{"id":2439,"date":"2021-07-14T15:03:08","date_gmt":"2021-07-14T14:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.englishforums.com\/blog\/?p=2439"},"modified":"2021-07-14T15:03:08","modified_gmt":"2021-07-14T14:03:08","slug":"45-confusing-pairs-in-english-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/blog\/45-confusing-pairs-in-english-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"45 CONFUSING PAIRS IN ENGLISH -part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In our learning English journey we sometimes face the dilemma of which word to use. Was the guy fun or was he funny? Is it they\u2019re house or their house? There are many words in English that tend to be mistaken for something else. Let\u2019s take a look at some of the pairs that trouble us the most.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>fun vs. funny<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Apart from being a noun, \u2019fun\u2019 is also used as an adjective in informal language, meaning \u2019enjoyable, entertaining\u2019 (a fun activity). On the other hand, if something is \u2019funny\u2019 it is amusing and makes us laugh. (a funny show)<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>elect vs. select<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Elect means \u2019choose by voting\u2019 while \u2019select\u2019 is a more general word meaning \u2019choose\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>every day vs. everyday<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Every day (noun+adjective) is self-explanatory (She works every day.) while \u2019everyday\u2019 is an adjective that needs a noun (everyday chores)<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>open vs. opened<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2019Open\u2019 means \u2019not closed\u2019 while \u2019opened\u2019 is the past form of the verb \u2019open. (The shop is open. \/ She opened the shop.)<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>person vs. people<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When we need to use the plural form of \u2019person\u2019 we will use \u2019people\u2019 because \u2019persons\u2019 is a very formal word used in the context of law.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>ill vs. sick<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While both words mean the same, \u2019sick\u2019 is less formal and refers to a short-termed disease, while \u2019ill\u2019 is usually used for long-termed or more serious diseases. In British English, \u2019sick\u2019 also means \u2019to vomit\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>quiet vs. quite<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Quiet means \u2019silent\u2019 while \u2019quite\u2019 means \u2019a little, but not entirely\u2019 (quite good).<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>percent vs. percentage<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Percent is always used with a number, while percentage is a more general \u00a0 word that isn\u2019t used with numbers.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>childlike vs. childish<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2019Childlike\u2019 is a positive adjective that refers to virtues typical of children (\u2019childlike spirit\u2019) while \u2019childish\u2019 is negative and refers to being immature.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>\u00a0altogether vs. all together<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2019Altogether\u2019 means \u2019completely\u2019 while \u2019all together\u2019 means \u2019everyone\/everything together\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>\u00a0rob vs. steal<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While both of the words mean the same, \u2019rob\u2019 refers to the person or place from which something was taken (The bank was robbed.) while \u2019steal\u2019 refers to the thing that was taken (The jewelry was stolen.) For houses we use the verb \u2019burgle\u2019(The house was burgled.)<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>\u00a0affect vs.effect\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2019Affect\u2019 is a verb meaning \u2019influence\u2019, while \u2019effect\u2019 is a noun that means \u2019the result of an influence\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>breathe vs. breath<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pronounced differently, \u2019breathe\u2019 \u00a0\/bri\u02d0\u00f0\/ is a verb, while \u2019breath\u2019 \/bre\u03b8\/ is a noun.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>\u00a0they\u2019re vs. their<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this pair that often gets mixed up in writing,\u2019they\u2019re\u2019 means \u2019they are\u2019, while \u2019their\u2019 implies that \u2019something belongs to them\u2019.A tip here is to remember that an apostrophe means a letter is missing \u2013 they\u2019re=they are.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>\u00a0grateful vs. thankful<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2019Grateful\u2019 is used to show appreciation for someone\u2019s kindness and is often used in emails and thank-you cards while \u2019thankful\u2019 shows relief because something bad didn\u2019t happen.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>emigrate vs. immigrate<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When a person \u2019emigrates\u2019 to another country it emphasizes they have left their own country (He emigrated from Russia.), while \u2019immigrate\u2019 is used with the country a person has moved to. (He immigrated to Canada.)<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stay tuned for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.englishforums.com\/blog\/45-confusing-pairs-in-english-part-2\/\" rel=\"dofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">part 2<\/a> of the word pairs that confuse us the most! <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In our learning English journey we sometimes face the dilemma of which word to use. Was the guy fun or was he funny? Is it &#8230; <a title=\"45 CONFUSING PAIRS IN ENGLISH -part 1\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/blog\/45-confusing-pairs-in-english-part-1\/\" aria-label=\"More on 45 CONFUSING PAIRS IN ENGLISH -part 1\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2441,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_generate-full-width-content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[292,304],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2439"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}