Accept or except? Elicit or illicit? Tortuous or torturous? You are not sure which one is the correct in the three sets of words, right? There is a long list of confusing words in English that sound and look alike, but carry different meanings. Sometimes, they confuse even native speakers. Using them incorrectly in documents or certificate can change the entire meaning.   Most electronic spellcheckers cannot help you fix this problem. The situation becomes even worse when one of these words is typed wrongly in your certificate/document. So, when you look for documents translations services providers, make sure your translators have a good command of English language. Below is a quick-reference list of pairs of words that often causes people problems.

Complacent & Complaisant

Both these words come from the Latin verb ‘Complacere,’ which means ‘to please.’ But in English, they have different meanings. As an adjective, complacent denotes smug or self-satisfied. For example: ‘You can’t afford to be complacent about security.’

Complaisant is an adjective. It means ‘willing to please others’. For example, ‘My friend helped the new girl with her project because he is complaisant.

Disinterested & Uninterested

The difference between disinterested and uninterested is often a talk of disagreement. To go back to traditional guidelines, disinterested is not a synonym of uninterested. It does not mean ‘not interested’. It means ‘impartial’ i.e. having no personal connection. Uninterested is referred to as ‘not interested’ at all.

Forbear & Forebear

Forbear means ‘to refrain’ i.e. patiently control an emotion to do something. For example, ‘Still, she couldn’t forbear making one more query as he walked away.’ Forebear means ‘an ancestor’ i.e. a person from whom you are descended or a relative who lived in the past. For example, ‘generations of my forebears had lived in New York.

Prescribe & Proscribe

Prescribe is usually used in the medical term. It means ‘to suggest, especially in writing, the use of a medicine for a particular patient.’ To take an example, ‘The doctor has prescribed me this medicine.’ Proscribe means ‘to not allow something, especially by law or officially ban something.’ For example, ‘The ICC has banned players for using proscribed drugs’.

Tortuous & Torturous

Both the words, tortuous and torturous come with different core meanings. Tortuous is an adjective, which means highly complex, full of twists or complicated and sometimes devious. Example, ‘the streets are very tortuous and narrow.’

Torturous is also an adjective, which means extremely painful. When we talk about torturous, it means a lot of difficulty and suffering. The word has come from Anglo-Norman French, from torture ‘torture’. An example of the word is, ‘Every player will go under a torturous one week of fitness training.’

Conclusion

As a documents translation services provider, we are well aware of these confusing words and know how to avoid blunders. Our professional translators are committed to working carefully on every document. They ensure that every document is translated to be fully error-free.