a (sorta?) daily doozy

[slaymesoftly]

I was going to do something on canon/fanon soon, but haven't managed to sort out my thoughts yet. In lieu of that, here's a worthy addition to our frequently confused words list; one that I snagged from aadler who apparently has a list of his own

Comments

[diebirchen]

Part of the problem is that while many people know the word "flaunt," most do not know "flout," perhaps having heard it, but not necessarily. The average individual's vocabulary is woefully small, and with sloppy pronunciation added into the mix, there are always mistakes.

[slaymesoftly]

I suspect sloppy pronunciation is responsible for many of those errors. If you've only ever heard the word, you'll assume it's spelled the way you thought you heard it.

[diebirchen]

Back to the hideous, "You've got another 'thing' coming," slurring the "k" from "think" with the "c" from "coming." *shudder*

[slaymesoftly]

Yup - first thing that crossed my mind - but I didn't want to begin that war again. :)

[pensnest]

In British English, 'flaunt' and 'flout' do not sound particularly alike! Flaunt has an 'or' vowel sound and flout has an 'ow'. But I can understand the confusion for Americans.

[slaymesoftly]

Oh, they should sound different to us too! It's just that a surprising number of people are not good at hearing all the sounds in a word, and if it's a word they rarely hear, read or use, they seem to grab the one that seems to be what they want.