Day 252: 3 sets of commonly confused words

All ready vs. Already

All ready means each prepared.

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“The boys are all ready to leave now.”

“The computers are all ready for shipping.”

Already means before now.

“I have already baked the cookies.”

“We have already covered that issue.”

Continuous vs. Continual

Continuous means incessant and without pause.

“The continuous rain dampened our spirits.”

“Summer months in Alaska are characterized by continuous sunshine.”

Continual means occurring regularly.

“His continual speeches are not winning over his opponents.”

“How can I get any work done with these continual telemarketing calls?”

Skim vs. Scan [the verbs, not the adjective or noun, respectively]

Skim means review quickly and take a superficial look.

“The editor skimmed the paper for obvious mistakes.”

“Please skim this and see if the formatting looks right.”

Scan means review carefully and examine in detail. [Sometimes, scan is used to mean skim, but this is substandard usage.]

“I scanned the document and found no errors.”

“The radar beam scanned the sky for incoming aircraft.”