“The difficult project really tested his metal.”
Confusables Entry 250 / 1605 60-second read
Mettle vs. Metal
Strength of character versus a chemical element.
The comparisoni
“The difficult project really tested his mettle.”
The ruleii
¶
METTLE = a person's ability to cope with difficulties.
Homophones. 'Testing one's mettle' is a common idiom often misspelled by those thinking of 'hard' metal.
Memory aidiii
Remember it like this
Mettle has 'tle' like 'Gentle' (describing a person).