Confusion-o-nyms Part 2

Confusion-o-nyms – Part 2

1.       Emphasize on/Emphasis:

This differentiation is pretty simple to understand in common English usage.

One can place emphasis on something (This also means that one can emphasize it)

However,

You can’t emphasize on it or stress on it, though you can place stress on it.

2.       Subscribe to / Ascribe

If we agree to a maxim/statement/logic or idea, we subscribe to it. 

It is similar to subscribing to Playboy, if you are of the playful kinds J

On the other hand, if you ascribe a belief to someone, you are ‘attributing’ the belief to that person, perhaps wrongly. It may also be roughly understood as one acting on other’s behalf .

3.       Affluence / Effluence

Affluence (noun) is an outcome of wealth. Remember the latest remark from Tata on Ambani about his mansion in Mumbai?

Effluent is a word you would find in hospitals and in boy’s hostels. It means sewage.

4.       Paramount/Tantamount

Paramount is an adjective which is generally associated with the superlative forms. Paramount = more important than anything else, having supreme power etc.

Energy conservation is paramount in the modern era.

Tantamount, on the other hand is an adjective, means something that is equivalent in seriousness to something else. Or it is agonisingly close to the second object. I am sure you would have figured out that ‘tantamount’ as a word is very commonly used in artistic writing and indicating figures of speech like Simili and Metaphor etc.

Sachin Tendulkar is tantamount to God in cricket.

5.      Wangle/Wrangle/Haggle

Wangle means to obtain by unfair means or non civic methods.

Eg. ABC Ltd. wangled its way up the ladder.

Wrangle – Getting into a bellicose-ial argument.

ADAG and RIL are perpetually in wrangle mode.

Haggle – One of our strongest personal trait, bargaining!!

She haggled to get the best deal out of the vendor.

Few common usage tips:

1.   You always borrow money from a friend. Borrow off is desi usage and hence wrong from CAT perspective.

2.   When spoilt for a choice between using ‘like’ and ‘as’ in Sentence corrections, always prefer ‘as’. Like is considered slightly informal wrt ‘as’.

3.   When confused between ‘if’ and ‘whether’, remember whether always takes the case. IF and Whether are completely interchangeable. IF the sentence has a conditionality attached to it, use ‘if’ and not whether’ (Just like I used in this sentence. Whether would be preferred when we talk of alternatives If talks of conditionality.

4.   Politics is always used in a singular sense in grammar. People would be used in plural.

5.   Few correct usages of ‘as’

a.    Regarded as – never use regarded to be

b.    As long as…..

c.    Such answer as ….

d.   Dances as

Note that we will not use Like unless we are held on gunpoint with no answer options available.

6.   Compare to or Compare with : Compare to compares Unlike Things. Interestingly, it is used to stress similarities.

Compare with compares Like Things. Compare with has a very interesting usage as well. It can be used to show similarity as well as differences. Generally ‘differences’ go better with Compare with.

a.    His belief can be compared to the Atlantic.

b.    When compared with any other document, this report defies all logic.

Why don’t you try with these teasers? The most well written explanation goes on the blog.

a.    Will / Should

b.    Will / Would / Should

c.    Who / That / Which

d.   Everday / Every day

e.    Every One / Everyone

Cheers !!!!