Words We Confuse that Spellcheckers Miss, Part E


It’s been a while since I last mentioned the spelling problem posed by homophones, but I didn’t forget about it. I’m working my way through the alphabet, clarifying the distinctions between words that sound identical, but are spelled differently. These words will not be caught by spellcheckers; you just have to learn them.
If you’ve missed my previous posts on this topic, here are the links, alphabetically: A B C D
eaves/eves
Eaves are the overhanging lower part of roofs. Eve is short for evening, and usually refers to the night before a holiday or event.
Dad hung strings of lights from the eaves on Christmas Eve.
elicit/illicit
Elicit is a verb meaning to draw out or evoke. Illicit is an adjective meaning illegal or morally prohibited.
Using torture to elicit information is illicit behavior.
ewe/you
I’d venture to guess that no English speaker has ever mistakenly written ewe when he meant the pronoun you, but I suppose someone might not realize that the word for female sheep was spelled ewe.
Did you see the ram and ewe with their lambs?
eye/I/aye
I is the first-person pronoun, of course. Eye is the body part, and aye means yes or yea.
When the time came to vote, I looked the chairman in the eye and said, “Aye!”
There are just a few E homophones, but too many F’s for me to easily combine them!
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“elusive” and “illusive”
Ran across this one today in a Bible study: “Understanding the love of God can be illusive.” — Oops! I sure hope they meant elusive.
Ooh, that’s a good one. Sorry I missed it.
Even if they meant “elusive,” it’s a strange sentence, but I’m sure they did. 🙂
How about “effect” and “affect”? They may not be official homophones, depending on the way they’re pronounced, but I often see them used incorrectly! AFFECT is used as a verb, and EFFECT is a noun. See what Grammar Girl says about it here: http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/affect-versus-effect.aspx.
Thanks, Michelle. I addressed affect/effect under the A’s. I knew this would be a problem. Here’s the link: http://blog.writeathome.com/index.php/2012/03/troublesome-homophones-why-you-cant-trust-spell-checkers/
I also did a YouTube video in this problem last year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQxil7cH7y8&feature=youtube_gdata_player