When asked what I do, I often end up in an awkward situation where people start talking to me about protecting their ideas... and I have to back track and say "oh, no, I write things, I don't deal in intellectual property law".
Similarly, back in my client services days, when I said I was an 'account director' I had a number of people start talking to me about their finances... This is often followed by a look of embarrassment, a few mutters along the lines of "oh, that's interesting..." and then they hurriedly skuttle off. I don't think anyone needs to be embarrassed for misunderstanding though, it's our language that's at fault.
We have so many words that sound the same, but mean completely different things. That's just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many oddities, like:
Silent letters
'K's in particular are tricksy - yes, that's you knight and knife
Words that look like they rhyme, but don't
Think about 'rough', 'cough' and 'though'
Words that are spelt the same, but can mean totally different things
Depending on whether (and I'm not talking about the precipitation type of weather) the word is used as a noun or verbs. For example you 'record a voicemail' (verb) but 'listen to a record' (noun) and you can 'shed a tear' or 'tear something apart'. Which leads us on nicely to...
Pronunciations
There are various words that are pronounced differently from region to region - we all know the great 'scone' debate (personally I'm firmly in the 'scone as in gone' camp)
All of which, must make it a nightmare for non-natives to learn, and yet somehow English is considered the most widely spoken language in the world. No mean feat that's for sure.
Continue exploring the eccentricities of the English language with these gems...
It's a confusing, confused and quirky language and I love it.
But, if you're left more bemused than amused by the English language and all the weird rules and spellings then I'm here to help. I can proofread and check over your writing, help you tell your story, or craft all your writing for you.