Words to Ponder When Foraging for Food in the Desert

As a connoisseur of words (yeah, I said it), I’m fascinated by the idiosyncrasies of the English language and word usage rules that aren’t common knowledge. I don’t think most of us go around choosing to ignore these funny little rules, but there are so many that we just can’t keep them all straight, especially when we have other things going on like businesses to run or children to raise or marathons to train for.

But since I get my jollies from this sort of thing, I’ve decided to compile a short list of interesting rules often ignored in speaking and in writing. This will be a recurring post so I’m interested to hear your feedback.

1. It’s not peaked your interest. It’s piqued your interest. Piqued is a homonym, or a word that sounds similar to its meaning, and it is often spelled incorrectly.

2. You eat dessert. You die of starvation in the desert. She gets her just deserts (what she deserves). Sometimes spell checker just isn’t enough. Be sure to think about this one when writing.

3. Turns out heartwrenching isn’t correct, but heartrending works just fine when describing the world’s saddest love story.

4. Words such as “very,” “so,” and “quite” are intensifiers. The best writers eliminate these words and use stronger verbs and nouns in their place.

5. You don’t feel nauseous, you feel nauseated. To be nauseous means to cause a nauseated feeling in someone.

Creative Commons Image Credit: Wolfgang Staudt

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