Have you ever asked Google for a list of words that sound like other words? Well, I did!

• Affect and effect, Lose and loose, Assure/ensure/insure, Lie and lay
• Their vs. There vs. They’re, Accept and except, Advice and advise
• Then and than, All together and altogether, Desert vs. Dessert, Flaunt vs flout
• Further and farther, It’s/its, To and “too”, Breath/breathe, Capitol vs capital
• Stationary and stationery, Who vs. Whom

Honestly, where did they come up with all these different words, anyway?

Now, I know that being an ant and all, I’m supposed to be super smart. But, just like people, it takes me a good bit of time, patience, and a lot of work to read and write.

If I’m to become a famous journalist one day, it won’t be easy… but so worth it! Meemaw says that nothing worth having is ever easy, and the hard work makes for a strong character. Though I don’t really understand why I need big muscles just to read and write, I’ll take her word for it. I mean, she’s been writing for a good bit. And she CAN sail a big pirate ship, all by her onesies… well, almost all by herself. The point is, I think she’s fairly smart so I’ll take her at her word.

Out of all the research I’ve done this morning, guess what word got me? I’ll let you in on a secret… it’s not any of those words I just listed… no no. Let me show you what the answer was to my question to Google about words that sounded like other words…

Words that can be confused with other words, known as confusables or commonly confused words, include homophones (sound alike, different meaning, e.g., “there,” “their,” “they’re”) and words that are similar in spelling or meaning (e.g., “affect” vs. “effect”). Examples include “to/too/two,” “accept/except,” “principal/principle,” “lose/loose,” and “than/then”

Out of the entire answer from Google’s AI, while I was planning on discovering the difference between all those words I showed you, I found myself knocked off the highway by the word confusables!

Why did they go to all the trouble to invent all those difficult words with long and confusing definitions, if they planned to one day start moshing words together just for the sake of it? Confusables? I’m confused, so I guess the word does it’s literary job of turning words into confusables. Now I’m not even sure if it’s sunny out or just sunshiny. Do I simply tell you I’m hungry, or am I free to suggest that I’m feeling apetizable… I mean, let’s just throw out all the rules, why don’t we.

Maybe asking Google for help isn’t always the best way to learn…