Fine Line Words
I feel as though some people consider certain words to be synonyms, when in fact they have distinct differences. There’s not much to explain until I show an example, so I’ll cut right down to it.
A good set of examples are “reason” and “excuse”. They often get tied together and lose their individual meaning. They are both used as explanations for why something happened. The difference between them is that an excuse passes off responsibility to a scape goat.
If someone were late to work and said “Sorry, there was an accident on the freeway, and I got here as soon as I could”. The blame is passed onto the traffic. This is an excuse.
If someone in the same situation were to say “Sorry, there was an accident on the freeway, but I should have left earlier, I’ll make sure this doesn’t happen again”. The responsibility is taken by the person. This is a reason.
I can go down a long list of other words that get tied together, but there’s no need for more. Just keep an ear out for the many other examples you’ll be hearing every day.
3 years ago