words do not SOUND alike but they LOOK enough alike to confuse people.
* Wail/Wale/Whale -
(Wail: to utter a prolonged, inarticulate, mournful cry.)
(Wale: 1.a streak, stripe, or ridge produced on the skin by the stroke of a rod or whip; welt. 2.the vertical rib in knit goods or a chain of loops running lengthwise in knit fabric 3. the texture or weave of a fabric.)
(Whale: any of the larger marine mammals of the order Cetacea.)
* Your, You're (the first is possessive, and the second is a contraction of 'you are.')
Apostrophes, aka Plural 'S' vs. Possessive 'S':When a word has an 's' on the end because it is plural, there should
not be an apostrophe. i.e., "He has tons of money" should not be written "He has ton's of money."
An apostrophe
should be used to indicate possession, i.e., "Jack's ship is called the Black Pearl." or to indicate a contraction: "They're all right."
If you have trouble remembering the rules for apostrophes, go print out a copy of the
"Bob the Angry Flower" apostrophe use cartoon for yourself.
Whew.
Time to get out the marshmallows to toast over the flames...
ETA: I hate the use of the spelling 'cum' for come. But that's just me, I know it's in the dictionary. :-)ETA2: Great quiz to test your ability to pick out homophones: http://www.helloquizzy.com/tests/the-commonly-confused-words-test