4. Commonly Confused Words

Shined vs Shone¶

Shined	Shone
to make something shine.	to shine.
shined is used when acting on an object.	shone is used when not acting on an object
I shined the shoes.	The shoes shone brightly.

Insure	Ensure	Assure
to make sure something doesn't happen.	to make sure something does happen.	to make sure something does happen.
I didn't want to pay for possible future leaky roof so I got insurance to insure that wouldn't happen.	I asked the roofer to ensure that the installation was done carefully.	The roofer said he wanted to assure me he was careful.

Lightning	Lightening
the flash of light in a storm.	to lighten.
I saw lightning during the storm last night.	The lightning last night, lightened the sky.

Sparing	Sparring
adjective meaning prudent.	verb meaning to spar or fight.
uses it's Rs sparingly	has two Rs that spar each other
Ryan spent money sparingly.	Ryan and Rebecca were sparring with swords.

that	which
nonrestricted modifier	restricted modifier
Does not use a comma	Uses a comma
A part of the sentence	An aside in the sentence
You CAN'T pull the "that" statement out and still have a complete sentence	You CAN pull the "which" statement out and still have a complete sentence

Adding an "s" to the end of words that end in "-ward" is an unnecessary overcorrection.