commonly misused English words - U to Z

List of commonly misused English words

This is a list of English words which are commonly misused. It is meant to include only words whose misuse is deprecated by most usage writers, editors, and other professional linguists of Standard English. It is possible that some of the meanings marked non-standard may pass into Standard English in the future, but at this time all of the following Non-standard phrases are likely to be marked as incorrect by English teachers or changed by editors if used in a work submitted for publication. Some of the examples are homonyms or pairs of similarly spelled words which are often confused.

U to Z

• venal and venial. These words are sometimes confused; venal means "corrupt", "able to be bribed", or "for sale"; venial means "pardonable, not serious".^[2][19]
  • Standard: According to Catholic doctrine, eating meat on a Friday is a venial sin, but murder is a mortal sin.
  • Standard: All ages have examples of venal politicians.

• warranty and warrantee. A warranty is a legal assurance that some object can perform some specified task or meets certain quality standards. A warrantee is the person who benefits from a warranty. The verb form is warrant. Confusion here can stem from guarantee and the less common guaranty, which have similar meanings.
  • Standard: Most new cars come with at least a three-year warranty.
  • Standard: I guarantee that you will make a return on your investment.
  • Non-standard: Your mobile phone has stopped working? Maybe you need to claim under the warrantee.

• whose and who's. Whose is an interrogative word (Whose is this?) or a relative pronoun (The people whose house you admired); who's is a contraction for "who is" or "who has".

• won't and wont. Won't is a contraction for "will not", while wont is a word meaning "accustomed" or "inclined to" (as an adjective) or "habit or custom" (as a noun).
  • Standard: He won't let me drive his car.
  • Standard: He spent the morning reading, as he was wont to do.
  • Standard: He took a walk in the evening, as was his wont.
  • Non-standard: I wont need to go to the supermarket after all.

• you're and your. While they sound the same in many dialects, in standard written English they have separate meanings. You're is a contraction for "you are", and your is a possessive pronoun meaning "belonging to you". When in doubt, just see whether the word in question can logically be expanded to "you are".
  • Standard: When driving, always wear your seatbelt.
  • Standard: If you're going out, please be home by ten o'clock.
  • Non-standard: You're mother called this morning.
  • Non-standard: Your the first person to notice my new haircut today!