A block of better grammar: Chock vs. choke

You’ve probably gagged if you’ve ever seen these two words mixed up.

To choke is to obstruct or slow something: People choked on the city’s foul stench or The closed lanes created a choke point for traffic.

A chock typically refers to a wedge or a block that prevents something from moving: The cement block placed in front of the tire effectively kept the car from rolling down the hill.

An easy trick to for remembering them is a chock stops but a choke slows.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 300 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.