Commonly Confused Words, revealed!

[bafleyanne]

Thanks to marys, who was enough of a perfectionist to do what I couldn't be bothered to and figure out what was causing her not to get a perfect score. Her answers are here, and it turns out that the *testmaker* got some of the questions wrong! How annoying. Hopefully he or she will correct them.

Comments

awhile is a word

[everfound.livejournal.com]

From dictionary.com

Usage Note: Awhile, an adverb, is never preceded by a preposition such as for, but the two-word form a while may be preceded by a preposition. In writing, each of the following is acceptable: stay awhile; stay for a while; stay a while (but not stay for awhile).

Re: awhile is a word

[mybonnykate.livejournal.com]

Merriam-Webster disagrees. :)

[amylgam.livejournal.com]

I thought about doing this myself, but I didn't have time to black-box it at work and I forgot about it when I got home. I would think that if you were going to post a quiz like this for the Whole Internet, you'd vet it a little better. :)

[tjekanefir.livejournal.com]

"Awhile" strikes me as a fairly legitimate English language evolution; there are dozens of other such constructions in English going all the way back to Chaucer's day.

"Nauseous" is only considered a synonym of "nauseated" by anybody because it's such an archaic word that nobody remembers what it means anymore and mistakenly think it must mean nauseated, though. For shame. (-:

[moobie.livejournal.com]

I knew I answered almost all of them right. I might not always use proper grammar when speaking, but I *am* a grammar nazi, dammit. :)

[anngwish42.livejournal.com]

Thank sundry deities! I was ashamed to post my answers because I'd gotten a less-than-perfect score, and I couldn't figure out what I'd answered wrong...