Synonyms are words with similar meanings, although the exact shade of meaning may be different. This post, however, deals with pairs of words that are not synonyms but pairs in which one member is sometimes, and erroneously, mistaken for the other.<\/p>\n
In communicating what you mean, synonyms do not pose as serious a problem as confusables do.\u00a0Nearly<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Almost<\/em>, for example, are practically interchangeable. But writing\u00a0alternate\u00a0<\/em>when you mean\u00a0alternative<\/em>\u00a0can jeopardize the clarity of what you are trying to convey.<\/p>\n Alternate<\/em>\u00a0implies two possibilities only one of which can occur at a given time; a bar code, for example, consists of alternating strips of black and white. If an event is described as occurring on alternate days and if it occurs, say, on Monday, it cannot occur on the Tuesday that follows.\u00a0Alternate<\/em>\u00a0thus suggests taking turns: first one thing, then the other, and then the first thing again.<\/p>\n Alternative<\/em>\u00a0suggests options or choices: the sun and the wind are alternative sources of energy or an e-mail message is a faster alternative to “snail mail” (i.e., a message sent through the post office).<\/p>\n Example of the difference between “alternate” and “alternative” in academic writing<\/p>\n Here, participants were sent surveys\u00a0every other month<\/em>.<\/p>\n Here,\u00a0there was no option to do any other statistical test<\/em>.<\/p>\n You can read similar informative articles on confusable words\u00a0here<\/a> and here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Synonyms are words with similar meanings, although the exact shade of meaning may be different. This post, however, deals with pairs of words that are not synonyms but pairs in which one member is sometimes, and erroneously, mistaken for the other. In communicating what you mean, synonyms do not pose as serious a problem as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":46721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2375],"tags":[212],"new_categories":[],"new_tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-1698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grammar-language","tag-language-tips"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat is the meaning of “alternate”?<\/h2>\n
What is the meaning of “alternative”?<\/h2>\n
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