Apart Of A Part

Most people know of common sets of confusing words: 'Affect' and 'effect', 'there' 'their' and 'they're', 'to' 'too' and 'two', 'Mary' 'merry' and 'marry'.  But there is one pair that I never hear mentioned and see regularly misused: 'apart' and 'a part'.

What makes 'apart' and 'a part' so troubling is that there is no spelling difference between the two; the only difference is a space.  And what makes it even worse is that they basically mean their opposite.

To be a part of something means to be within a group, a piece of the whole.  To be apart of something means to be separated from it.

For those who care why this is the case, it's because a- is a prefix meaning without (like in asexual), but 'a' is a word indicating a singular thing.  Although the words appear to be very similar, the constructs that make them have nothing to do with each other.

With any luck, if you were unaware of this issue, you now are.  And the next time you want to use one of those words, you will know to use the correct version.