The Big Bad Book Blog

Authors, emailers, bloggers, and writers of all kinds: are common mistakes making you look like a dum-dum? In our lovely English language, phrases sometimes take an ugly turn when sneaky homophones or sound-alikes get involved. For instance, have you ever offered to flush out an idea for someone? Unless the thought is lodged in your intestines, you should flesh out that bad boy instead. Have you ever bragged about pouring over a document? So long as you didn’t upend your water glass over it in disgust (though I’m sure you can remember reading something that bad), use pore, “to read or study attentively.” But these two examples are only cases of mistaken identity, words with similar sounds and different meanings. Once you’ve learned the meanings they’ll never fool you again. Sound-alikes can cause far more trouble when they invade an obscurer phrase, a metaphor that everyone knows but few understand. Below are three of the sneakiest infiltrators: continue reading