Compliment/complement and desert/dessert | Frequently confused words | Usage | Grammar

Hello grammarians! Continuing our journey through the world of frequently confused words, I'd like to begin with "complement" with two e's and "complement" with an i and an e. How the heck do we keep these separate?

Well, first let's get some definitions. "Complement" with two e's, c-o-m-p-l-e-m-e-n-t, is a verb and it means to match, pair, or work well with something. As in, that hat complements your suit, Melvin. There's our guy Melvin! There's this very fine hat in the same color as his suit, so it matches or pairs or works well with something. These are the same colors, so they look nice together—maybe a little matchy-matchy. Give him some gold epaulettes, shake it up a little bit, Melvin! There you go!

"Complement" with an i, c-o-m-p-l-i-m-e-n-t, is a verb that means to praise or a noun that just means praise. So, "complement" with an e is the verb of actually matching. But when we point it out, and we say, "That hat complements your suit, Melvin," and we say, "That looks pretty good, Melvin," that in itself is a compliment. So, this sentence is a compliment. Melvin would say in response, "Thank you for the compliment."

I can see how this is confusing. So when two things go together well, like visually or sonically, or however you say they complement one another. When two people work well as a team, you can say their skills complement one another. And if you point that out in a way that is praiseworthy—if you say, "Ah Melvin, that is a dope ensemble you are rocking today," that is a compliment with an i, so you are praising it.

This one is a classic. So we've got "desert" over here and "dessert" over here. So these words look a little similar, but they are pronounced differently, which is to our benefit. So these are both nouns. "Desert" with a za sound (za) is dry sandy land.

For example, this is a depiction of the Sonoran Desert in Arizona and Mexico. Right? So this is a saguaro cactus. There's a barrel cactus, that's a palo verde, and there's a little kit fox.

So when you see "desert" with one s, as opposed to "dessert" with two s's, what I want you to imagine is water—a long flowing river made of s's. And that when you're in a desert, there just isn't as much; there isn't as much water. So 1 s means less water, means cacti and little kit foxes and Gila monsters.

"Dessert" with two s's is like an ice cream sundae. We've got some vanilla ice cream, we've got some strawberry ice cream, and then this black ice cream is licorice ice cream, which is actually delicious and I encourage you to try it. And then this, if you couldn't tell, is a banana.

So what is a dessert? A dessert is a noun and it is a sweet food eaten after a meal. Certainly, it doesn't have to be this banana split; this ice cream sundae could be anything sweet—so cookies, cake, chocolate—those sorts of things that you would not find in a desert.

So keeping these two words straight—"desert" and "dessert"—is really one of abundance. When there are two s's, it means times are good; we're doing so well we can have ice cream. If you're missing that second s, it means things are a little lean, there's not a lot of water, there's a lot of cacti and rattlesnakes.

Don't get me wrong, I've had some excellent desserts with two s's in desert places. There happens to be a very fine ice cream parlor in Scottsdale, Arizona. But what I'm trying to say is that in the landform that we call a desert with one s, you are unlikely to find an ice cream sundae just sitting out.

You can learn anything! Dave, it out.