Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Are we singing, praying, or fighting?

Homophones, homophones, homophones. They are still a problem, aren't they? Here's another one that I just came across in a fic:

verses/versus

From Dictionary.com:

verse [plural: verses]

[vurs] Show IPA ,noun, adjective, verb,versed, vers·ing.
–noun
1. (not in technical use) a stanza.
2. a succession of metrical feet written, printed, or orally composed as one line; one of the lines of a poem.
3. a particular type of metrical line: a hexameter verse.
4. a poem, or piece of poetry.
5. metrical composition; poetry, esp. as involving metrical form.
6. metrical writing distinguished from poetry because of its inferior quality: a writer of verse, not poetry.
7. a particular type of metrical composition: elegiac verse.
8. the collective poetry of an author, period, nation, etc.: Miltonian verse; American verse.
9. one of the short conventional divisions of a chapter of the Bible.
10. Music.
a. that part of a song following the introduction and preceding the chorus.
b. a part of a song designed to be sung by a solo voice. 



ver·sus

[vur-suhs, -suhz] Show IPA
–preposition
1. against (used esp. to indicate an action brought by one party against another in a court of law, or to denote competing teams or players in a sports contest): Smith versus Jones; Army versus Navy.
2. as compared to or as one of two choices; in contrast with: traveling by plane versus traveling by train. Abbreviation: v., vs. 

So, as you can see, sound much the same, mean completely different things. Let's try to remember, 'kay? Oh, I just checked, and they also cover this on Learn Your Damn Homophones, also mentioned in a previous post.

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