Grammar Police Monday - What Do Band-aids, Lemonade & Nurse's Aides Have In Common?

They're all a source of comfort. And they all contain a homophone. 

Yep. We're covering more commonly confused words this week...

Aids, aides, and -ades all sound alike, but their meanings are different.

• Aid can be a verb meaning to help or assist or a noun meaning something that helps or assists. It can also be used when referring to a person, but aide is preferred. 
• Aide is an assistant, such as a nurse's aide or a senator's aide.
• And -ade is a suffix, often used in names of fruit drinks. 

(Then, of course, you have Kool-aid, which breaks the rule. But that's because it's a brand name.)

Here are three more: air, err and heir.

• Air is what we breathe. 
• Err means to make a mistake. 
• And an heir is someone who inherits something.

Three more: allude, elude and illude.

• Allude is a verb that means to casually or indirectly refer to something. Ex: Her husband alluded to her odd behavior and his suspicions, but he didn't accuse her of infidelity outright.
• Elude is a verb meaning to cleverly avoid capture, but it can also mean to escape understanding. Ex: I stared at the test question for a solid ten minutes, but the answer eluded me. 
  
• Illude is a verb that means to deceive or trick. (think: illusion)

That's all I have for today. I hope you found the lesson helpful. 

Thanks for visiting. :)