Notorious Confusables
Terms
undefined, object
copy deck
- You're/your
- You're doing your own homework, I hope.
- effect/affect
- What effect does this have on you? How does it affect you?
- They're/their/there
- They're driving their new car over there this afternoon.
- allude/elude
- She would often allude to her childhood, when she would elude her brothers in a game of hide-and-seek.
- loath/loathe
- I am loath to associate with people who loathe me.
- aide/aid/AIDS
- The teacher's aide more than once came to the aid of her supervisor. [AIDS, the acronym for Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome, is spelled in all caps.]
- lightning/lightening
- The lightning striking all around them, the sailors proceeded in their task of lightening the cargo
- a lot/allot
- We need a lot (two words!) of money. She will allot funds according to need.
- perimeter/parameters
- The two lawyers walked around the perimeter of the estate as they discussed the parameters of the case.
- averse/adverse
- I am averse to traveling in such adverse weather conditions.
- inflicted/afflicted
- The tyrant inflicted great hardship on the people. They felt afflicted with his harsh regime.
- ensure/insure
- We would like to ensure good weather for our company picnic, but our insurance company won't insure good weather with an inexpensive policy.
- lies/lay/lain
- She lies down, lay down, has lain down, is lying down
- assent/ascent
- When they got the assent of the weather bureau, they allowed the enormous balloon to begin its ascent.
- principal/principles
- The high school principal said today that the principal problem with today's youth is their lack of moral principles
- advice/advise
- I need your advice. Please advise me on this.
- stationery/stationary
- The stationery department, where they sell envelopes and writing paper, is in a stationary place.
- adolescents/adolescence
- The trouble with many adolescents is that they never seem to grow out of adolescence.
- lays/laid/laying
- She lays it down, laid it down, has laid it down, is laying it down. (The verb to lay takes an object; to lie doesn't.)
- a while/awhile
- I'll be back in a while. Can you wait awhile? (Awhile [one word] is an adverb that can modify a verb.)
- personal/personnel
- The personnel office had a great deal of personal information in its files.
- adjured/abjure
- The minister adjured his wayward congregation to abjure the sins of the flesh.
- than/then
- I'm taller than my father. Let's eat first; then we'll go to the movies.
- capitol/capital
- We went over to the capitol to see the legislators. The capital of Connecticut is Hartford. The state is running out of capital.
- immigrated/emigrate
- They have immigrated to this city from all over eastern Europe; later on, they may decide to emigrate elsewhere.
- accept/except
- 3. I would accept your excuse, except the part about losing the watch.
- purposefully/purposely
- The troops moved purposefully toward their doom, relying on the false information their leaders had purposely given them.
- conscious/conscience
- She didn't seem conscious of the fact that her husband has no conscience.
- quiet/quite/quit
- We'll have to be quite quiet. Quit making noise!
- eminent/imminent
- They were afraid that this eminent figure in world politics was in imminent danger of being killed
- threw/through/thorough
- He threw a baseball right through the neighbor's front window. The neighbor made a thorough report to the police.
- illicit/elicit
- How did the politicians plan to elicit these obviously illicit campaign funds without getting caught?
- incidence/incidents
- The incidence of incidents involving racist slurs has become intolerable.
- amoral/immoral
- Sometimes it seems more shocking to be amoral than to be immoral .
- oral/aural/verbal
- He made an oral commitment to speak on the biological, aural aspects of listening. He has extraordinary verbal skills.
- chose/choose
-
I chose the red balloon. Now you choose a balloon of another color.
- Its/it's
- What is its color? It's green. It's been a long, long time.
- access/excess
- The number of students who wanted access to the computer labs was in excess of two hundred.
- complimented/complemented
- She complimented her sister on the way her scarf complemented her blouse.
- discreet/discrete
- They kept their love affair discreet by living discrete lives
- farther/further
- I can run farther than you, but let's discuss that further after the race.
- explicit/implicit
- The document now makes explicit what had been only implicit in the shifty eyes of the negotiator.
- especially/specially
- He especially likes coffee ice-cream. Every week, his wife buys some specially for him.
- illusion/allusion
- In preparing for his most spectacular illusion, the magician made an allusion to the magic of Houdini.