Homophone T.E.

A reader has questioned my use of trouper in the previous blog, suggesting I might have meant trooper when I complimented my tiny dog for going out in the snow.

Willing to consider the (remote) possibility that I could be wrong, I dutifully looked up both words. All definitions of trooper relate to military-type troops while trouper refers to an actor in a troupe (think Vaudeville) and, by extension, therefore, is said of someone who is dedicated to the proposition that the show must go on.

I will head off the only possible source of homophonic confusion that I see in this blog by stating that I do mean compliment (say something nice) and not complement (full quantity).

I also know the difference between effect and affect, but I don't think I will ever straighten out lie, lay, laid and lain. Lost cause. I'll never get it. So, I will avoid those altogether and use set when I mean lie, lay, laid or lain and repose supine or repose prone when I am too tired to think about it anymore.