If you annoy your reader when you write, your credibility can suddenly evaporate. The fastest way to do this is to confuse words. Although you might be making an important point, a small mistake can make your reader unfairly jump to the conclusion that you’re ignorant and that the rest of your prose is not worth considering.
Two commonly confused words are tenet and tenant. Although both these words come from the same Latin root, tenere, the verb meaning to hold, they mean different things:
Tenant: A holder of a lease. Someone who occupies a property as part of a rental agreement.
The landlord had to evict the tenants because they stopped paying the rent.
Tenet: A principle or belief.
The idea that there is only one God is a basic tenet of Islam.
