In this episode of You're Saying It Wrong, we focus on "confusable words," also sometimes called "paronyms": words that look and/or sound very similar to each other but have different meanings.
Words we talk about include tortuous/torturous, flout/flaunt, founder/flounder, and effect/affect.
We also take a listener question asking about why we insert a "d" when we shorten "refrigerator" to "fridge", and why it's pronounced the same even though we're using different letters.
And Fletcher takes a deeper dive into paronym/paranym, because apparently he's spelling it wrong, too. (Bless his heart.)
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You're Saying It Wrong was recorded and produced at KMUW studios. Thanks to our language experts, Kathy Petras and Ross Petras. You can follow them at their website: kandrpetras.com
The show was produced by Fletcher Powell, with help from Beth Golay and Lu Anne Stephens. Episode art was produced by Jordan Kirtley. KMUW engineers are Mark Statzer and Torin Andersen. You're Saying It Wrong the book was published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House, as was their new book, That Doesn't Mean What You Think It Means. You can find the books at your local independent bookstore.
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Follow You're Saying It Wrong on Twitter @YSIWpod.
