beatrice_otter | (Reply)

I mostly have no trouble keeping these apart, but for several I'm wondering why English ended up with two different spellings when the German equivalent from the same roots also has these two meanings but both are spelled the same, or are also just slightly off but changed a different letter. Like discreet/discrete both are "diskret", and a pallet for goods and a palette for paint are both a "Palette" in German (the basic sleeping place is different). Interestingly with others the German translations are also very similar words but with a slight difference, like to hoard is "horten" while a horde is also "Horde" so in German one is the same word (which makes sense if course being so closely related there's lots of words that are the same) and the other is close too, but off by a consonant rather than a vowel.