Don’t Believe Me? Look it Up.

deep seated vs deep seeded - The first one is correct. A feeling or attitude is seated deep within you. No gardening is involved.

faze vs phase - Two completely different words! I know, right? Don’t let it faze you.

cache vs cachet - Having a hidden cache [sounds like cash] of cash might give you a little cachet [sounds like cash-ay].

stage left vs house/camera left - Stage left is left from the point of view of the stage, house or camera left is left from the point of view of the house or camera. I haven’t heard ANYONE use these correctly in AT LEAST the last year, no exaggeration.

prodigal - The prodigal son wasn’t prodigal because he came back. His behavior before he returned was prodigal. It has nothing to do with returning.

7 Responses to “Don’t Believe Me? Look it Up.”


  1. 1 John

    Are these student (as in university student) mistakes?

  2. 2 Alfina the Vague

    Sadly, they are peer mistakes. (Fellow bloggers and colleagues.) Since I can’t be this rude to people in person or in the comments sections of their blogs, I reserve the rudeness for here.

  3. 3 jair

    Some of those should be blindingly obvious though, shouldn’t they? Especially the prodigal son - ‘the prodigal son returns’ is the standard phrase, is it not?

  4. 4 Alfina the Vague

    Right! I think it’s the phrase that confuses people, though — like maybe he was prodigal because he returned? And it’s a redundant/tautological phrase? I don’t even know sometimes.

  5. 5 John

    It seems that they don’t make the connection between the verbal and the written. I mean, verbally it’s obvious…apparently when written it is not so.

  6. 6 Ruby

    Thanks for pointing out the faze/phase. I have such a difficult time convincing people that faze is a word.

  7. 7 Alfina the Vague

    J- Good point. It probably has a lot do do with that. When I was a kid, I read so much that I knew lots of words in writing, but ad no idea how to say them. I bet everyone has that disconnection on some level.

    R - I know! I think if people haven’t seen that one written down, they think “faze” is just some bad spelling a la text messaging or the lolcats.

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