More commonly-confused words

Because I've hated everything I've tried to write or revise for this blog recently, I'm taking the easy way out and continuing the series on commonly-confused words. I'll be back with more tropes (I hope) next week.

hoard / horde:  Hoard is used mostly as a verb and means "to accumulate or stockpile and carefully guard" but can also be be used as a noun to denote your stash of Twinkies and pretzels or Six Million Dollar Man lunchboxes. Horde is a large group of people or mosquitoes. Contextually, we think of a marauding band of invaders, but for me, two spiders occupying the same square hectare qualifies.

loan / lend: It's easy if you know parts of speech, and when the words fit into only one category.Loan is a noun: "We can't get a loan to buy a car."  Lend is the verb: "Could you please lend me $35,000 so I can buy a car?"

farther / further:Usage dictionaries say these are interchangeable, but the Word Nerd won't let you get away without at least knowing that some of us prefer to make the distinction between the two.  Farther is generally used for literal distance:  "She walked one mile farther today than she did yesterday." Further is used figuratively:  "Since you're determined to see this your own way, I see no point for further argument on the subject."

rise / raise: Same as the difference between lay and lie as described in an earlier post.  Rise is intransitive and requires no direct object.  The sun rises; so does the bread dough. Questions can rise in your mind of their own accord, but you will need to raise them and give them voice. You raise your hand in class to ask a question or to take the oath on the witness' stand. You raise the window shade to let the sunlight into the room.  You raise a stink, an objection, a ruckus as well. (the words highlighted are direct objects, which receive the action of the verb),

stanch / staunch:  One's a verb, the other an adjective. "I applied several layers of gauze and deep pressure on his wound to stanch the flow of blood." "My family are staunch Catholics who attend Mass and Confession every week." I think the confusion comes from pronunciation.  Both are pronounced with an "ah" sound in the middle.

That's it for now. I'll be celebrating American Thanksgiving this week and slogging through the first wave of short stories submitted by my Creative Writing students.

Thanks for dropping by.