Words that I see used incorrectly in fanfic a lot
Disclaimer: language is always changing. Words are made up. You can do whatever you want forever. HOWEVER if you want to write in a way that ensures others will be able to easily understand you, it might be helpful to know the following.
Disassociate: an intentional choice to stop associating with someone or something, often an organization or a cause. "He disassociated from the company after the scandal." Dissociate: a psychological defence mechanism involving mental/emotional disconnection from oneself or reality. "After he quit his job, he sat down on the couch and dissociated for thirteen and a half hours."
Addicting: a verb. "Cocaine addicts people to itself. It is addicting those people." It's a very unusual verb, as you can see. If you find yourself about to use this word in your writing (especially in porn, where I see it SO much), you probably shouldn't. If you could say "causing to develop an addiction" or something like that, then phrase it that way instead. If you say "[Sex thing] was so addicting" that's a little like saying it was so "running." You can totally say that, but it does feel odd... Addictive: an adjective! It describes nouns! "[Sex thing] was so addictive." Nice.👍
Affect: usually a verb. "She was affected by the sad movie. Movies often affect people's emotions." In psychology, it can also act as noun, referring to a person's general emotional presentation. "Her affect was muted." Effect: a noun. This is the stuff you experience. "The effects of the movie were long-lasting." Affectation: also a noun. A way of behaving that's different from your normal way of behaving, usually intentional and meant to impress or fool others. "She put on the affectation of a movie critic when she wrote her review online."
Allude: to indirectly reference something. "He alluded to past criminal activity." Elude: to evade. "He eluded the police."
Compliment: a nice thing to say to someone. "I complimented her new shoes." Complement: a way to say that something that goes well with something else. "Her new shoes complemented her dress." You might recognize it from "complementary colours." Can also refer to free stuff, as in the "complementary coffee" you get at events (the coffee complements the event).
Elicit: a verb. To bring out something, like a reaction. "He elicited the jury's sympathy by telling a sad story." Illicit: an adjective. Judged to be illegal or immoral, as in "illicit drugs" or "illicit affair." "The judge found him in contempt of court for illicit use of emotionally manipulative story-telling."
Conscience: a noun. This is the thing that (purportedly) tells you right from wrong. "His conscience told him he needed to apologize." Conscious: an adjective. This refers to someone or something that is aware of something and/or capable of thinking. "He was conscious of an urge to apologize."
Taught: a verb. Past-tense of teach. "They taught a course on knot-tying." Taut: an adjective. Describes tightness or tenseness, often of something which can be relaxed. "The students pulled their ropes taut to tighten their knots."
Lathe: a noun. This is a machine that carves wood or metal. "The lathe operators wore gloves to protect their hands from the dangerous machine." Lave: a verb meaning to wash or bathe. This is what tongues do. "I laved at my wound (which I got from the aforementioned lathe because I am committing to this bit now)." Lather: a noun or a verb describing bubbles, especially when referring to soap. "I rubbed my soapy hands together to form a lather so I could clean my now horribly infected lathe wound."
Consolidation: the noun form of consolidate, which means to combine. "The two kingdoms consolidated their armies." Consolation: the noun form of console, which means to comfort someone. Might recognize it from the term "consolation prize" – a prize you get when you lose or fail at something. "It was a small consolation that the war would be over soon."
Lose: the verb form of the word loss. "Don't lose your brand new horse, Julia!" Loose: an adjective meaning not tight or contained. "Predictably, Julia's new horse was now loose in the streets of the city."
Ensuring: to make certain of something or to guarantee something. "He handed her the knife, ensuring that the handle was presented first." Ensuing: to take place afterwards or as a result of something else. "The ensuing knife fight was a bloody duel to the death."
Whose: this is the possessive form. "Whose car is that?" Who's: this is the contraction form of "who is/was/has" "Who's driving that car?" Whom: this is the object form of the pronoun "who." It functions like the pronouns him, her, them, me, and us. If your sentence could be restructured to use any of those, then "whom" is correct. Compare "Whom should I blame for the crash?" ("I should blame him.") and "I wondered who had crashed the car." ("He had crashed the car.")
Those are the common mistakes I've noticed. Feel free to suggest more if you've noticed other commonly mixed up words!
