Envy vs Jealousy and other words mistaken for each other

[therosesword]

Lately I've noticed when reading something the mix up of the words "envy" and "jealousy."

These both mean entirely different feelings although those feelings can be meshed a little.

There are a lot of words that have a nebulous meaning, a few of them are words I really love and love to use but I definitely look them up before I use them to make sure they're correct for the situation. Call it paranoia, and even though I know what they mean, I still look them up to make sure.

Effect and affect are another two that get mixed up, and, of course, lay and lie.

Please note, I am not remarking on this for the people where English is a second (or third or fourth) language.

I'm seeing this from a fair amount of native English speakers.

Eventually, with editing, these all get corrected but I thought I'd ask...

Anyone else have a few they've occasionally had to stop and think about before they use them?

Write hard, write true.

[TheGentleArtist]

Well, there is "then" and "than" that can be mixed up.

[joannekwan]

haha I learned about the jealousy vs envy thing in high school and it blew my mind.

But yeah, this is why I always have a dictionary and thesaurus site up while I write. I double-check even mundane words just to make sure I'm spelling them right (damn compound words that either have or don't have a space between) and to make sure the definition is correct for the context.

This chart I keep around too



[ar-ninetysix]

Personal pet peeve I hate seeing all the time is "breath" and "breathe" and it absolutely sets me off because

BREATHE RHYMES WITH E

Like what in the actual hell, everybody knows what you mean if you say it out loud but for whatever reason it doesn't translate in written form for some people??? What's worse, this is only an issue I've seen with native English speakers and just- HOW? FOR WHAT REASON????

[therosesword]

oh I am so with you on that one!!!

Also loath and loathe.... eeeeeeeeekkkkkkkk

[therosesword]

Sometimes I cheat and find a different word... hahahahaha

[therosesword]

oh yes, that drives me nuts, yup

[Crusoe]

Oof I feel this so much...
I'm not a native speaker, so I give myself some lenience, but still

[therosesword]

I've found most non-native speakers tend to look up words to try and make sure things are right, native speakers (and yes, I'm guilty) can get a little lazy.

[kitschensyngk]

There's the age-old battle of "anxious" versus "eager."

Some people don't recognize that "anxious" shares an origin with "anxiety."

[rajillustration]

I feel like this particular case--so many people use it interchangeably nowadays that it's becoming synonymous. Like I never hear people use jealousy correctly in every day speech--it's nearly always as a synonym to envy. Not to say it's correct, but I think the English language changes so much and there's so many places where it's colloquial that it becomes more of like a formal thing to remember to use some of those words the right way (I say as I fix where I double spaced at the beginning of a sentence because apparently we don't do that anymore either).

Affect and effect though--those are science terms, I feel like that one isn't going to become synonymous ever. Definitely a pet peeve of mine when those are mixed up (and a mistake I make myself often enough)

[cherrystark]

I still have trouble with affect/effect from time to time but I always stop and think before I use either word.

I will also throw out hung vs hanged. I've seen this one more in mysteries. But, I remember in an old "Murder She Wrote" episode where Jessica corrects someone and reminds them that drapes are hung, men are hanged.

[therosesword]

@cherrystark

drapes are hung, men are hanged.

I like that little "prompt" as to which one is to be used. I know sometimes I'll type out "than" and realize ... ooop, wrong. "Then" is time, "than" is comparison

@rajillustration

I feel like this particular case--so many people use it interchangeably nowadays that it's becoming synonymous.

I see that too and I'm an ol' fuddy-duddy I actually correct people. But, yeah, I think that will "meld" eventually.

[Caro]

I just learned the other day that oblivion doesn’t necessarily mean destruction in the way I assumed it did but instead means the state of being forgotten??? Which makes absolute sense because the word “oblivious” exists..... but for some reason every use of the word oblivion i’ve ever seen I’ve read as “big, fiery, armageddon-like destruction”. But now the word oblivion just looks hopelessly sad to me. A very heartbreaking word!!

[cherrystark]

I think part of the reason people like to interchange envy and jealousy, at least for native English speakers, is the old grade school lesson that you can't or shouldn't use the same word two sentences in a row. It's part of the whole "said is dead" schtick. Especially with emotional words, writers don't want to use the same word again and again, so they pull out their theasaurous to try and find a "better" word without thinking about that word's meaning or conotation.

[therosesword]

writers don't want to use the same word again and again, so they pull out their theasaurous to try and find a "better" word without thinking about that word's meaning or conotation.

Good point. One of the reasons I love my Alexa... "Hey Alexa (in my case "computer") what's the definition of......

then if it's a little iffy I get on the computer and dive a little deeper down the etymology hole.

[Black_Conscious]

Anyone else have a few they've occasionally had to stop and think about before they use them?

Lets see...
For me its any word that sounds the same
like Hear and Here or Affect, Effect, to me they sound the same but their meanings are different or most defiantly the 3 there's .
so I get mixed up on them sometimes

[summer_coefficient]

I don't know if this counts and maybe someone has already said it
BUT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD "VILLAIN" AND "ANTAGONIST" ARE NOT THE SAME THING.

[therosesword]

so true so true.....and no one has said it yet

[cherrystark]

YES!!! I'VE BEEN SAYING THAT FOR YEARS!!! And yet, people still treat them as synonyms. A villian can be an antagonist but an antagonist isn't always the villain.