Practice/practise
These two are constantly muddled up. That might seem an exaggerated claim, but even as we revised this book we came across this in The Times Higher Education Supplement: The institute has got to justify itself and we are now agreed we are not looking to issue a license to practice.’ The license being discussed is a license to teach; what the article should have said is ‘a license to practice’. Practice is a noun, whereas practice is a verb. Doctors, therefore, work at their practice where they practice their trade. In the same way, you practice your violin, but you do it during something that is your violin practice. If there is an active element of doing something, it is the verb, practise-, if, however, it is just a description of the activity, rather than actually doing the activity, it is practice. You should therefore:
Practise the piano, because practice makes perfect.
Another way of checking is to remember the two words device and devise, where there is the same distinction between noun and verb, but the sound is different enough to prevent them being confused. In America, we might note, the practice is different: they only use practice. Words such as advice and advice also have the same pattern of difference between the noun and the verb as do practice and practice. Really, all you have to remember is that there are two forms, a noun (-ice) and a verb (-; se). The confusion largely arises because people do not know that there are both.
- Stop and check
We might have spent a lot of time over a few words, but these are extremely common mistakes. Our feeling is that if you stop and check these words, then you are likely to be much more careful in general about spelling. In many cases it is a question of noticing, and then checking and finding out. The best spellers take nothing for granted: they use their dictionaries; they make up mnemonics to help them. Perhaps above all, they try to make sure they understand why words are spelt the way they are – whether they are the noun form or a possessive, for instance. Before moving on, we want to offer if very contrived sentence that includes all the examples so far. Can you see why each option is as it is?
Their principal effect on the practice of the new doctors was to affect the principles practiced there.
Miscellaneous sound-alike
What follows is a short list of words that are quite often misused in essays, and which give a poor impression of the writer’s competence. They are, then, things to watch out for and avoid. When, for example, a student writes: I didn’t here the telephone ring, the effect is to puzzle the reader for a moment. It should, of course, be hear (if you cannot remember, think of your ear), whereas here is a place, as in here, there and everywhere.
There are other pairs of words, too, that can easily get confused. We know things, because we have knowledge, whereas no is the opposite of yes. A car has a brake, to slow it down or stop it, but actors are said to break a leg. You lead a horse to water, but if you did it yesterday, you would have led the horse to water; the difference here is between the present and past tense. There’s past and present again in the next pairing: choose/chose. Choose is present tense, whereas you chose to do something yesterday. They sound very similar, but loose and lose differ from choose and chose, and really need: o be learnt: people wear loose clothes, but they lose football matches (If stuck, there’s room for two o’s in loose; it’s a loose-fitting kind of word in itself).-. Quiet and quite, on the other hand, should not be confused, as they actually sound different: Before I went on my quiet diet, I could take quite a bite out of any cake. And children should be seen and not heard, whereas a scene is a part of a play or a pleasant view.
In all these cases, you have to learn to use your resources of language and common sense to get the right word for the right job. The confusion of led (part tense of the verb ‘to lead’) and the metal lead (pronounced led) is a flood test of whether you understand that some words share sounds, some Share spelling, but they can differ in function and meaning.