Words to Write By Part 10

Whenever I add a new post to this series, I’m surprised by two things. First, that it’s been so long since the last one I posted since I love this series, and second, that I have more posts in this series than I realized. I try to keep the framework of each part of this series the same, so it’s easy to refer back to and easy to jump into whether it’s your first time here or you’ve been with me since the beginning. So, without further ado, I hope you enjoy this installment.

The Words to Write By series is a quick reference to help explain the differences between commonly misused words. In this installment of Words to Write By, I’ll review emigrate vs. immigrate, lamb vs. lam, adverse vs. averse, and through vs. threw.

Emigrate vs. immigrate: This has to do with the direction in which someone is moving. A person emigrates from someplace and immigrates to another place. Bjørn emigrated from Norway to the United States. Or, Bjørn immigrated to the United States from Norway.

Lamb vs. lam: These homophones can be tricky, mainly because people may not know that the b is dropped from the second one to form a common phrase. Lamb is a baby sheep. Mary had a little lamb. Lam means to hit or to leave in a hurry, especially from the law. Tony went on the lam.

Adverse vs. averse: These are quite tricky. These words made the list because I either heard or read it misused somewhere, but it wasn’t until I started to write this post that I realized how often these two words are misused. Let’s see if I can break this down to make it easy to remember the difference. Adverse has to do with a disagreeable, unfavorable, or harmful condition. Such as adverse weather conditions. Or, Peggy had an adverse reaction to her medication. Averse has to do with people’s feelings of dislike or distaste toward something. It’s often used with the word not. Tim was not averse to having children. Or, Hayden was averse to taking pop quizzes. In other words, use averse when discussing people’s feelings toward something, never adverse in those situations.

Through vs. threw: This is a common error I see, but hopefully will be easy for people to correct if they are interested in knowing the difference. Through means to enter on one side and exit out the other. We’ll be traveling through the tunnel on the way to the market. Threw is the past tense of throw, so to cause something to travel through the air with force. He threw me a fastball.

Look for future installments of “Words to Write By.” You can find links to the rest of the series below.

Part 1: Peak vs. peek vs. pique, further vs. farther, blonde vs. blond, and gray vs. grey.

Part 2: Alleged, hung vs. hanged, a vs. the, and bring vs. take.

Part 3: Who’s vs. whose, whet vs. wet, compliment vs. complement, fazed vs. phased.

Part 4: Fiancé vs. fiancée, insure vs. ensure, alright vs. all right, and simultaneous vs. contemporaneous.

Part 5: Use vs. utilized, bear vs. bare, shuttered vs. shuddered, and breath vs. breathe.

Part 6: Maya vs. Mayan, hole vs. whole, libel vs. slander, patients vs. patience.

Part 7: A vs. an, cite vs. site vs. sight, i.e. vs. e.g., and that vs. who.

Part 8: Taking vs. taken, quiet vs. quite vs. quit, advise vs. advice, regardless vs. irregardless.

Part 9: Penultimate vs. ultimate, whether vs. weather, verses vs. versus, then vs. than.