rob/steal
ROB/STEAL
When you rob a bank, you steal its money. You can’t rob the money itself. The stuff taken in a
robbery is always stolen, not “robbed."
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file:///C|/Temp/livres/commonerrors/errors/rob.html03/09/2005 15:39:51
role/roll
ROLE/ROLL
An actor plays a role. Bill Gates is the entrepreneur” s role model. But you eat a sausage on a roll and
roll out the barrel.
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file:///C|/Temp/livres/commonerrors/errors/role.html03/09/2005 15:39:51
root/rout/route
ROOT/ROUT/ROUTE
You can root for your team (cheer them on) and hope that they utterly smash their opponents (create
a rout), then come back in triumph on Route 27 (a road).
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sacred/scared
SACRED/SCARED
This is one of those silly typos which your spelling checker won’t catch: gods are sacred, the damned
in Hell are scared.
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sacreligious
SACRELIGIOUS
SACRILEGIOUS
Doing something sacrilegious involves committing sacrilege. Don’t let the related word “religious” trick you into misspelling the word as "sacreligious."
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safety deposit box

file:///C|/Temp/livres/commonerrors/errors/sarcastic.html03/09/2005 15:39:53
satellite
SATELLITE
Originally a satellite was a follower. Astronomers applied the term to smaller bodies orbiting about
planets, like our moon. Then we began launching artificial satellites. Since few people were familiar
with the term in its technical meaning, the adjective “artificial” was quickly dropped in popular
usage. So far so bad. Then television began to be broadcast via satellite. Much if not all television
now wends its way through a satellite at some point, but in the popular imagination only broadcasts
received at the viewing site via a dish antenna aimed at a satellite qualify to be called “satellite
television.” Thus we see motel signs boasting:
AIR CONDITIONING,*
SATELLITE
People say things like “the fight” s going to be shown on satellite.” The word has become a pathetic
fragment of its former self. The technologically literate speaker will avoid these slovenly
abbreviations.
*At least motels have not yet adopted the automobile industry” s truncation of “air conditioning” to
“air."
List of errors
file:///C|/Temp/livres/commonerrors/errors/satellite.html03/09/2005 15:39:53