pour, pore and poor
To pour means to tip a liquid out a container.
To pore means to examine closely. A pore is small opening in the skin.
Poor usually means impoverished or inadequate.
To pore means to examine closely. A pore is small opening in the skin.
Poor usually means impoverished or inadequate.
The words pour, pore, and poor sound similar, but their meanings are very different.
Pour
The verb to pour means to transfer a liquid from a container (usually by tipping).Examples:
- Shall I pour
the gravy?
- Pour the
molten steel onto a rotating drum that is cooled by water.
Pore
The word pore has two unrelated meanings:To examine closely.
- He pored through the documents for hours looking for a loop hole.
- I need to pore over these files before tomorrow.
In this meaning, pore is a verb. Note: You can pore over something or pore through something.
- The dust clogs your pores.
- The sweat was leaking out of my pores.
In this meaning, pore is a noun.
Poor
The adjective poor means impoverished (i.e., having little money or few possessions), or low quality (e.g., poor crop) or unfortunate (e.g., That poor cat).Examples:
- As poor as a church mouse.
- I am feeling quite poor this month.
- Religion keeps the poor man from murdering the
rich.
- Poor show.
- Will you take that poor animal to the vets?
A Quick Test
POUR OUT SOUP
The word poor does not usually cause grammar mistakes; however, there is often confusion over pour and pore.If you remember that pour out soup contains three sets of the letters ou, it will help you remember the meaning of pour, which only has one meaning. Therefore, everything else must be pore.
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