Some words are frequently confused and misused even by native English speakers, because the definitions of the words have been blended and exchanged over the years, so most people don’t remember the original, correct meanings. If you learn these three word pairs and use them correctly, your English skills will be unexceptionable.

All Together v. Altogether

All together now, repeat after me: “Altogether is one word.” While both of these words have the underlying sense of “everything,” they’re used and spelled in different ways. All together means in a group, or as a group.

When we’re all together, we have a lot of fun.
The sheep were huddled all together in the far corner of the field.

The word altogether, on the other hand, has an altogether different use. This word is an adjective meaning completely or totally, or taking all things into consideration.

Once we were over the mountain range, we lost cell phone service altogether.
It rained for two days, and the beds weren’t very comfortable, but altogether we had a very nice vacation at the beach.

Penultimate v. Ultimate

Here at Ultimate Vocabulary we’re happy to acknowledge that one definition of ultimate is “the best.” We also like the other ways this word is used – to mean “the last in a series” (you won’t need another vocabulary learning program!) or to indicate something that is the highest (the Ultimate Vocabulary system is the tops!). Here are a few more examples of the word:

The new cruise line promises to provide the ultimate in luxury sailing experiences.
The ultimate goal of the program is to train you to have confidence in your speaking abilities.

Penultimate means the next to the last thing. The word comes from the Latin paene (almost) and ultima (final).

Auckland is the penultimate stop on our around-the-world cruise.
The Scottish town Kirkcudbright is pronounced “kirr-koo-bree,” with the accent on the penultimate syllable.

Flammable v. Inflammable

Both of these words mean catching fire easily, or capable of burning or being burned. However, many people think that the word inflammable refers to something that can’t be burned. We’re used to words like indiscreet (not discreet) and indirect (not direct) where the prefix in- means “not” – but in this case, in-flammable still means flammable. If you want to talk about something that can’t catch fire, use the word nonflammable. Inflammable is also often used to describe emotional states, where it means fiery, or easily aroused.

That can of kerosene is flammable and should be moved away from the fire.
His inflammable temper makes him completely unsuited to work in customer service.

Keep your temper and don’t lose patience with these easily-confused words! We’ll discuss three more word pairs tomorrow.