Writing & Grammar: More and More Confusing Words

by Jennie Ruby  

Several respondents called these word-choice challenges fun, so let's do this one more time. Your challenge this week, once again, is to choose the right word or phrase:

1. I wish someone had appraised/apprised me of the situation with the angry client.
2. I thought the books had already/all ready been shipped.
3. When I left on Friday, the books were already/all ready to go.
4. When I got back to work on Wednesday, I found out the shipment had been held so we could send the books and the other items altogether/all together.
5. Meanwhile, the client had told us it was alright/all right to send the items separately.
6. I was loathe/loath to make the phone call, because I was not sure how to handle the situation.
7. Nevertheless, I made the phone call without further ado/adieu.
8. Being as how/beings as how/because I called right away, I was able to soothe/sooth the client's temper.
9. Because of /due to our mix-up, I decided to offer the client a discount on a future purchase.
10. However, the client said she could/couldn't care less about getting a discount.
11. Instead, she tried to convince/persuade me to give her the entire shipment for free.
12. I said that getting good service was differentthan/different from getting products for no cost.
13. I then decided I better/had better offer overnight shipping on the order.
14. Once she agreed, I couldn't hardly wait/could hardly wait to get off the phone and do a victory dance.
15. After our discussion, the client was literally/figuratively on fire with enthusiasm for our business.

Results from last week's Challenge

Your answers this week are brought to you by Lorna McLellan, the only respondent with 100% of the answers correct. Congratulations, Lorna! Also an honorable mentions go out to Susan Czubiak and Mary Lee Foley for pointing out that Boy Scout is capitalized and should be two words! That's what I get for ignoring Word's red underline!

1. He led the charge into the superstore for the one-day sales event.
2. The biennial event last occurred in 2010.
3. You may have to wait awhile to see these prices again.
4. I remember playing the first version of that classic game back when I was 12.
5. The Boy Scout enjoyed his celebrity after saving the little dog from the stream. 
6. When the bully who had threatened the boy gave his congratulations, butter wouldn't melt.... [assuming it was a cold greeting, so cold that butter would not melt in his mouth!]
7. Can you ensure that the dog does not run away again?
8. I am so eager to hear about the ceremony that I can hardly wait.
9. She slept soundly, knowing that the puppy was safe.
10. Here is the latest news on the price decrease.

Percent of respondents who missed each word:
biennial	60%
awhile	45%
celebrity	45%
wouldn't	45%
classic	10%
ensure	10%
eager	5%
led	0%
soundly	0%
latest	0%

The statistical analysis is interesting this week, as several words proved to be no challenge: everyone correctly answered led, soundly and latest. Only 5 or 10 percent of us missed eager, classic and ensure. Here are brief explanations for those.

Although there is some overlap in meaning between eagerand anxious, a careful writer will be aware of the connotations: Eager is more positive and enthusiastic; anxious is more negative and afraid.

Because Webster's dictionary describes how people use a word, rather than always indicating whether they are using it accurately, the third meaning of anxious is the same meaning as eager. However, the synonyms (from Merriam-Webster.com) tell the tale:

anxious--aflutter, antsy, nervous, atwitter, dithery, edgy, goosey, het up, hinky [slang], hung up, ill at ease, insecure, jittery, jumpy, nervy, perturbed, queasy (also queazy), tense, troubled, uneasy, unquiet, upset, uptight, worried

eager--agog, antsy, anxious, ardent, athirst, avid, crazy, desirous, enthused, enthusiastic, excited, geeked [slang], great, greedy, gung ho, hepped up, hopped-up, hot, hungry, impatient, juiced, keen, nuts, pumped, raring, solicitous, stoked [slang], thirsty, voracious, wild, champing at the bit, chomping at the bit

Here is a memory aid for classic versus classical:

Classical music is Mozart, classic rock is Led Zeppelin.

classic--timeless, authentic, setting a standard

classical--refers to music, art etc. from a specific era

Many of us are already clear on this one:

Ensure--make sure; assure-reassure someone

And here are the harder ones:

Biennial/biannual--I long ago made a rule for myself to always look up these words before using them, along with the similar words biweekly and bimonthly, simply because they are so easily confused. And since I don't use them often-no more than twice a year (or is that every other year?)-looking them up is a good practice.

A while/awhile--use the two-word version only after a preposition, such as for, in or after, like this:

I stared at the words for a while.

When you leave out the preposition, awhile becomes a one-word adverb:

I stared at the words awhile.

Notoriety is negative fame; celebrity is positive fame. We are all so used to seeing celebrity as a noun meaning famous person that we may overlook its other meaning as simply fame.

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