Commonly Confused Words

accept, except, and expect

adapt and adopt

adverse and averse

advice and advise

affect and effect

aggravate and irritate

all ready and already

all together and altogether

allude and elude

allusion and illusion

allusive and elusive

a lot (much, many)

altar and alter

ambiguous and ambivalent

amoral and immoral

amount and number

amuse and bemuse

anxious and eager

anyone and any one

appraise and apprise

are and our

assure, ensure, and insure

 

baited and bated

beside and besides

breath and breathe

 

capital and capitol

censor and censure

choose, chose, and chosen

chord and cord

cite and site

click and clique

climactic and climatic

clothes and cloths

collaborate and cooperate

complement and compliment

conscience and conscious

continual and continuous

council and counsel

 

days and daze

dazed and dazzled

defective and deficient

deprecate and depreciate

desert and dessert

device and devise

discreet and discrete

disinterested and uninterested

distinct and distinctive

dual and duel

 

economic and economical

eminent and imminent

envelop and envelope

epigram, epigraph, and epitaph

eventually and ultimately

every day and everyday

explicit and implicit

 

farther and further

few (fewer) and little (less)

flaunt and flout

flounder and founder

foreword and forward

formally and formerly

fortunate and fortuitous

full and fulsome

 

gourmand and gourmet

grisly and grizzly

hanged and hung

hardy and hearty

historic and historical

hoard and horde

home and hone

hoping and hopping

 

imply and infer

in and into

incredible and incredulous

ingenious and ingenuous

intense and intent

its and it's

 

last and latter

later and latter

lay and lie

lead and led

leave and let

lend and loan

lessen and lesson

liable and libel

lightening and lightning

literally and figuratively

loath and loathe

loose and lose

 

many and much

marital and martial

maybe and may be

media and medium

militate and mitigate

miner and minor

moot and mute

noisome and noisy

 

official and officious

obsolescent and obsolete

 

pair, pare, and pear

passed and past

peace and piece

perquisite and prerequisite

persecute and prosecute

personal and personnel

perspective and prospective

perverse and perverted

pore and pour

precede and proceed

premier and premiere

prescribe and proscribe

principal and principle

 

quell and quench

quiet, quit, and quite

quotation and quote

 

rack and wrack

rain, reign, and rein

raise and rise

rational and rationale

ravage and ravish

recourse and resource

regretful and regrettable

respectively and respectfully

review and revue

riffle and rifle

role and roll

stationary and stationery

statue and statute

sensual and sensuous

serve and service

set and sit

shall and will

shear and sheer

should and would

simple and simplistic

sometime, some time, and sometimes

 

tail and tale

temerity and timidity

than and then

their, there, and they're

to and too

troop and troupe

 

vain, vane, and vein

vary and very

veracious and voracious

 

waist and waste

were, we're, and where

which and who

who and whom

whoever and whomever

whose and who's

 

young and youthful

your and you're

V. Homophone List

affect - effect aisle - isle allowed - aloud ate - eight ball - bawl bear- bare base - bass billed- build blew - blue board - bored break - brake buy - by - bye capital– capitol cell – sell cent - scent - sent chance - chants chews - choose close - clothes coarse - course creak – creek days – daze dear – deer dew - do- due facts - fax fair - fare fairy - ferry find - fined flour - flower for - four foreword – forward gene - jean grease - Greece groan - grown hair - hare hay - hey heal - heel hear - here hi - high hoarse - horse hole - whole hour - our knight - night knot - naught - not know - no

leased - least loan - lone made - maid mail - male marry - merry meat - meet mince - mints missed - mist morning - mourning none - nun one - won pail - pale pear - pair patience - patients piece - peace plain - plane practice - practise   rain - reign read - red right - write road - rode rose - rows sail - sale scene – seen sea - see sew - so sole - soul son - sun stair - stare steal - steel suite - sweet   their - there threw - through to - too - two   vary - very waist - waste wait - weight war - wore where – wear weak - week weather - whether which - witch wood - would

 

 

VI. Prefixes are often used to give adjectives a negative or an opposite meaning, e.g. comfortable/uncomfortable, convenient/inconvenient and similar/dissimilar are opposites. Other examples are 'unjust', 'inedible', 'disloyal'. Unfortunately, there is no easy way of knowing which prefix any adjective will use to form its opposite.

• in- becomes im- before a root beginning with 'm' or 'p', e.g. immature, impatient, impartial, improbable. Similarly in- becomes ir- before a word beginning with -r, and il- before a word beginning with '1', e.g. irreplaceable, irreversible, illegal, illegible, illiterate.

• The prefix in- (and its variations) does not always have a negative meaning - often it gives the idea of inside or into, e.g. internal, import, insert, income.

The prefixes un- and dis- can also form the opposites of verbs, e.g. tie/untie, appear/disappear. These prefixes are used to reverse the action of the verb. Here are some more examples: disagree, disapprove, disbelieve, disconnect, discredit, dislike, dismount, disprove, disqualify, unbend, undo, undress, unfold, unload, unlock, unveil, unwrap, unzip.

Here are examples of prefixes in English. Some of these words are used with a hyphen.

 

prefix	meaning	examples
anti	against	anti-war	antisocial
auto	of or by oneself	autobiography	auto-pilot
bi	two, twice	bicycle	bilingual
ex	former	ex-wife	ex-smoker
ex	out of	extract	excommunicate
micro	small	microwave microscopic
mis	badly/wronglyy	mistranslate misinform
mono	one/single	monotonous monologue
multi	many	multi-purpose multi-media
over	too much	overdo	oversleep overeat
post	after	postwar	post-impressionist
pre	before	preconceived pre-war
pro	in favour of	pro-government pro-revolutionary
pseudo	false	pseudo-scientific	pseudo-intellectual
re	again or back	retype	replace rewind
semi	half	semicircular semi-detached
sub	under	subdivision	submarine
under	not enough	underworked undercooked