A Guide To Learn English Language

We have dis­cussed about some con­fus­ing words pre­vi­ously. It had been a long time since then we talked about them Below are some of the com­monly mis­taken words, we tried to pro­vide mean­ing, usage, dif­fer­ence and also some tips which will help you to remem­ber them easily.

Sta­tion­ary vs Stationery

Sta­tion­ary:-
Parts of speech: Adjec­tive
Mean­ing: immov­able; an object that stays in its orig­i­nal place with­out any change in its posi­tion
Usage 1: All sta­tion­ary objects will remain sta­tion­ary unless and until some force is applied. (Newton’s I law).
Usage 2: As eco­nomic devel­op­ment ceased, the rate of infla­tion is stationary

Sta­tionery:-
Parts of speech: Noun
Mean­ing: Any item that is used for writ­ing like pen, paper, envelopes etc
Usage 1: To save the time, keep your sta­tionery ready before start­ing any work
Usage 2: One needs patience to main­tain a sta­tionery shop
Note: Sta­tionery can also be used as an adjec­tive.
Tip: Avoid con­fu­sion between the two words with help of this trick. Paper ends with “er” and sta­tionery also ends with “er”.

dif­fer­ence between advice and advise

Advice vs Advise:

Advice:-
Parts of speech: Noun
Mean­ing: Any Information/opinion that helps you to be safe or happy etc
Usage 1: Your advice on plan­ning my finance was very use­ful
Usage 2: His advice is use­less as he him­self don’t under­stand it.

Advise:-
Parts of speech: Verb
Mean­ing: To Give an advice.
Usage 1: His is well known for his timely advises.
Usage 2: In order to avoid acci­dents, peo­ple are con­stantly being advised about traf­fic safety.
Tip: These two terms are very tricky and con­fus­ing because both of them have same mean­ing and spelling (almost). Advice is used more often than ‘advise’. Check the gram­mar and con­text to know the cor­rect usage of the two terms.

Prin­ci­ple vs Principal:

Prin­ci­ple:-
Parts of speech: Noun
Mean­ing: It has a wide range of mean­ings, how­ever, the sim­ple mean­ing is rules or laws, code of con­duct, accepted rule, firm belief
Usage 1: All the suc­cess­ful peo­ple have fol­lowed the tough­est prin­ci­ples in their life.
Usage 2: Argu­ments can be made more appeal­ing by using gen­eral principles.

Prin­ci­pal:-
Parts of speech: Noun or Adjec­tive
Mean­ing: When used as noun, its mean­ings are head and money; when used as adjec­tive, it takes the mean­ing main or chief.
Usage 1: The prin­ci­pal parts of human body are brain and heart (prin­ci­pal = main, adjec­tive)
Usage 2: For any prin­ci­pal amount, try to keep less inter­est rate to attract new clients (prin­ci­pal = money, noun)

Tip 1: Prin­ci­ple is always used to tell the “rules”
Tip 2: Prin­ci­pal can be adjec­tive or noun. “a” for adjec­tive in prin­ci­pal. This removes con­fu­sion in usage.