extant / extent
They sounds similar and both have an ‘ex’, but extant means “still here,” and extent refers to “the range of something.” People get them mixed up to a certain extent.
fortunate / fortuitous
Both words have a positive connotation, however fortunate means lucky, whereas fortuitous means something positive that happened by chance or accident.
gibe / jibe
To gibe is to sneer or heckle, but to jibe is to agree. Funnily enough, to make it a little harder, jibe is also an alternate spelling of gibe – but not the other way around.
grisly / gristly / grizzly
Grisly means relating to horror or disgust, gristly means related to gristle or cartilage, and a grizzly (or Ursus arctos horribilis) is a brown bear from the Ursidae family. Ironically, a grizzly can be quite grisly, but not gristly.
historic / historical
Something historic has a great importance to human history. Something historical is simply related to the past. Something historical is always historic, but certainly not necessarily the other way around.
See other: Choose Your English
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