More commonly confused words

Martial / marital

Marital is an adjective meaning something having to do with marriage. Martial is another adjective, referring to the military, war, or conflict. A court martial is a trial before a military tribunal. Telling apart two similar words such as marital and martial is a challenge for some writers of Thai English. While the origins of these words explain their spellings, it is not necessary to remember these origins. For example, martial derives its meaning from Mars, the god of war in Roman mythology, but we cannot expect to remember details of Roman mythology every time we must write something in English. So let us try to remember words that might help to lead us to the correct spelling. For example, the noun martyr, meaning someone who dies for her or her beliefs. Although the origins of the word martyr are different than the origins of the word martial, both make us think of violence. In the case of martial, it can be war, and for martyr, someone being killed for believing a certain thing. This can help us think that the word martial, starting with the letters mart, has something to do with war, instead of the word marital, which starts with the letter mari. This type of guess can make us better spellers in English. There is another word starting with the letters mart that may be of assistance. The noun martinet meaning someone who requires strict discipline and obedience. Usually it is not a nice thing to be a martinet, since a schoolteacher who is a martinet might punish students for misbehaving. Even though all three words begin with the letters mart, martial, martyr, and martinet all have different origins. Yet all seem to have something to do with violence or potential violence. The same is true of Martians, or inhabitants of the planet Mars. Of course, it is unlikely that any Martians really exist on the planet Mars, but the British author H. G. Wells wrote a famous science fiction novel, The War of the Worlds, to describe how the Martians aggressively attack the planet Earth. So we have yet another word, Martians, beginning with the letters mart that make us think of violence. Since the point is to remember words and their meanings, it does not matter about the sources of the words. We may decide to tell ourselves a little story, to associate these words and keep them in our in our memories. For example:

The martial Martians were martyred by the martinet.

This might be about an officer who was a strict disciplinarian, or martinet, who killed, or martyred, some invading Martians, because they were too war-like, or martial. As usual, the meaning of such sentences does not matter, or even if they have a meaning or not. The point is to put together words that somehow relate to one another and will give us a hint about their correct spellings. A much happier and ideally more peaceful adjective, marital, originally derived from a Latin term for husband. Like the adjective maritime, meaning something having to do with the sea, or mariners, meaning sailors, martial begins with the letters mari. We might compare it to the noun marriage, which is close to it in meaning, but since marriage does not start with the letters mari, but with marri, this might cause too many confusions. Instead, we can invent our own little sentence to help associate words:

The maritime marital agency married mariners.

It means that a company focusing on arranging marriages for sailors resulting in many weddings for them. Again, the meaning of the sentence is not important. The main point is to keep a visual impression of all of the words beginning with the letters mari.

Some usage examples:

• After selecting for a specific age range, income range and for those with no change in marital status, the authors narrowed things down to 14,930 twins for their investigation covering the five-year period from 2003 to 2007.
• There are no details on how the couple will split their marital property, but Janie has reportedly asked her ex-hubby to return her Porsche, which he has promised to do.
• Laotian jasmine rice and German hops find marital harmony matrimony in Beerlao, Laos’ national brew first produced by Lao Brewery Company of Vientiane in 1973.
• Singer-actress Sarunrat “Lydia” Visutthithada and her long-time boyfriend Mathew Dean stole the show at PolyPlus’ recent 20th-anniversary party, breaking the news that they’re going to get married; having been ‘an item’ for almost a decade, they figure the time is right for them to sample some official marital bliss, and plan to marry next March.
• Hollywood stars Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt recently got matching tattoos from a Thai tattoo guru. In a touching tribute to the strength of their bond – despite reports of |marital discord in recent weeks – Woman’s Day said it is understood that Ajarn Noo used the same ink for both Pitt and Jolie.
• “Drunk in Love,” Beyonce’s ode to marital bliss with husband Jay Z, has been streamed more than 180 million times.
• Mixed martial arts is a growing sport in Russia.
• Under the rules of a general court-martial, Sergeant Bergdahl, who walked off his base in Afghanistan in 2009, could technically face up to life in prison.
• In 1861, Commodore Armstrong’s cross-examination lasted all through yesterday’s session of the Court-martial assembled to try Lieutenant Walke of the United States Navy.
• On September 15, 1863 President Abraham Lincoln imposed Congressionally authorized martial law. The authorizing act allowed the President to suspend habeas corpus throughout the entire United States (which he had already done under his own authority on April 27, 1861).
• Greek armies on campaign employed musicians to accompany poetic recitations designed to remind soldier and citizen alike of the valor of past heroes. After the collapse of Rome in the West, its tradition of martial music was preserved and refined by the Eastern empire in Byzantium.
• Martial skill is an indicator of how good you are at warfare and combat, and is the determining attribute for Marshals.
• Martial activities include armored combat, rapier combat (fencing), target archery, combat archery, thrown weapons, equestrian activities, and youth combat.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.)