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Common errors in English usage - misspelled words list - daily 10 words - Part 18


You can minister to someone by administering first aid.  Note how the
"ad" in "administer resembles "aid" in order to remember the correct
form of the latter phrase. "Minister" as a verb always requires "to"
following it.


When calling your readers' attention to an illustration or table further
on in a text, the proper word order is not "the below table" but "the
table below."


"Cleanup" is usually a noun: "the cleanup of the toxic waste site will
cost billions of dollars." "Clean" is a verb in the phrase "clean up":
"You can go to the mall after you clean up your room."


A hard drive and a hard disk are much the same thing; but when it comes
to removable computer media, the drive is the machinery that turns and
reads the disk. Be sure not to ask for a drive when all you need is a


You can try to exorcise evil spirits using an exorcist, but when you
give your body a workout, it's exercise.


"Flys" is a misspelling of "flies" except when the word is being
deliberately changed from its traditional spelling as in the name of the
popular music group, "The Flys."


When the group is being considered as a whole, it can be treated as a
single entity: "the group was ready to go on stage." But when the
individuality of its members is being emphasized, "group" is plural:
"the group were in disagreement about where to go for dinner."


"Hearing-impaired" is not an all-purpose substitute for "deaf" since it
strongly implies some residual ability to hear.


Strictly speaking, you scratch an itch. If you're trying to get rid of a
tingly feeling on your back scratch it, don't itch it.


The first R in "library" is often slurred or omitted in speech, and it
sometimes drops out in writing as well; and "librarian" is often turned
into "libarian."

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