So, it turns out I’ve never really thought about it, but I would have (prior to yesterday) misused pour/pore if I were even given the chance.  I always thought of the word “pore” as relating to skin pores.  (As in, “she has small pores”.)  So, when I’d see someone use it in the context of “poring over the document” I just assumed it was incorrect.  But yesterday I actually bothered to look it up, and, lo and behold, “poring over a document” is correct!  (As opposed to pouring over it, which I would have used…or would’ve used, thought looked funny, too and then found some other way of saying it…)

(I kind of like these moments because they remind me that I am a flawed human being who makes mistakes, too, and that maybe I should step down off my high horse.)

In the spirit of misused words, here’s another good link: Pairs/Groups of Words that are often confused.

And a few more I’ve noticed recently:

And another typo issue I noted the other day:

This one is caused by typing too fast and instead of typing “are a”, just typing “area.”

Bottom line: Don’t trust spellcheck.  And get someone else to read over your writing(preferably someone who’s really good with word usage).