More commonly confused words.

Pour/ pore/ pore       

The verb pour means to flow rapidly, or to cause to flow in a steady stream. The verb pore means to read or study something carefully. Sometimes a reader is described as poring over a volume. Used as a noun, pore means a small opening in the skin or other surface, through which something may be absorbed or released. Sometimes knowing the origins of words can help us remember how to write them, but with pour/ pore/ pore, which all sound the same, origins are not so useful. Authorities on the English language agree that while the verb to pour is very old, dating back to the Middle Ages, where it comes from is not clear. As a verb, to pore is just as old, and may possibly be related to the verb to peer, or look at. Pore as a noun finds its roots in the Greek term poros, meaning passage, since the idea of a pore is that something passes through it. While these facts may be interesting, they do not help us to remember how to spell the verb or noun correctly when needed. Telling ourselves little stories may be one way to avoid mistakes. We may think of the letter u in the verb pour as a cup or bucket and remember that way that it must involve liquid. If we wanted to say that the students worked hard preparing their exams, we would never write the incorrect

The students poured over their textbooks.

That would mean that the textbooks became wet, since the students poured something over them. The correct way to express this would be:

The students pored over their textbooks.

Some sample phrases using these words:

Three giant conglomerates ready to pour funds into sector.

Tributes pour in for icon of Philippines journalism.

MiningJV to pour more funds into gold plant.

Ministry officials pour water on temple project.

Usually when the verb pour is used, it means a large amount of something is provided steadily. It may also just mean taking something from one place and putting it in another:

Grab a glass, fill it with ice and pour in equal parts of gin, vermouth rosso and Campari, and then garnish with an orange peel. There’s your thirst-quenching negroni in under a minute.

Examples of the verb to pore, often found in the form poring:

Some 500 VFX staff worked on the movie, many of them poring over NASA videos for hours in a bid to make the portrayal of zero gravity as authentic as possible.

Spending as much time poring through fashion magazines as they did on their textbooks, they went for the sort of clothing that’s basically un-wearable in daily life – but down that road is utter freedom.

Federal and state investigators started poring over hours of footage from 15 cameras installed where the blasts took place.

According to Plodprasop, more than 40 officials have been studying proposals from four qualified bidders since early this month. “They have been poring over the information 16 hours a day,” he said.

Used as a noun, pore is usually seen in discussions of skin care:

Ageing and too much sun exposure all leave their mark on our face as we get older, resulting in laugh lines, smile lines, crow’s feet, facial creases and enlarged pores.

A body scrub with tamarind is used to rid the skin of dead cells and clogged pores, before a butter-based mango cream adds shine.

We often hear tips on how to “close” pores, such as rubbing ice cubes on the face or washing the face with cold water. Unfortunately, those tips don’t really work, because pores do not open and close. In fact, pores do not have muscles around them, so they are not able to contract or relax.

Serf/ surf

A serf is a person forced to work on the land. Generally the term refers to people in the Middle Ages, although some historians have identified serfs in Tibet and Bhutan as recently as the 1950s. Bhutan is reported to have officially done away with serfdom in 1959. Sometimes the word serf is used to describe a servant or slave. This relates to the origins of the word, with the Latin term servus meaning slave. The verb to surf means to ride a wave along with a surfboard. Sometimes as a way of making browsing the internet seem more athletic and less sedentary, computer nerds refer to surfing the Net. That usage refers to the idea of gliding from one place to another. Even watching TV has sometimes been called channel-surfing by couch potatoes who like to sound sporty. The origins of the verb to surf are not sure, possibly related to the verb to surge, meaning to move forward powerfully. As we see elsewhere, word origins cannot always help us spell terms correctly. Instead, try to find some way to remember that when the athletic activity, or internet browsing, or TV watching is meant, the word is spelled surf and not serf. For example, the letter u which looked like a cup or bucket in the word pour, might be said to look like a standing person on a surfboard, holding up an arm for balance. If we remember this image associated with the letter u, then it is likely we will recall how to spell the verb we need. Examples:

Ride Euro II-standard buses, surf the Net for free.

Scientists discover surfing spider called Brian.

Wireless@SG surfing speeds to double to 5Mbps.

Hugh Jackman saves children from Australia surf: reports.

Surf, sand, sun, sea and solitude.

The UK’s Egremont Crab Fair and Sports was established in a charter signed in 1267 by King Henry II, which makes it one of the oldest fairs in the world. Originally a harvest festival, the fair kicks off with the Parade of the Apple Cart, a tradition derived from the serfs who paid their dues at the manor in wild fruit.

Russia’s Council of the Empire held its last sitting today on the question of the emancipation of the serfs.

I Was the American Artist Jeff Koons’s Studio Serf.

Russia Links Lincoln with the Freedom of Serfs.

Keeping the above examples in mind may help prevent confusing the two words.

Respectfully/ respectively

The adverb respectfully means done in a respectful way, done with respect. Also an adverb, respectively applies to people or things mentioned earlier in a sentence, in the order as mentioned. There is usually a comma before the word respectively when it is used this way. If Boonsri and Apinya have different tastes in fruit, and their favorite fruits are not the same, we may write:

The favorite fruits of Boonsri and Apinya are durian and rambutan, respectively.

That way the reader will know that since Boonsri’s name is mentioned first, the fruit first mentioned must also refer to her personal taste. As the person mentioned second in the above sentence, Apinya is associated with the fruit mentioned second. There are many different ways of stating the same thing when writing English, and if using respectively is too complex or confusing, it can often be avoided. The same information may be given in the following form:

Boonsri’s favorite fruit is durian, but Apinya’s is rambutan.

or break up the same information into more than one short sentence:

Boonsri and Apinya prefer different fruits. Boonsri’s top choice is durian, but Apinya enjoys rambutan best.

Sometimes in Thai English writers add the word respectively when it is not needed. It may seem like an elegant and formal way to end a sentence, so why not use it even if it has no meaning? The problem is when respectively is added where it is not needed, the writer doe s not make a good impression. One wrong use of the word respectively would be:

The cold winters of Canada and New England are marked by ice and snow, respectively.

This confused sentences seems to say that there is only ice but no snow in Canada, while in New England, there is only snow and no ice. The writer could have avoided this confusion by leaving out the word respectively:

The cold winters of Canada and New England are marked by ice and snow.

One way to know whether or not to use respectively is to read the sentence to yourself without it. If the sentence makes sense, then probably the word respectively does not need to be added. Here are some more correct examples of using respectfully and respectively:

So, we have upped our FY14 and FY15 earnings projections by 6% and 25%, respectively.

The sole exception is Land & Houses, which reported declines in both revenue and net profit in the first half of 7.7 per cent and 3 per cent, respectively.

China, Thailand and Hong Kong are the top three destinations among Singaporean air travellers, accounting for 20, 16 and 9 per cent, respectively, of all outbound leisure flights, according to findings from GfK Travelscan for January to September.

We respectfully encourage you to reconsider.

The fifth graders in Jade Cooney’s classroom compete against a kitchen timer during lessons to see how long they can sustain good behavior — raising hands, disagreeing respectfully and looking one another in the eye — without losing time to insults or side conversations.

I see what you did there and nod respectfully.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.)