3/1/2015 0 Comments Discreet and DiscreteAnyone on Facebook knows there are tons of posts addressing the to/too/two and you're/your and there/their/they're issues. I haven't seen as much on the difference between discreet and discrete. I know Google would very likely point me to any number of posts on the subject, but it's one I wanted to touch on. I've been seeing both used wrong a lot more often lately, and it annoys me, especially when I see it in a professionally published work. If the pros can't get it right, what does that say about writers in general, for whom words are our primary tools?
Discrete means separate and different from each other. A sorting tray has discrete sections. Discreet means unobtrusive, not likely to be seen or noticed. An affair must be conducted discreetly. Writers are storytellers, but the stories need precision word choices, or we are failing to communicate.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
November 2019
|