Who's Whose? [Hardcover]

Philip Gooden (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0747572313 | ISBN-13: 978-0747572312 | Publication Date: October 18, 2004

The English language is a minefield, full of words that look alike and sound alike but mean different things. If you mistrust (or distrust?) your spellchecker and have ever been fazed (or phased?) by the difference between enquire and inquire, or complementary and complimentary, this is the perfect companion for you.

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

About the Author

Philip Gooden read English at Magdalen College, Oxford, and then taught at secondary level for many years. In 2001 he became a full-time writer. He is the author of the Nick Revill series, a sequence of historical mysteries based in Elizabethan London and set around Shakespeare's Globe theatre. Titles so far published are Sleep of Death, Death of Kings, The Pale Companion (shortlisted for the Ellis Peters Historical Dagger award in 2002), Alms for Oblivion and Mask of Night. A contributor to various short story anthologies, Philip Gooden also works as an editor, most recently on the Mammoth Book of Literary Anecdotes and a new edition of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World for Penguin Classics. He lives in Bath where he is currently working on his next novel, An Honourable Murderer.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing (October 18, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0747572313
• ISBN-13: 978-0747572312
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,833,826 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

Amazon Verified Purchase

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

Amazon Verified Purchase

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.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Who's Whose: A No-Nonsense Guide to Easily Confused Words, May 22, 2007

By 

Nanay Schlagheck - See all my reviews

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

I love this book; it is well written and easy to understand. I recommend it to those who want to avoid confusion in written expression.