This week's commonly confused words will include three homonyms, censor, censer, and sensor, as well as censure, which has a slightly different pronunciation but is often confused with them. The examples will be using our friends at Person of Interest.

( I need a sensor for the censer before the censor censures me )

If you live in New York City or follow New York politics at all, you might remember the brief but memorable appearances of The Rent Is Too Damn High Party, a more or less real political party founded to make the point that...well, that rent is too damn high in New York City. The party's founder and primary spokesman is Jimmy McMillan, a gentleman ( Read more... )

Is the word you want shear or sheer? As we'll see, these words could be distantly related. Let's take a closer look.

( We'll be assisted by the cast of Saiyuki )

Today we are revisiting when to use reign versus rein, a topic ably covered by verilyverity in this past post.

As verilyverity described, with excellent examples, reign means to rule or prevail and rein means to control (as one controls a horse with reins). However "rule" and "control" aren't all that dissimilar, and horse-riding knowledge is arcane enough that it's ( Read more... )

Today I tackle the difference between council/councillor and counsel/counsellor (or councilor and counselor if you’re writing in USA English ( Read more... )