Never Trust a Spell Checker: Words Often Confused

Your spell checker only wants you to use words that exist; it doesn't care what they mean. Here are some words that turn up wrong again and again, even in printed books that were apparently copy-edited by machine and never properly line-edited at all.

The O on the Capitol
The Capitol building is in Washington, DC, which is the Capital of the United States. Just remember that only the buildings with the big round domes have the round O in the last syllable. Everything else – capital cities, capital letters, invested capital, the capital at the top of a Greek column, English people in old books saying, "Capital!" – is spelled with the A.

Cite your sites
If you're citing your sources, one of the sites you cite could be this webpage. A "site" is a place where something is, whether it's the site of the train wreck, the site for the new City Hall, or a web site. And when you're building a house, you may want to site it on a hill to get a view. But when you refer to or list an authority, you "cite," that person, book, or website.

Copyright
Written work can be copyrighted. Not "copywritten." That's an easy mistake to make, but the word is "copyright," and it refers to the legal right to copy it. There's no such word as "copywrite."
     There is, however (to make it more confusing) the word "copywriter," which means someone who writes advertising copy. So it's easy to think your spell-checker is wrong when it flags "copywrite," but it's write. I mean, right.

Boom!
Suppose you're in a tense situation. You make a joke to defuse it. That is, your joke figuratively took the fuse off the dynamite (de-fused it), so the explosion didn't happen. You didn't "diffuse," it. "Diffuse" is what smoke does as it rises from the grill– it spreads out and gets thinner.

Discreet and discrete – two discrete meanings.
"Discreet," means prudent, or careful. You are discreet about your affair with the boss, or your spending, or the words you use to your mother-in-law. "Discrete," means separate, individual. You may have two discrete checking accounts, or you may divide the breeds of dogs into five discrete categories. So don't – please, please don't – have your main character promise her friend to be discrete!

Do you want to hear about "effect" and "affect"?
If not, stop here, because they're a real pain.
     The normal and usual way to use "effect" and "affect," is that "effect" is a noun– your words can have an effect on someone, say. And "affect," is a verb. "Our kitchen remodel affected the value of the house," you might say. You could also say, "Our kitchen remodel had an effect on the value of the house." They mean the same, but "effect" is a noun.
     (You want the exceptions? If you're speaking or writing quite formally, you might use "effect" as a verb to mean "make." "The physical therapy effected a significant change on the patient's health." But you probably wouldn't. And, if you're talking about psychology, "affect," can be a noun meaning "emotional expression." If your face looks kind of dead, you're showing a flat affect. It could be a symptom.)
     But for the most part, you either affect something, or have an effect on something.

Free rein – but not in word usage.
If you give your curiosity free rein, you spell it "rein." The image is a horse with a loose rein, not a king, so it's not "free reign."

"It's" means "it is."
Yes, we use an apostrophe to mark the possessive when we're using nouns, but we don't use one for pronouns; we use a possessive form of the pronoun. He, his. She, hers. Them, theirs. It, its. "It" is not a noun, so it doesn't need an apostrophe to be possessive.
     If you mean, "it is," you do use the apostrophe, the same as you would for "she is," or "he is." " She's going to work," means, "She is going to work."

Peddling
There aren't too many peddlers anymore, unless you count those people who stop in your homes via their websites to sell you stuff. However, if you stop in at your local health and fitness center, you'll find plenty of pedalers. You pedal a bike, but you peddle your wares. A person who pedals is a pedaler. A person who peddles is usually a "peddler," in the US, but in the UK, he's a "pedlar." You can use "pedlar" in the US, also; in fact, there's a shop near me that calls itself "Yankee Pedlar," but it makes my brain hiccup when I drive past.
     And while we're on the subject – you peddle your "wares" – that is, what you have to sell, whether it be hardware, software, tinware, or earthenware. But if you're selling used goods, you may say they have some "wear" on them – not "ware." You "wear" a coat, too. And you wear your underwear under your business wear.

Peek into this!
So, you've heard about Mount McKinley, and now you're getting to see it! You look through your binoculars to get a peek at the peak that has always piqued your interest. "To peek," means to take a brief look. A mountain is a "peak," and if you whip egg whites, they will form little peaks – little mountains. But if your interest is roused, you suddenly use French to describe how your curiosity is "piqued." (To make it worse, "pique" can also be annoyance – you can stalk off in a fit of pique.)

You have the right to your rite.
The Bill of Rights states you have the right to freedom of worship – but you may exercise that right by taking part in a "rite," a ceremony. A religious service is a rite, and so is a wedding, an Inauguration, or a Girl Scout award ceremony.

Stationary stationery.
If you're standing in one spot, you're stationary. However, if you want writing paper and envelopes, that's stationery, and you buy it at a stationer's store. (Of course, if you leave your stationery on the desk, it will be stationary as long as no one moves it.)

Don't whale on a wailing child.
Ghosts and frustrated toddlers "wail." If you want to say you hit someone repeatedly, you "whaled" on them– spelled just like the large marine mammal. (And, of course, the country immediately west of England is Wales – no H.)