50 PAIRS OF COMMONLY CONFUSED WORDS - LEARNING OBJECTIVES, SEASONALITY, & AGE RANGE FAQs

WHAT ARE THE LEARNING OBJECTIVES & OUTCOMES OF THIS RESOURCE?

This resource is mainly designed as a checklist for you and your tween. Its main objective is to ensure that your tween knows that the pairs of words on the list are often confused or to alert them to the fact that these words can be confused (if there are any words in the pairs that are new to them).

The other objective is for tweens to spend time with these pairs of words and to focus on the ways in which each pair is similar and different – whether this is because of how the words sound, how the words are spelt, other slight differences between them, or a combination of some, or all, of the previous similarities and differences.

By making sure that your tween is aware of the differences in meaning, spelling and usage of all 100 words included in this resource, the accuracy of their written work will increase considerably.

IS THIS AN EVERGREEN OR SEASONAL RESOURCE?

This resource is an evergreen resource and is designed to be of use to you throughout the year in relation to a wide range of tasks.

CAN YOU PROVIDE FURTHER GUIDANCE REGARDING AGE RANGE & SUITABILITY?

The years and ages listed above are intended as recommendations only; please feel free to use this resource in any educational context that suits your needs.

50 PAIRS OF COMMONLY CONFUSED WORDS - USING THIS RESOURCE FAQs

CAN THE WORDS PAIRS BE ORGANISED INTO DISTINCT GROUPS? IF SO, WHAT ARE THEY?

Yes, the word pairs in this list can be placed into distinct groups.

GROUP A: Near Homophones

This is the largest group in this resource.

A near homophone is a word that has a distinct sound, but which is close enough to another word to cause confusion and spelling errors.

The following pairs of words are commonly regarded as near homophones.

• access / excess
• addition / edition
• adverse / averse
• advice / advise
• affect / effect
• allusion / illusion
• appraise / apprise
• assure / ensure
• breath / breathe
• climactic / climatic
• compliment / complement
• conscience / conscious
• continual / continuous
• decent / descent
• defuse / diffuse
• device / devise
• elicit / illicit
• eligible / illegible
• emigrate / immigrate
• eminent / imminent
• envelop / envelope
• farther / further
• personal / personnel
• precede / proceed
• principal / principle
• prophecy / prophesy
• stationary / stationery
• than / then
• wander / wonder
• wreath / wreathe

GROUP B: Homophones

There are fewer of these in this resource.

A homophone is one of a group of two or more words that sound the same, but which have different meanings and different spellings.

The following pairs are homophones:

• aisle / isle
• aloud / allowed
• altar / alter
• ascent / assent
• born / borne
• canvas / canvass
• capital / capitol
• cite / site
• council / counsel
• currant / current
• discreet / discrete
• dual / duel
• formally / formerly
• gorilla / guerrilla
• passed / past
• practice / practise

Note: With certain dialects and accents, some of these pairs may not be pure homophones; they might be near homophones or indeed may not be homophones at all. For example, the pair ‘formally / formerly’ may not sound the same if the ‘r’ before the ‘ly’ is pronounced in ‘formerly’.

Similarly, vowel sounds may vary which results in pairs ceasing to be homophonic.

GROUP C: Words confused for Semantic Reasons

This is the smallest group in the resource.

These pairs of words are confused because even though the words in each pair have distinct meanings, there is a point of similarity between them – which is where the confusion comes from

• collaborate / corroborate
• To collaborate is to work with others to produce something
• To corroborate is to use (or work with) evidence to prove something
• disinterested / uninterested
• Disinterested is being impartial or having no personal stake in a matter
• Uninterested is being bored by something or have no interest in something
• imply / infer
• To imply is to suggest (or point to) a second, hidden meaning in something
• To infer is to deduce (or work out) a hidden meaning from something
• lie / lay
• To lie is to rest in the horizontal position and does not need an object, e.g. “I need to lie down”
• To lay is to place flat (in the horizontal position) and needs an object, e.g. “Please lay the book down”

I AM A PARENT: DO YOU HAVE ANY OTHER USAGE SUGGESTIONS FOR ME?

This resource provides you with a pre-selected list of commonly confused near homophones and homophones that you can go through with your tween at your own pace, and in the way that works best for you. You may wish to select words that relate to other tasks you are engaged in, or you may wish to go through the words in alphabetical order.

Given its nature, this resource lends itself well to dictionary work and subsequent discussions about similarities and differences in meaning and usage.

As you and your tween go through this list, you may also wish to create sub-lists based on patterns. For example:

Words with one letter difference: Adding a letter:

• adverse / averse
• appraise / apprise
• born / borne
• climactic / climatic
• wreath / wreathe

Words with one letter difference: Changing a letter

• altar / alter
• affect/ effect
• allusion / illusion
• advice / advise
• practice / practise

Alternatively, you might want to devise mnemonics for some – or all! – of the word pairs. For example,

- Stationery includes pens and pencils (‘stationery’, ‘pens’ and ‘pencils’ all contain the letter ‘e’)

- You are saying something nice about someone when you give them a compliment (both ‘nice’ and ‘compliment’ contain the letter ‘i’)

- When you emigrate, you exit your homeland (both ‘emigrate’ and ‘exit’ start with the letter ‘e’)

- If you ‘prophesy’ you are saying what will happen (both ‘prophesy’ and ‘say’ contain the letter ‘s’)

DOES THIS RESOURCE SUPPORT GCSE PREPARATION? AND IF SO, HOW?

In Years 7, 8, and 9, students are laying the foundations for their GCSEs, whether this is for the mandatory English Language or for the English Literature papers as well. In either case, a wide, sophisticated vocabulary is central.

This resource helps students towards a stronger vocabulary in two ways.

On the one hand, the ability to use these words correctly and confidently will contribute to the overall quality of your tween’s written work. For instance, commenting that

‘a notable feature of twentieth-century warfare was that carried out by guerrillas’

is far more assured than commenting that

‘a notable feature of twentieth-century warfare was that carried out by small independent groups of people fighting against larger forces’

On the other hand, some of these words such as ‘allusion’, ‘imply’, ‘disinterested’, and ‘discrete’ can be an obstacle to comprehension.

Naturally, if the student knows the words, there is no obstacle.

However, if the student does not, then even if students can’t remember the exact definitions, a prior encounter with the words increases students’ chances of inferring the meanings from the context.

HOW DO I USE THIS RESOURCE IN ITS PRINTED FORMAT?

You may wish to print the list and keep it on the desk as a word mat during writing sessions as a quick reference tool so that your tween can remind themselves of the other near homophone (or homophone) of the pair or to check how individual words are spelt.

The list works equally well as a wall display in a classroom or home study space.

In addition, you may find it helpful to keep a copy of this list in a vocabulary folder (if you have one).

HOW DO I USE THIS RESOURCE IN ITS DIGITAL LEARNING FORMAT?

There are several ways for you to use this PDF on a screen.

If your tween or student works on a computer, laptop, or tablet, they can keep the PDF open on one half of the screen as a permanent, digital word bank they can glance at when they need to refer to it.

Save the PDF to a tablet or an iPad. Using any basic PDF reader, your tween or student can highlight words they want to draw on in their work or pairs that they find most challenging.

Note: Given the vibrant nature of the full-colour version of this resource, it works particularly well in its digital format.