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Words that are commonly confused

Sight/ site/ cite

The noun sight refers to the possibility of seeing. It may also mean something that can be seen. The noun site means a place where something is built or took place. In more recent years, noun site has also been used to mean a place on the World Wide Web, a website. The verb cite means to quote something from a book or other publication or something that a person said. If something is cited, it is mentioned as an example. Students at the Thammasat University Faculty of Law may be familiar with another meaning for the verb cite, to summon someone to appear in a court of law.

How can we tell these words apart? All of them are short, made up of few letters. One way to separate them might be to place the noun sight, referring to vision, among many other words in English which end with the letters ight:

right

night

might

light

eight

fight

weight

straight

bright

flight

height

slight

tonight

tight

highlight

delight

midnight

insight

knight

daylight

copyright

freight

sunlight

moonlight –

heavyweight

fright

playwright

headlight

overweight

If we put together some of these words which are similarly spelled, we may remember how to spell all of them correctly. The meaning of the sentences are not so important:

The bright students thought that the sight of moonlight meant that it was night.

The sight of the copyright date on the book showed that it was not published last night.

Telling apart site and cite may be slightly more challenging, since the words are written so similarly. Because the word website has become so familiar, chances are that writers of Thai English will be able to spell site correctly if they remember it is a place, just as a website is a place on the web. But it is possible that from lack of attention or human error that when the verb cite is meant, instead in Thai English we will see the noun site written. If we think of other words that begin with the letters cit, this may help the problem:

citizen

citrus

city

When asked why they lived in cities, the citizens cited the fact that citrus fruits were readily available.

The city ordinance cited a citizen’s petitions on citrus fruit growing.

Some usage examples:

A small plane crashed into a construction site in a densely populated area of India’s financial capital Mumbai on Thursday, killing five people including one on the ground, officials said.
List of Thai newspapers and Thai news sites including Thai Rath, Khao Sod, Daily News, Manager, Bangkok Post, Thai Post, and Pattaya Mail.
The fastest growing job site and the leading Internet recruitment websites in Thailand offering a comprehensive suite of interactive recruitment services.
They crossed Canyon Creek and the site of an avalanche a few years earlier, now evidenced by the rubble of broken, twisted trees and displaced earth.
Sitting on a secluded site at the far side of the circle, on the outside, sat a mid-sized Pace Arrow motor home with California Plates.
The Deans had utilized the site a half dozen times, including, in December, the council-sponsored full moon nighttime outing, followed by a dip in the town’s hot spring pool.
After the War, the government created seven protected sites around the world with only one person at the site knowing what was there and security measures that were beyond anything the Peak had.
It had been addressed to the Peace Command Center—the site where peace had been declared and the new government created after the East-West Civil War—in Colorado.
Douglas was buried in the church of the Savoy, where a monumental brass (removed from its proper site after the fire in 1864) still records his death and interment.
There were a number of different routes, but the Deans chose the two-mile town site loop, a nearly flat path that first traversed a scented pine forest and then opened to a spectacular view of the surrounding mountains.
The hotel de ville, also by Abadie, is a handsome modern structure, but preserves two towers of the château of the counts of Angouleme, on the site of which it is built.
The site was five acres, and the building is described in the letters patent “as a fitting and noble college mansion in honour of the most glorious Virgin Mary and St Bernard in Northgates Street outside the Northgate of Oxford.”
The afternoon sun was high in the sky, baking the revelers in summer warmth as they clustered around the intersection of Sixth and Main Street, the site of the infamous water fight.
Satisfaction levels cited by subscribers to Universal Healthcare Coverage (UC) and the service providers this year were at 95.66 per cent and 67.91 per cent respectively – an increase from last year’s 91.86 per cent and 66.21 per cent– according to survey results released recently.
Yong Ruobing, managing director of MCC Overseas, has cited seven main points which have drawn Chinese investment into the property sector in Malaysia.
Please cite two instances of the magical skill of the Druids.
The Commentaries of Averroes fall under three headings: the larger commentaries, in which a paragraph is quoted at large, and its clauses expounded one by one; the medium commentaries, which cite only the first words of a section; and the paraphrases or analyses, treatises on the subjects of the Aristotelian books.
Others again cite the old-established power and productivity of Crete; the immense advantage it derived from insularity, natural fertility and geographical relation to the wider area of east Mediterranean civilizations; and the absence of evidence elsewhere for the gradual growth of a culture powerful enough to dominate the Aegean.
Of such we may cite tuberculosis of the larynx, formerly as incurable as distressing; and “adenoids” – a disease revealed by intrascopic methods – which used grievously to thwart and stifle the growth both of mind and body in children, are now promptly removed, to the infinite advantage of the rising generation.
Twitter announced Friday it would not block the accounts of world leaders even if their statements are “controversial,” citing a need to promote a “public conversation” on political issues.
Citing indelible memories and people, the Phuket Gazette bows out in a nostalgic farewell.
Students from several UC campuses lobbied for the bill in Sacramento, citing a need for greater transparency and more consistent adherence to NAGPRA regulations. The challenge of implementation remains, but it is a promising measure that recognizes the importance of Native heritage and the responsibility of Universities to conserve ethically and, when warranted, repatriate.
Cited in the Bangkok Post, “Price pressure on rise, says NESDB”, 27 May 2008, p. B1. 4.
Carabao has set its sights on becoming the No 1 player in Thailand’s Bt32 billion energy drink market within two to three years under a target to increase its market share from the current 26 per cent to 35 per cent.
Companies in Thailand are being swamped by more than 5,000 alerts every day relating to cyber-security threats, with the country trailing only Vietnam as the Southeast Asian nation most in the sights of cyber criminals, a survey shows.
A man with hearing and sight difficulties was hit and killed by the Denchai-Bangkok train while crossing the track in Phrae’s Denchai district on Friday morning.
Toon’s destination in sight for Monday night. Rock star turned national hero Artiwara “Toon” Kongmalai will reach his destination at the northernmost tip of Thailand on Monday evening.
Two boxing golds for Thailand, hat-trick in sight. World Youth champion Atichai Phoemsap and Panpatchara Somnuek captured two gold medals for Thailand at the Youth Olympic Games.
Snakes are a common sight in Bangkok, a bustling city built on once swampy land, and it is not unusual to see them slithering across public spaces like parks, water canals and schools.
Growth target in sight after Thai exports jumped 13 per cent in May. The Ministry of Commerce hailed an outstanding Thai export performance so far this year and voiced confidence that the 5-per-cent growth target would be achieved, the National News Bureau of Thailand (NNT) reported yesterday.
Novak Djokovic set his sights on the Australian Open on Sunday after a painful defeat in the ATP Finals at the hands of Alexander Zverev took some of the gloss off an incredible season.
Visitors to Thailand may have been puzzled earlier in the week at the sight of many local people buried under layers of sweaters, scarves, jackets, rugs, balaclavas, blankets and unidentifiable woolly outfits you would normally associate with colder climes.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons).