Grammar Help — Words — Word List

Here's a list of words which are commonly misspelled or otherwise abused. Some of them appear in another grammar list on this site. Use the Free Help form to submit more.

Word	Common Mistake	Submitted by
a lot	should be two words "a lot", never "alot".	Amanda
but, and	Beginning a sentence with "But" or "And" is acceptable according to Fowler's Modern English usage. But I don't think it's good style. And avoid it in your formal papers. But learn to live with it in journalism.	The Vancouver Sun, The Province and others special thanks to Peter at Networks
centre, center	Visitors from the US can skip to the next one. This is for Canucks only. The correct usage in Canada is the British spelling: "centre." Due to the lax standards in most of our post-secondary institutions, you will probably be able to get away with either one. Should you get a particularly ignorant teacher, you may be marked down for the British form. You can refer the teacher to the Oxford Dictionary which allows either but the roots of the word are from the French which still spells it "centre."
colour, color	It's the British thing here; colour is the British spelling.
defence, defense	Defence is British, therefore Canadian; defense is American.
ensure, insure	This is when you make sure of something. Often confused with insure which means to secure payment of a sum of money in the event of some kind of loss or injury.	Dean
first of all	Actually, this can be used but I prefer the shorter "first." The common mistake associated with the word is to follow it by the erroneous "second of all" and even by the egregiously horrible "third of all." Think about it. Something can come first before all (first of all) but not second of all because it's really "second of all but one" and finally "third of all but the first two." Why not forty seventh of all but the first forty six?	Stephen
firstly	the suffix "ly" is used to make a descriptive word into an adverb, not modify a counting word. It's just "First" which usually leads off a sentence with some part of a list in it. "First, he told me how to write."
garnishee, garnish	I got my comeuppance researching this one. Oxford says both can be used as a verb which means to legally seize money. For years I have been embarassing myself by stating that I would welcome having my salary 'garnished' because it would then have some extra decoration. In actual fact, with or without the extra 'ee' it's something to be avoided.	Peter
honour, honor	It's just like 'colour'; Brit vs. Yank. My degree, however, granted by Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, BC, Canada, states "Honors English" when it should state "Honours English."
its, it's & its'	I can't state this enough! it's = it is its = possessive of it its' = NEVER USED IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE!!!	An SFU Biology professor who must remain nameless, because as incompetent as he was at manipulating the apostrophe, he is still a leading researcher and I may do further work with him.
jargon	It's not a word that's misused, but it's a terribly common writing fault. Sometimes terms specific to certain disciplines are needed to make the meaning clear, but don't use esoteric language solely for the onanistic pleasure of discourse which is ultimately exclusionary and creates redundant pleonasms.
likelihood	one word, sometimes misspelled "likely hood"	Vancouver Sun