• Caret = a proofreading symbol
• Carat = a unit to weigh precious stones and pearls
• Karat = a unit to measure the fineness/purity of gold
Many a time we listen or read certain words that are so similar in their pronunciation or spelling that it's almost impossible to tell the difference among such words.
We call these words as HOMOPHONES
Homophones यानि ऐसे शब्द जिनका उच्चारण और spelling एक जैसे हों।
Homophones के बारे में और जानने के लिए blog पढ़ें: Homophones और Homographs की मिलती-जुलती दुनिया
अंग्रज़ी भाषा में इतने homophones हैं की आप सभी के बारे में एक साथ नही जान सकते।
It's always better to go one step at a time and today we'll get to know about the differences among the homophones: CARET, CARAT, KARAT
CARET ( कैरेट )
It's actually a spacing character that is used when you want to add something to an already written or printed material.
लिखते समय यदि आप कोई word miss कर जाते हैं या फिर पहले से ही लिखित या printed material में कुछ add करना चाहते हैं तो उसके लिए caret symbol का प्रयोग किया जाता है।
Caret looks like an inverted 'V'.
कैरेट मूल रूप से proof-reading mark के रूप में इस्तेमाल किया जाता है क्योंकि यह दर्शाता है कि कोई दस्तावेज़ में एक विराम चिह्न, शब्द या वाक्यांश डालने की आवश्यकता है।
On a standard QWERTY keyboard, you'll find the 'caret symbol' right above the no.6 key.
CARAT ( कैरट )
Carat वज़न की एक इकाई है जिसका उपयोग कीमती रत्नों का वर्णन करने के लिए किया जाता है, जैसे कि मोती, हीरा व अन्य।
Don't confuse CARATS with KARATS as both are used to measure completely different things. We'll learn their difference in a while. Let's focus on carat first.
एक कैरेट 200 मिलीग्राम के बराबर है, जो 0.2 ग्राम के समान है।
One carat का हिन्दी में अर्थ है 'एक रत्ती'।
Mostly, carat is used to measure diamonds and pearls.
More carats = more precious.
KARAT ( कैरट )
It's a unit for measuring the fineness of gold.
KARAT is different from CARAT because the former is a purity measure while the latter is a mass/weight measure.
आपने 24-karat gold के बारे में सुना होगा की यह सोने का सबसे pure form है। आपको जान कर हैरानी होगी कि सोना अपनी purest form में इतना soft metal होता है कि उससे jewellery बनाना possible नहीं है।
A 24-karat gold has only 18 parts of pure gold and rest is some other metal mixed with gold to give it enough strength to make objects out of it.
KARAT or CARAT
Earlier, gold was measured (by weight) in carats only. But with time, purity of gold became the important factor to measure gold which was a whole different idea from the mass.
To mark this difference, the 'C' from Carat was replaced by 'K' and the two became different measuring units.
CARAT = Weight measure
KARAT = Purity measure
I hope you won't confuse these homophones from now on.
Don't forget to read other blogs on confusing homophones: 'Right Vs. Rite' 'Effluent Vs. Affluent'
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