Segue / Segway

Certain sets of words in the English language tend to confuse people. I have found the following to be among them:

SEGUE / SEGWAY

You may think this is silly, but I really have come across this error in written material: the use of Segway (without the capital S) to mean segue. This particular error will likely be limited to this century since the Segway, a two-wheeled, self-balancing scooter produced by Segway Inc., was not revealed to the public until 2001 and will probably be gone from the personal-transporter scene long before 2100 arrives.

Just to be clear, Segway is a brand name for this particular type of personal transporter and therefore considered to be a proper (thus capitalized) noun. The verb segue, on the other hand, means make a transition without pause or interruption, and the noun segue refers to such a transition.

INCORRECT: I love the way the author makes one scene segway into another so that the story just keeps moving along. 

CORRECT: I love the way the author makes one scene segue into another so that the story just keeps moving along.

INCORRECT: I really enjoyed the segue tour we took of historic St. Augustine.

CORRECT: I really enjoyed the Segway tour we took of historic St. Augustine.

© 2020 Ann Henry, all rights reserved.

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