Commonly Misheard Expressions to Avoid (or Fix) in Your Writing
For example,
"Different tack", not "different tact"
The tack in this case is the direction in which a ship is travelling. It's not an abbreviation for "tactic".
I never use that one.
"Beyond the pale", not "beyond the pail"
Oh dear.
"Just deserts", not "just desserts"
This is understandably liable to cause confusion, since it uses a less common sense of "desert" (a deserved reward) which is pronounced the same way as "dessert" (as in ice cream). Snopes has a good explanation of the differences.
It would probably be bad if I yelled SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP at the HR woman, wouldn't it?
I've totally ceased caring that developer 1 can see my screen, and will totally be able to see that there's video going on. He can also see I'm editing multiple documents (and, uh, typing in text boxes). I will draw the line at headphones, though.
I hadn't thought the match was going to start until I got home.
My sense of smell has ratcheted through the roof in the past couple hours. It's driving me insane. It really needs to calm the hell down. Nothing smells good when everything smells this strong. At least I have my coffee grounds.
Oops, I've always thought it was "just desserts."
My question is "free reign." Isn't it "free rein," because you're giving someone the ability to go where they want, so you're letting them have control of the reins?
I, ah, so did not know that about the desert thingy. Colour me shamed.
remind me not to stir things cooking in my metal pots with a metal spoon on my ELECTRIC stove. my hand got damp and my elbow hit metal and WOWZA.
I did because of a quote from Hamlet!
Man, Serena looks lovely in the stands.
It would be nice if they could finish the match before my three o'clock.
Don't see that happening.
I had no idea about the "just deserts" things. Oops.
Our new oven has a convection feature, and Jake's birthday cake baked up ENORMOUS. Huh.
