Who's Whose: A No-Nonsense Guide to Easily Confused Words [Hardcover]

Philip Gooden (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 22, 2005

You’ll never again confuse affect and effect!

Have you ever been fazed by the spelling of phased, or fretted over the difference between anxiety and angst, stationery and stationary? If so, you are not alone: the English language is a minefield, full of words that look and sound alike but mean different things in different places.

Who’s Whose? is an entertaining and essential A to Z guide to the most commonly confused words in English today, with real examples of good and bad usage to make differences crystal clear. In addition to documenting these verbal confusions, it offers a sympathetic guide to the seriousness of each gaffe (the Embarassment rating), an explanation of why it happens, and some handy hints on how to avoid it in future. With Who’s Whose in your corner, you’ll never again mistake a principle for a principal.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Who's Whose: A No-Nonsense Guide to Easily Confused Words is that fairly rare thing - a genuinely useful reference book that deserves a handy place on the desk of everyone who wants to use the right word for the job.' Ian Mayes, The Guardian 'A jolly little book...A useful handbook to the booby traps that lie in wait for us all, including such old favourites as imply/infer, uninterested/ disinterested, discreet/ discrete, fazed/phased and so on.' Independent on Sunday 'For those muddled about standard English... If you ever effect instead of affect, or think bears are grisly and bones beneath the patio are grizzly, this masterly and compelling, rather than masterful and compulsive, volume is for you.' The Times 'A guide containing much good sense...uncertain users of the English language in general would best profit from the whole book.' Times Literary Supplement --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Philip Gooden is a writer and editor, and the author of several historical novels. He lives in Bath, England.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Walker & Company (September 22, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802714641
• ISBN-13: 978-0802714640
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,317,089 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars She is very feminine, you are a bit effeminate and I am effete, May 28, 2007

By 

jose.r-s (Seattle, WA, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Who's Whose: A No-Nonsense Guide to Easily Confused Words (Hardcover)

Very useful and highly entertaining book. Good explanations, clear examples and well written.

However, it has two problems that should cost a star each:

- The layout of the pages is quite bad. A reference book like this cannot afford this type of blunder. In all cases it is very difficult to quickly find the actual definition of the words under study. You need to read the whole thing to be able to find it.

- Some of the pitfalls are a bit ludicrous. Do people really confuse Libertarian with Libertine? Industrial with Industrious? Livid with Lurid? Ad hoc with Ad lib? De facto with de jure? In cases like this the author just shows examples of correct usage--perhaps because it would be very difficult to find examples of incorrect usage.

4.0 out of 5 stars A good read, November 19, 2009

By 

Malcolm (California) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Who's Whose: A No-Nonsense Guide to Easily Confused Words (Hardcover)

Can be helpful as a guide to correct word usage, but a number of examples are words not often used and the perspective seems to be of British English. However, regardless of any practical applications, if one is at all linguistically inclined the book is interesting in itself and written in a breezy and entertaining style.

5.0 out of 5 stars Useful and fun, May 24, 2007

By 

reader "reader" (boston area) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Who's Whose: A No-Nonsense Guide to Easily Confused Words (Hardcover)

The book is clear and interesting. Fun to flip through and easy to use as a reference. Good choice.