In a 2008 episode of Family Guy, baby Stewie becomes President of the World and immediately

replaces every law with four simple maxims:

1. All straight to DVD Disney movies are hereby banned.
2. All milk must come from Hilary Swank
3. Anyone who sees Peter Griffin must throw apples at him
4. Any person who uses the words irregardless, a-whole-nuther, or all-of-a-sudden will
be sent to a work camp.
Work camp is a phrase that carries a lot of baggage, stuff that Stewie wont learn about till well
after hes potty trained, so Ill give the young leader a break and suggest that language offenders
instead be signed up for mandatory Happy English Re-education and Obedience Camp.
Here are a few of the lessons one might learn at HERO Camp:
Lose and Loose
To lose (verb) something is to be unable to find it, whereas something that is loose (adj) is not tightly
secured.
Compliment and Complement
A compliment is a flattering statement, while a complement is a counterpart that, in conjunction with
another, makes a whole. Both words can be used as nouns and as verbs, as in to compliment
someone or to complement something.
Exasperate and Exacerbate
Both of these verbs have rather negative meanings: One may exasperate a person by provocation
or irritation and exacerbate the situation by increasing its severity.

Disinterested and Uninterested

Someone who is disinterested is unbiased and impartial, capable of making an objective decision.
On the other hand, someone who is uninterested is merely indifferent, and probably bored. For
example, a major league umpire is required to be a disinterested judge calling the events of the
game, but if he were uninterested in baseball, he would likely find a different job.
Possessive Pronouns and Contractions
Issues with the possessive form of pronouns and similar-sounding contractions can creep into even
the most meticulous writers work. These include the following:

Their / There / Theyre

Your / Youre
Whose / Whos
Its / Its
The first word in each set is a possessive pronoun and used to indicate who has what, as in the
sentence, Your dog bit their neighbor. Whose fault is that? Possessive pronouns are not the same
as their homophonic counterparts contractions which are personal pronouns bonded with a form
of the verb to be.
Irregardless
Irregardless is not a word. The word of intent in this case is regardless.
All intensive purposes instead of All intents and purposes
This is an example of an eggcorn (a mistaken substitution of a word or phrase for a word or words
that sound similar). The term eggcorn was coined by linguist, Mark Liberman, on the preeminent
linguistics blog, Language Log. For all intents and purposes, one should only say the correct
term: all intents and purposes.
Literally as an intensifier
Literally means in a literal manner, or a strict sense. People often misuse literally to intensify a

statement, such as The camera operator literally just stood there while the man was beaten. Also,
people use literally to mean its exact oppositefiguratively. For example, If another
telemarketer calls, I will literally jump out the window. Will you?
Overuse of Random
For example, the 25 Random Things About Me meme that went around the Internet recently. Most
were not really random. Also, a couple years ago, I started hearing people describe themselves as
being a totally random person or saying, I dont talk to totally random people. I dont know what
that means.
Unnecessary Quotation Marks
Quotation marks are correctly used for quoting a person or text word for word, or to single out a word
as coming from another source, or to indicate ironic use. Millions of hilarious examples of misused
quotation marks exist on signs across the country, and they are being cataloged on the
blog, Unnecessary Quotation Marks daily. An example would be a sign in a restroom that reads,
Employees must wash handsif by hands they mean something else, then I dont want to know.
Using ironic to describe things that are coincidental.
Im tempted to throw the blame for this one on Alanis Morissette, but I think hers was a case of art
imitating life. Nevertheless, rain on your wedding day is not irony.
I could care less instead of I couldnt care less
If you could care less, then your level of caring is not as nugatory as you want to indicate. If you
couldnt care less, then you dont care much at all. The correct phrase is I couldnt care less.
That and Which
The late, great writer, David Foster Wallace, had the following to say about
distinguishing between that and which:
There is widespread ignorance about how to use that as a relative pronoun,
and two that-errors are so severe that teachers, editors, and other high-end

