ALIBI and EXCUSE Alibi (noun) means “in or at another place.” Alibi is usually used in legal contexts (legal situations, such as trials). It is used both as an adverb and as a noun meaning “a plea of having been elsewhere.” An alibi is an excuse that is used especially to avoid blame. For example: The man who was on trial could not have committed the crime because he had an air-tight (perfect/un-questionable) alibi, he was in a different city at the time of the crime, and there are 10 people who will say (testify) that he was there at that time. Excuse An excuse (noun) is an explanation that is offered as a reason for being excused after doing or saying something wrong. It's also a reason why one might be forgiven for making a mistake or as a good reason for not being able to do something that you should have done or promised to do. - His excuse for being late was accepted. - He said he was sorry for forgetting her birthday becuase he had too much on his mind at that time, but she did not accept his excuse. - He uses his poor health as an excuse for not paying attention to all his responsibilities. Summary: Alibi - legal term meaning "was not there at that time" Excuse - a reason for failing to do or say something.

ALBEIT AND ALTHOUGH You will sometimes see the word albeit used in formal English. In old English (500 years ago) 'al be it' meant: that is, although it be (something). Albeit means - although; even if; even though. Albeit can come before an adjective, adverb, or adverbial phrase. - His house was expensive, albeit small. - He visited, albeit briefly. - He visited, albeit especially briefly. Albeit would not be used if the part following "albeit" were a clause. For example: He visited, albeit his visit was brief. [Wrong because of the clause "his visit was brief"] [Remember a clause has a subject and a verb] In this case we would use a different conjunction such as 'even though' or 'although'. He visited even though/although his visit was brief. In the sentence below, . Jayne participated in the charity walk, albeit rather reluctantly. [rather reluctantly is an adverbial phrase] [‘albeit rather reluctantly’ means ‘even though she did so rather reluctantly’] To use 'even though' or 'although' the sentence would have to contain a clause following the conjunction: - His house was expensive, even though it was small. - He visited, although his visit was brief. - He visited, even if it was especially brief. - Jayne participated in the charity walk, even though/although she participated rather reluctantly. The following website allows you to find sentences that use the word that you type in the website's Web Concordancer (click keyword "contains" and type the word you want to see used in a sentence). This is a valuable tool for seeing examples of words that have been used in well-written sentences: http://vlc.polyu.edu.hk/