Ha! I had trouble with bemuse/amuse up until a few years ago, too.
One of my pet peeves is idea/ideal. I hate it when people say, "I have an ideal." I want to say, "An ideal what? An ideal haircut? An ideal shoe-size?" Eventually I have to poke them until they realize idea and ideal are two very different things.
Hmm... what else bothers me or gives me problems... "alright" is another. It's gained a lot of acceptance as "alright," but it's supposed to be "all right."
Ugh, the 'alright'/'all right' thing. It annoys me so much! And people use the former so often I find myself doing it sometimes. ><
Hm...never thought about blonde/blond - except I think I use 'blonde girl', too. I don't think I'd just use 'blonde' and count on the 'e' to show that I'm talking about a girl... Maybe you'd like French. :P
Ah yes - I think I've had issues with both the alright/all right one and the blond/blonde one. I think I actually do use "alright" a lot, just because I'm used to seeing it more than "all right" nowadays. Something I need to watch out for.
And I think until very recently, I didn't realize there was a difference between "blond" and "blonde, except that I used "blond" as an adjective and "blonde" as a noun. I believe Shanra pointed out the gender difference to me sometime last year when it had cropped up in one of my stories.
Huh...I've never drawn any association between 'bemuse' and 'amuse', I don't think. Now that you mention it, 'bemuse' and 'amuse' do sound kind of alike.
There are lots of words that sound like they mean something they don't. And I can't think of an example, funnily enough. (I'm probably going to come up with one at 4 a.m.).
I can think of words that mean something different to me than to lots of other people: 'affect' vs. 'effect'. I can't say I use it properly all the time, either, but it's not the 'affect of X', it's the 'effect of X', usually. 6_9 It's 'effect' that's particularly sticky, since it can be either a verb or a noun, but 'affect' is only a verb, I think.
And the word 'bewildered' just sounds so...bewildered!
Yeah, affect vs. effect has always bothered me when it's wrongly used as well, but on the bright side, I don't think I've had any problems with it. I think.
And "bewildered" and "confused" are SO much easier to understand than "bemused," in my opinion.
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One of my pet peeves is idea/ideal. I hate it when people say, "I have an ideal." I want to say, "An ideal what? An ideal haircut? An ideal shoe-size?" Eventually I have to poke them until they realize idea and ideal are two very different things.
Hmm... what else bothers me or gives me problems... "alright" is another. It's gained a lot of acceptance as "alright," but it's supposed to be "all right."
Blonde and blond. Blonde=girl, blond=boy.
That's all I can think of for now. ^_^
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Hm...never thought about blonde/blond - except I think I use 'blonde girl', too. I don't think I'd just use 'blonde' and count on the 'e' to show that I'm talking about a girl... Maybe you'd like French. :P
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And I think until very recently, I didn't realize there was a difference between "blond" and "blonde, except that I used "blond" as an adjective and "blonde" as a noun. I believe Shanra pointed out the gender difference to me sometime last year when it had cropped up in one of my stories.
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There are lots of words that sound like they mean something they don't. And I can't think of an example, funnily enough. (I'm probably going to come up with one at 4 a.m.).
I can think of words that mean something different to me than to lots of other people: 'affect' vs. 'effect'. I can't say I use it properly all the time, either, but it's not the 'affect of X', it's the 'effect of X', usually. 6_9 It's 'effect' that's particularly sticky, since it can be either a verb or a noun, but 'affect' is only a verb, I think.
And the word 'bewildered' just sounds so...bewildered!
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And "bewildered" and "confused" are SO much easier to understand than "bemused," in my opinion.
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I was EXTREMELY distressed when I found that out. ^_^
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