Your requests tell me it’s time for some frequently confused words and phrases. These definitions are from Common Errors in English Usage, by Paul Brians. (Also available online at: http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/)

To “flesh out” an idea is to give it substance, as a sculptor adds clay flesh to a skeletal armature. To “flush out” a criminal is to drive him or her out into the open. The latter term is derived from bird-hunting, in which one flushes out a covey of quail. If you are trying to develop something further, use “flesh”; but if you are trying to reveal something hitherto concealed, use “flush.”

These two are often mixed up in speech. If you are doing something in a formal manner, you are behaving formally; but if you previously behaved differently, you did so formerly.

“Perspective” has to do with sight, as in painting, and is usually a noun. “Prospective” generally has to do with the future… (“What are your prospects, young man?”) and is usually an adjective. [KC – At work we are speaking of “prospective clients,” not “perspective clients,” Unless, of course, you are talking about on-site visitors here to teach you the best way to use charcoal pencils to draw
a barn off in the distance. J]

Kara Church | Senior Technical Editor

Symitar, A Jack Henry Company

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123