readers will make unkind judgments about you if you commit them. The first
is to use which when you need that. Writers who do this usually think the two
relative pronouns are interchangeable, but that which makes you look
smarter. They arent, and it doesnt. If there needs to be a comma before the
relative pronoun, you need which; otherwise, you need that. Examples: We
have a massive SUV that we purchased on credit last month; The massive
SUV, which we purchased on credit last month, seats us ten feet above any
other driver on the road.
The second that-error that DFW describes is that of that instead of who or
whom.
That and Who
Ill let David explain this one by continuing where we broke off:
Theres a basic rule: who and whom are the relative pronouns for
people, that and which are the relative pronouns for everything elseIt so
happens that you can occupy a bright child for most of a very quiet morning
by challenging her to use that five times in a row in a single coherent
sentence, to which stumper the solution is all about the present
distinction: He said that that that that that writer used really should have
been a who.
Free Gift
I would hope that no one would make me pay for the gift they intend to give
me.
Misuse of Beg the Question
No matter which newspaper prints it, or which anchor man spurts it, To beg
the question does NOT mean to invite an obvious question, as in: That begs

the question, was the President aware of the committees actions? FAIL. To
beg the question comes from the Latin petitio principii, which is a kind of
logical fallacy where one bases a conclusion on a questionable premise. Here
is an example of Begging the Question:
A man who has studied law to its highest degree is a brilliant lawyer, for a
brilliant lawyer has studied law to its highest degree. Oscar Wilde

These are commonly confused words (some are obvious, others are not):
accept: to take

except: exclude

adapt: to change

adopt: to take as one's own

adverse: unfavorable

averse: disinclined

advice: recommendation

advise: to recommend

affect: to influence

effect: to bring about (when it is a

verb)

appraise: to set a value on

apprise: to inform

allusion: indirect reference

illusion: something unreal

bloc: political group

block: obstruction, cube

born: to be given birth

borne: to be carried

brake: to stop or slow

break: to fracture, to stop work

temporarily

can: able

may: allowed

cannon: gun

canon: law

canvas: cloth

canvass: solicit opinions or votes

capital: seat of goverment (like

Washington DC), larger alphabetic
letter

capitol: legislative building (often

upper case)

censor: person who checks for

objectionable material

censer: container for incense

complement: to make complete

compliment: to praise

compose: to make up

comprise: to include

council: assembly

counsel: advice, lawyer

corpse: dead body

corps: group of people

credible: believable

creditable: praiseworthy

denote: to mean

connote: to suggest in addition to the

simple meaning

desert: arid region, to abandon

dessert: end of a meal

discreet: prudent

discrete: separate

disinterested: impartial

uninterested: without interest

elicit: to draw out

illicit: illegal

emigrate: leave

immigrate: come from somewhere

else

farther: greater distance

further: more

flair: style

flare: to burn

flaunt: to make a boastful display

flout: to treat with contempt

former: first of two

latter: second of two

forward: onward

foreword: introduction to a book

fortuitous: happens by chance (not

necessarily lucky)

fortunate: lucky

grisly: horrible

grizzly: streaked with gray

hanger: object for hanging clothes

hangar: place for airplanes

historic: important in history

historical: relating to history

imminent: soon to take place

eminent: important

imply: to suggest without stating

infer: to judge from evidence

include: to be some parts of a whole

comprise: to be the parts of a whole

lay: place, put, past tense of "lie"

lie: to recline

lead: a metal (pronounced led), to

guide (pronounced leed)

led: past tense of lead

lend: (verb)

loan: amount lent (noun)

literal: real meaning

figurative: implied meaning

loathe: to hate

loath: reluctant

lose: to experience loss

loose: not tight

luxuriant: abundant

luxurious: sumptuous

minor: underage person, lesser

miner: person who mines

moral: ethical

morale: spirit

oral: spoken

verbal: relating to language

palate: roof of mouth

palette: artist's paint holder

pallet: platform

peace: calmness

piece: part

persecute: to harrass

prosecute: to pursue a legal case

against

plain: simple

plane: airplane, to smooth, a flat

surface

precede: to go before

proceed: to continue

prescribe: to recommend

proscribe: to prohibit

principal: chief, head person

principle: rule

prophecy: prediction

prophesy: to predict

roll: to turn

role: part to play

session: meeting

cession: act of giving away

shear: to clip

sheer: transparent, utter

stationary: fixed

stationery: paper

than: as in "greater than" or "more

than" etc.

then: at that time

to: toward

too: also, excessive

trooper: soldier

trouper: actor

weather: state of the air (rain, sunny,

whether: if

etc.)