Even people with good vocabularies can make mistakes, especially when words are close in meaning.
Recently, I saw a job posting for a large company looking for someone with skills to “compliment” the company’s values.
I guess they’ll get lots of cover letters that describe the values as smart, attractive, and progressive. I’m not sure how well those candidates’ skill sets will fit together with (complement) what the company needs.
One blog post said a sports team “wreaked” of apathy. I’m sure what the writer meant was reeked.
The one that caused a double take and which I actually had to look up was one blogger’s need to “allude” a poor situation. I knew it was wrong; I just needed to check to make sure that the writer wasn’t referring to the situation but looking to avoid (or elude) it.
Hey, I’m the woman who always has to check continual versus continuous.
The moral is: Don’t assume, just because you have a really good vocabulary, you won’t make mistakes. When in doubt, look it up.
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