Writing & Grammar: Confusing Words for 500

by Jennie Ruby 

 

This week we examine two of my pet peeves--the confusion of appraise and apprise and the confusion of flesh out and flush out. And some other bonus words may appear in the problem sentences!

To appraise something is to estimate its value:

• I need to have my used car appraised before I decide on a selling price.

To apprise is to inform (Webster's says "to give notice to") someone or something:

• The officer apprised the motorist of her rights.

To flush out: something that happens in plumbing or with birds who suddenly fly up:

• The dog flushed the grouse out of the thicket.
• The dog scared the birds, causing them to flush.

To flesh out: to put meat on the bones; to fill in.

• The architect fleshed out the details of the blueprint over the weekend.

Here is the confusing words challenge for this week:

1. The director asked me to keep her appraised/apprised of the project status.
2. We later met to flush out/flesh out the details of the project.
3. During the buyer's walk-through, some squirrels were fleshed out/flushed out of the attic.
4. Please appraise/apprise the seller of her rights regarding the negotiated price.
5. We need to appraise/apprise the governor of the details of the scam.
6. Can we flush out/flesh out this outline before we submit it to the client?
7. The plumber appraised/apprised me of the condition of the old iron pipes.
8. The main line needed to be fleshed out/flushed out to allow water to flow freely.
9. We met with the plumber to flesh out/flush out the plan for upgrading the pipes.
10. We need to appraise/apprise students of how to access/excess the supplemental material.

When ready, submit your answers as comments below.

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Confusing Words for 400 Answers

 

For the Confusing Words for 400 challenge, Gary Kuchel was first to respond with correct answers, followed by absolutely everyone who answered (see list below). None of you made any incorrect answers, but some missed additional problems elsewhere in the sentence. And Lorna McLellan was the only one to notice the typo on foregone!

Special thanks to Alan Sloan, David Pitts, and Karyn Smith for providing the name of the comedian(s). I was amused to see that each of you had a different take on who said, "Who's on first," and I re-watched one of the several versions of the video about three times from beginning to end. Both Abbot and Costello say "who's on first" so many times it is ridiculous to cite one over the other, except to say that Bud Abbot said it first, but Lou Costello asked it as a question.

Answers to the Confusing Words for 400 challenge are brought to you by Lorna McLellan.

1. Its/It's not a foregone conclusion that your/you're going to get these right.
2. Your/you're spelling checker may not correct these errors.
3. Your/You're likely to forget to save your/you're file if you leave work to/too quickly.
4. Whose/Who's to blame if the database is not updated properly?
5. Whose/who's keys are these?
6. The program may crash if its/it's cache is not cleared.
7. The client whose/who's form was received yesterday told us there was an error in its/it's text.
8. "Whose/Who's on first?" asked the comedian, whose/who's name escapes me at the moment.

Here are the correct-responders of last week not otherwise acknowledged above:

Cyndi Marino, Eric Nilsson, Lynn Walpole, Sonia Verma, Chris Zimmel, Patrick Brown, Elaine Study, Geri Moran, Julie Horn,Toni Wills, Pat Jones, Michelle Nienhuis, Alan Sloan, Renita Coleman, Karyn R Smith, Amy Grittman, Lisset Vega, Anne Louque, Lisa Mileusnich, Ginny Supranowitz, Jay Herman, David Pitts, JoAnn Bridges, Joanne Hofmeister, Mary Schoeller, Kay Honaker, Karyn Highet, Christine Pass, Vera Sytch, Kim Bullman, Julie Robertson, Susan Czubiak, Sharon Urquhart, Amanda Prussing, Denise Miller, Lisa J Stumpf, and Tanya Davis.

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Comments

[Larry_kunz]

1. apprised
2. flesh out
3. flushed out
4. apprise
5. apprise
6. flesh out
7. apprised
8. flushed out
9. flesh out (nice - I see what you did there)
10. apprise - access

[Nick Shears]

1. The director asked me to keep her apprised of the project status.
2. We later met to flesh out the details of the project.
3. During the buyer's walk-through, some squirrels were flushed out of the attic.
4. Please apprise the seller of her rights regarding the negotiated price.
5. We need to apprise the governor of the details of the scam.
6. Can we flesh out this outline before we submit it to the client?
7. The plumber apprised me of the condition of the old iron pipes.
8. The main line needed to be flushed out to allow water to flow freely.
9. We met with the plumber to flesh out the plan for upgrading the pipes.
10. We need to apprise students of how to access the supplemental material.