Proofreading Tips - False Friends Compendium

FF Compendium – 60 pairs of interesting words

Here’s a compilation of the pairs of words which have appeared in Words & Pictures Proofreading Tips as False Friends One, False Friends Two and False Friends Three. 

The number next to each pair of words refers to one of the three links listed where you’ll find the appropriate definitions: 

1 False Friends One 
2 False Friends Two 
3 False Friends Three 




1 affect / effect 

1 allude / elude 

2 alternately / alternatively 

1 asterisk / Asterix 

3 auger / augur 

3 bated / baited 

2 biannual / biennial 

3 censor / censure 

1 choose / chose 

3 continually /continuously 

3 crochet / crotchet 

3 cue / queue 

3 curb / kerb 

1 currant / current 

1 defuse / diffuse 

3 desert / dessert 

2 discreet / discrete 

3 disinterested / uninterested 

1 drier /dryer 

3 eclipse / ellipse 

1 elegy / eulogy 

1 elicit / illicit 

3 empathy / sympathy 

3 enervate / invigorate 

2 envelop /envelope 

1 faze / phase 

2 fictional / fictitious 

3 flair / flare 

2 flaunt / flout 

1 flounder / founder 

3 foment / ferment 

2 geezer / geyser 

2 grisly / grizzly 

2 hoard / horde 

2 hummus / humus 

3 imply / infer 

2 impracticable / impractical 

2 intense / intensive 

1 lama / llama 

3 libel / slander 

2 loath / loathe 

1 loose / lose 

2 luxuriant / luxurious 

1 mannequin / manikin 

1 maudlin / mawkish 

2 parameter / perimeter 

1 pastiche / parody 

1 pedal / peddle 

3 perquisite / prerequisite 

3 prevaricate / procrastinate 

3 principal / principle 

2 raise / raze 

1 rebut / refute 

3 redolent / resonant 

2 regretful / regrettable 

2 silicon / silicone 

1 slight / sleight 

1 stationary / stationery 

2 torpid / torrid 

2 tortuous / torturous

@ProofreadingTip

Catriona Tippin has been a member of SCBWI since 2006 and helps organise venues for SCBWI North East. Details of her writing and illustrating here. She proofreads study guides, house magazines and publicity material for national educational organisations, in addition to working on a variety of proofreads and copyedits for the growing self-published world. Her monthly column is intended to give you food for thought, remembering “Any correction of the speech or writing of others will contain at least one grammatical, spelling or typographical error” (McKean’s Law, named after its inventor Erin McKean, editor of the Oxford American Dictionary).

Header Image for Proofreading Tips Courtesy of

http://www.ikeinc.co.uk/