Today in “things that exist”: 2 words no modern human has any business using are basically the same but have a different letter at the end and structure their definitions in nonsense ways.
![](https://richardland.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/britney-confused.gif)
Confused?
No problem. I gotchyu.
Being one of those humans that frequently does things that no modern human has any business doing, I used the word “portend” in a sentence and I think misspelled it as “portent” or something – idk – but somehow I came across the version with the “T” and in looking up the difference I found this:
Portend is a verb that be a sign or warning that (something, especially something momentous or calamitous) is likely to happen.
Portent is a noun that is a sign or warning that something, especially something momentous or calamitous, is likely to happen.
![](https://richardland.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/britney-confused2.gif)
Still confused? You and Britney Spears’ mom aren’t the only ones.
You may have noticed that those are the same damn thing. And also that “Portend”‘s definition is written like a Pirate wrote it with that crap thats all “is a verb that be a sign or warning, Yarg!”. Wtf? Why doesn’t it says “is a verb that is a sign or warning” like the definition of Portent says? Bro, idk man. but that’s how Bing – which is a search engine on the internet – displayed the definitions of each word.
Oh you think I’m lyin? Well I brought the receipts…
![](https://richardland.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/portend-1024x345.png)
![](https://richardland.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/portent-1024x519.png)
So there you go.
Also – is that GIF response thing gonna get as outdated as using Britney Spears as a culturally relevant icon, you think? Cuz on the one hand I feel like inserting GIF reactions is a timeless form of performance but I also have to observe that it’s a very trendy thing that didn’t exist for most of the first few decades that GIF’s existed so that makes me wonder if it’s just a trend that will make this post age worse than Britney and I think we can agree that no one wants that. Also, what’s the deal with picking on B-Spearulina? Hardly seems fair. Probably portends bad things for the future. Is that the correct usage? Who cares. It’s not portent. -Now that one is definitely wrong but so are Britney Spears’ life choices from 2002 and beyond so I’m gonna say that absolves me.
Portend that.
![](https://richardland.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/britney-ehh.gif)
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