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Grammar & Usage Guides

Confused by two similar words? We explain the difference between commonly confused words — affect and effect, who and whom, fewer and less — with clear examples of when to use each.

Commonly Confused Words

affect vs effect

"Affect" is almost always a verb meaning to influence or change something ("The rain affected our plans"). "Ef...

Use "fewer" for countable things — items you could count one by one ("fewer apples", "fewer people"). Use "les...

Use "who" when it's the subject doing the action ("Who called you?" — he called). Use "whom" when it's the obj...

"It's" (with an apostrophe) is always a contraction of "it is" or "it has" — never possession. "Its" (no apost...

"Lay" means to put or set something down and needs an object — you lay something ("lay the book down"). "Lie"...

Use "than" for comparisons ("faster than", "better than"). Use "then" for time or sequence ("first this, then...

complement vs compliment

A "compliment" (with an I) is a nice thing you say to someone — praise. A "complement" (with an E) is somethin...

The SPEAKER or writer implies — suggests something without saying it directly ("Her tone implied she was annoy...

Grammar Guides

Grammar Guide What Is a Preposition? A preposition links a noun to the rest of a sentence, showing place, time, or direction (i... Confused Words When to Use "A" vs "An" The a/an rule is about SOUND, not spelling — "an hour" (silent h) but "a university" (soun... Punctuation When to Use a Comma Use a comma to separate list items, join two clauses with and/but/so, set off an introduct... Punctuation When to Use a Semicolon A semicolon joins two closely related complete sentences, or separates items in a complex... Confused Words Who vs Whom Use "who" for the subject (like he/they) and "whom" for the object (like him/them). Quick... Confused Words Who’s vs Whose Who's means 'who is' or 'who has'; whose is the possessive. If you can't swap in who is/ha... Confused Words Your vs You’re Your shows possession (your book); you’re means ‘you are’ (you’re late). If ‘you are’ fits...