Grammar Girl here, this week I have a quick and dirty tip about the difference between the

words fictional and fictitious.

A meaty middle about why English has so many silent letters.

And a tidbit about how the word adult is related to adolescent, but not to the word adultery.

It's some pretty interesting etymology.

This first quick and dirty tip is from my book 101 misused words you'll never confuse

again, which you can find where all fine books are sold if you'd like to hold it in your

very own hands or on your very own e-reader.

Fictional and fictitious are both adjectives that mean roughly made up or invented.

The difference between the two is how they're typically used rather than what they mean.

Fictional is usually used to describe something in literature such as a fictional character

or a fictional story.

Here's an example from the book Jonathan Livingston's Seagull.

Quote if you practice being fictional for a while, you'll understand that fictional characters

are sometimes more real than people with bodies and heartbeats.

Fictitious is usually used to describe a lie or an invention that happens in real life.

Here's an example from the book Mark Twain in Eruption.

Quote saying in intelligent human beings carefully and cautiously indiligently conceal their

private real opinions from the world and give out fictitious ones in their stead for general

consumption.

Quote so fictitious tends to refer to something that's a lie or invention in real life and

fictional tends to refer to the made up things in literature and that was your quick and

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