The Ever Fascinating English Language

Back in grade school, English has already been one of my favorite subjects. If you do well in English and you know how to use it, in writing and in speech, even just a little, somehow you smarter to the eyes of your peers. And I for one, likes being smart. LOL

There is an air of sophistication when you hear someone speaking fluently in English and there is that magic when you are reading a piece written eloquently. There is just something charming about the usage of English language.

We have studied this language for several years in formal schooling and no matter how much our teachers and professors taught us there seems to be something that we are missing or misusing sometimes. And no worries, I believe that mistakes are just normal, we are humans after all. A mistake here and there means we're trying to improve and doing something new.

So without further prolonging my rumblings about this magnificent language, I want to present you with one of the reasons why I find English painstakingly interesting. In this article I will list down some troubling words that I sometimes misuse or I read around the internet.

Troubling Words I Encounter

• Accept & Except

  The interchange of these words is something that I cannot accept, except I can't be certain that I have not made that mistake from a long time ago.

  Merriam-Webster defines accept as a verb which means "to receive, to give admittance or approval to.." while except means "not including".

Let me give an example for both word :

"Yes, I would accept your proposal to be my lawfully wedded husband. " Wow, that's quite the sentence to hear. I would someday love to hear that just once.

"Yes, I can be your girlfriend except on Sundays, Sunday is my rest day." Again, wow.

• Then & Than

  This pair is in my case, always present somewhere. I frequently the see these words changed. On a publication, on text messages, on articles, it's just all around. I once read a line that says " I love you now, more then yesterday." And I was like 'what do you mean?' lol.

  The dictionary says that "then" is an adverb and it means as "at that time or soon after that" while than is a conjunction that is used in a comparison.

To give an example of their use:

"Let's get married then have some kids. How many do you want?"

"I like chocolate flavored ice cream more than I like you." I didn't know that something so sweet could be so bitter.

• Your & You're

  I cannot seem to shake the guilt from myself when I did this one. Not only did I interchanged them, it was also right on the title! Every time I look at that article of mine, it is like my mistake is shouting, laughing at me and it was just there mocking me. Your is used in relating to or belonging to you, it is used to refer to any person or to people in general. You're meanwhile is the contracted form of "you are".

For example:

"If you think that your pretty face makes my mind go blank. Yes you're dang right it does!" Yes, and I mean you! :)

• Its & It's

  This one is familiar, its concept is the same as the one mentioned above, actually, it's quite the same. Its is much like the your above only it is relating to a thing an animal etc.. While it's is the counterpart of you're in the idea above.

Let me put them in use:

"My heart is yours, its purpose is to beat for you, and as of now, it's yearning for your touch." I guess I can be positive at times.

• Affect & Effect

  I frequently encounter this pairing too. I guess not only their spelling is so similar, just one letter difference, but their meaning also are correlated to each other. They are both pertaining to the idea of consequences after a certain thing, occurrence, a situation and etc. Affect is defined as a verb which means "to produce an effect", see? Even in its definition effect is mentioned. The word can also mean "to make a display of liking or using" Hmmm. I am not quite certain but I'm pretty convinced that this is related to affection. :D. Effect is defined as a noun with the meaning of "a change that results when something is done or happens".

Hmmm, now that I think about it, all the words that I mentioned above are words that are sounding alike pretty much like their counterpart. Somehow it makes a lot of sense that we tend to interchange them because language is really learned first by ear. We can speak before we can even read or write. Most of us rely with the syllabication and the sounds that we hear in making up sense therefore the words like these are pretty confusing when we are not seeing them spelled out.

Finally, I am not writing this article to ridicule or to call out the mistakes that we make, as I said and firmly believe, mistakes are human nature and we are all prone to err and it's okay as long as we understand each other and we strive to be better.

Let us learn together! Let us learn from each other!