Slip-ups: Confusing continuous forms (2)
Let's continue our discussions on words whose continuous forms are similar in appearance but are spelt and pronounced differently.
The confusion associated with the pairs of words:
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hoping/hopping
wining/winning
caning/canning
scraping/scrapping
tiling/tilling
planing/planning
filing/filling
doling/dolling
etc. is that we are likely to write one for the other, leading to errors in our writings.
As we said last week, the pairs of words have different roots which are different in meaning from the other, meaning that if you write one for the other, you render what you have written meaningless. Hoping/hopping
Hoping, we said, is from the verb hope, which means a feeling of wanting something to happen, as in: We hope to have a prosperous year.
while hopping is from the verb hop, which means to move by jumping on one foot, as in:
The children hop like kangaroos as they play.
Hoping is pronounced hopin, while hopping is pronounced horpin.
Wining/winning
Wining is the continuous form of the verb wine, which means to entertain somebody or oneself well with the alcoholic beverage wine, as in:
Companies spend millions to wine and dine clients every year.
Winning, on the other hand, is the continuous form of the verb win, which means to be the best or most successful in a competition, game, election, etc, as in:
It appears Arsenal are in the position to win the English Premier League this year.
Wining is pronounced wainin, while winning is pronounced wining.
Caning/canning
Caning is from the verb cane, which means to punish someone, especially a child, by hitting him or her with a stick, as in:
Teachers no longer cane their pupils in school.
Canning is from the verb can, which means to preserve food by putting it into a metal container from which all the air is removed, as in:
The plan is to can all the tomatoes that can't be consumed this farming season.
Caning is pronounced keinin, while canning is pronounced kanin.
