The adjectives discreet and discrete can easily be confused in writing, for various reasons. First, when typing quickly, the second e may just slip in before the t. Because both words exist, this mistake will not be detected by the spell checker. However, in addition, the pronunciation of discreet and discrete is identical, see here
The phrase et al. is often used when referring to scientific papers by a group of authors, and means “and others”. Instead of naming all the authors (the average number of authors on scientific papers has been increasing for many decades, see here, here, and here for interesting discussions of this phenomenon), it is common
Thinking back to my time in school and at university, I remember that the word cache (a type of computer memory, see here) was pronounced [keɪʒ]. Therefore, it differed from cash, which was always pronounced as [kæʃ] at the time. I’m not sure if this was related to the absence of native speakers around me,
The Greek alphabet is used in many fields, including science (mostly physics and mathematics, where one often runs out of letters to use in equations), finance, and technology. Some of you may even use it on a post card from your holiday in Greece. Once you are able to write and correctly identify a given
The word quantum has made it all the way from physics to areas such as movies and parcel services (knowing about the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics, the name quantum view for a parcel tracking service causes some mild anxiety). The phrase quantum leap (Quantensprung in German) is commonly used, even though it typically refers
The words previous and last can in many cases be used interchangeably. For example, I can refer to the week before the current week either as last week or the previous week. However, the word last also has a different meaning, namely that of final or ultimate. If I were to change jobs, I could
While reading the news today, a German statement in the sports section caught my eye: Wir haben ein tolles Momentum im Team […] For some reason, this incorrect and completely unnecessary use of the word Momentum has become much more common recently, although it seems to be confined to sports so far. Clearly, Momentum is
Non-native speakers often make mistakes pronouncing the words multi and multiple in English. A possible reason is that these words have their origin in Latin, and hence are used in a number of other languages. The typical mistake involves an incorrect pronunciation of the letter u, listen here: Instead of pronouncing it as in the
Although Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees have now spread far beyond English-speaking countries, there is still a lot of confusions about the correct spelling. Importantly, in expression such as Master’s thesis, Bachelor’s thesis, Master’s degree or Master’s student, the apostrophe is part of the correct spelling, indicating that the thesis was written by a person that
The word matrix has become mainstream in 1999 thanks to the movie The Matrix. Long before that, the word had been in use in science and technology. In mathematics and physics (the fields I am most often confronted with in talks and discussions), a matrix is a regular array of objects such as numbers or