Common Mistakes

Itch and Scratch
Meaning: Itch is the tingly feeling you get on parts of your skin due to dryness or allergy. Scratch is your reaction to an itch i.e. the movement of your fingers going back and forth over the itchy area. If you're trying to get rid of a tingly feeling on your body, scratch it with your fingers, don't itch it.

Examples: My back is itching. I need a backscratcher.

Do not scratch with your nails. The wond may get septic.

Sometime and Some time
Meaning: Sometime suggests some indefinite time in the future. "Some time" is not wrong in this sort of context, but it is required when being more specific about the time.

Examples: I can do this sometime later.

Choose some time that fits in your schedule.

Note that in the first example, the word "sometime" does not specify a definite time. It simply says "in future". In the second example, "some" is an adjective modifying "time." The same pattern applies to "someday" (vague) and "some day" (specific).

Examples: I will visit you someday n USA.

I will visit you some day in USA during next summer.

Role and Roll
Meaning: Role means a person's character. An actor plays a role. Bill Gates is the entrepreneur's role model. Roll means movement of an object in its own axis. You roll out the barrel or roll down a hill.

Idioms and Slangs

Under the weather
Meaning: to fall ill
Origin: Passengers aboard ships become seasick most frequently during times of rough seas and bad weather. Seasickness is caused by the constant rocking motion of the ship. Sick passengers go below deck, which provides shelter from the weather, but just as importantly the sway is not as great below deck, low on the ship. On a ship the greatest swaying action is on deck, and the most stable point is down near the keel. Hence seasick passengers tend to feel better below deck.

Example: I can't come to work because I am feeling a bit under the weather.

Three sheets to the wind
Meaning: very drunk

Prior to the 1810's it was common for ships to have three masts, (fore, main, and mizzen). If the sheets on all three masts are "in the wind", the ship loses all steering control. The ship's lack of control is likened to that of a stumbling drunk.

Example: The bridegroom made it to the altar, but he was three sheets to the wind.

Step up to the plate
Meaning: someone being willing to go to work, or try very hard to attain a goal.

Origin: This idiom comes from the sport of baseball. The "plate" is a pentagon-shaped rubber mat on the ground. The batter approaches the plate when he is ready to try to hit the ball. We say he steps up to the plate.

Example: Mr. Musharaff should step up to the plate to bring peace to the region.