Note 265 – Word confusions: proof, prove and proving

This week I have been looking at commonly misspelled words, and ‘proof’, ‘prove’ and ‘proving’ fall into this category.  Although I know that proof has two ‘o’s and prove hasn’t, I tend to pause when writing ‘prove’ or ‘proving’ as it sounds like they should have a second ‘o’ (as in ‘proove’ or ‘prooving’).

An article on the University of Hull website explains that “the verb [prove] has the ‘softer’ sound. It rhymes with ‘move'” (E.g. I cannot prove that this number reconciles to that number) and “the noun [proof] has a slightly shorter sound. It rhymes with ‘roof'” (E.g. There is no proof that Stacey was actually sick today).  The article shows the many meanings of each word as well as their use in sentences.

Just out of interest I decided to type the word ‘proove’ in Google to see if it returned any results, and Wiktionary explained that the verb proove (16-18th century) is the alternative spelling of prove.  So, now I don’t feel so bad that I have previously hesitated after the first ‘o’ (and I also wouldn’t have been entirely wrong if I had ever added it).  I’ve just posted a comment the Merriam-Webster online dictionary to ask if they know of the alternative spelling.  What are your thoughts on this?

Thank you all to all my followers for your continued support and for the comments you leave.  I’ll be starting the 100 day countdown tomorrow to when My Writing Challenge finishes.

Until tomorrow…

Sandra
Freelance Writer
www.sandramadeira.com
www.tipsandluxuries.com 

Related articles (from this week)

• Note 261 – A few commonly misspelled words (mywritingnotebook.com)
• Note 262 – Spelling commitments: Committing yourself to spelling correctly (mywritingnotebook.com)
• Note 263 – How reading can help improve spelling (mywritingnotebook.com)
• Note 264 – Word confusions: Do you confuse lose with loose? (mywritingnotebook.com)