✅ Pardon means to forgive someone. It often refers to freeing someone from legal responsibility for a crime (The king pardoned the thief).

✅ Absolve means to free someone from guilt, blame, or responsibility or to declare them not guilty of a crime (He absolved her of her obligation to take out the trash).

✅ Pardon particularly suggests being no longer blamed for an act after a punishment, or part of a punishment, has already taken place (They were pardoned after serving three months).

✅ Absolve generally refers to freeing someone from blame before a punishment takes place (He was absolved of the cereal theft).

Write about a time you were absolved from any wrongdoing with the help of Grammar Coach.

✅ Pompous describes someone or something that is pretentious or that has an overly elevated tone or manner (The best man gave a pompous speech).

✅ Fustian describes something expressed in pretentious, over-the-top language (His fustian prose put me off reading his book).

✅ Pompous is the most general of these two words: it can describe both people and things (They were a pompous pair, always looking down on their colleagues).

✅ Fustian, however, specifically describes language (I had to stop listening to the fustian podcast).

Try to write the most fustian email you possibly can with the help of Grammar Coach.

✅ Placate means to bring someone back to a state of calmness and peace, often by conceding things to them or by showing them that you want to be fair to them (We have to do something to placate the dragon).

✅ Mollify also means to bring someone back to a state of calmness and peace, especially by softening their temper (She used flattery to mollify the queen).

✅ Placate and mollify suggest different methods of appeasing someone.

✅ Placate suggests compromising with them and emphasizing that you want to be fair, while mollify suggests softening their temper, perhaps through flattery, gifts, or other means.

Write about mollifying a friend with the help of Grammar Coach.