Goofing Words
October 17, 2005
I sometimes goof up on words that are pretty close to each other in their pronunciation or spelling. Like these two: Tentative and Attentive. It's bad when I write an email and say "I'm not very tentative when talking on the phone and driving." It almost works out, if I hadn't negated it. Tentative, of course, means "under terms not final or fully worked out or agreed upon". It also means "doubtful; unsettled in mind or opinion". If I had written "I am tentative when talking on the phone and driving", then it might have seemed fine. I wrote this within a minute of waking up, my mind doesn't seem to grasp the concept of correct English, ever, and especially not when just waking up.