Hello everyone and welcome back to English with Lucy. I am very, very excited about today's
video, because you helped me create it. I asked my Instagram followers to tell me some
of the most difficult pairs of English words, words that my students genuinely find tough
to remember, or to say, or to differentiate between. Words like effect and affect, either
and neither, or is it either and neither? We will talk about that.
What about except and accept, or loose and lose? Should you use assure, ensure, or insure?
What do they mean? How do we use them? We will go through all of these and many, many
more. I have 10 sets of confusing English words, and you will leave the lesson feeling
Right. Let's get started with the confusing English words. I'm going to present to you
10 pairs, or in some cases, trios of words that are generally found to be very, very
confusing. They are confusing to English learners and native speakers alike. I know that I make
mistakes with these words quite frequently.
To help you out even further, to help you learn and memorise all of these little nuances,
I have created a PDF worksheet. It's got all of the information from today's lesson, plus
some extra activities that I think you'll really like. All you have to do to claim this
free PDF is to sign up to my mailing list and it will be sent directly to your inbox.
The link to do that is also in the description box.
So the first one we have, effect and affect. The pronunciation is so similar. With the
first one, beginning with E, I say effect, effect. It's slightly more of an E sound at
the beginning. With the word beginning with A, I use the schwa, affect, affect.
Please note, I am teaching modern received pronunciation here. Of course, there are lots
of variations. But in general, in the UK, I hear people using the schwa A sound for
both affect, effect, affect, effect, the same. I will say affect and effect to emphasise
which word I'm referring to. Both of these words can take the form of both a noun and
a verb.
Affect is most commonly a verb and effect is most commonly a noun. Usually, something
affects something to produce an effect. So to affect, to affect, is to influence something
or somebody. For example, do video games affect children's behaviour? Effect, the noun version,
is a result or an influence. Do video games have an effect on children's behaviour?
Now, effect can be used as a verb, to effect. However, this is quite rare, but it's not
unheard of. It means to achieve or to produce. For example, we hope to effect a change in
policy. Affect can be used as a noun, but this is incredibly rare and it's used in very
specific situations, normally in psychology or psychiatry. And in this case, it means
an emotional response, but I don't really see the value in going into detail in that.
Now, how can you remember which is which? I have a little memory tip, affect comes first,
alphabetically, with A. And an action, affect has to happen first in order to produce an
effect. I don't know if that's made it easier or more complicated, but it made sense in
my head. Okay.
Now we have one with which I really struggle, a pair that I really struggle with. It is
bring and take. They don't sound similar, but my mother always used these interchangeably
when I was growing up. And it's only since I've been with my fiance, William, that I've
realised how often I use these words incorrectly. I will say, if you use these incorrectly,
it's highly likely that we understand what you mean.
Obviously the most important thing is communication, but here we're getting down to the nitty-gritty.
We're looking deep into these words. So bring movement towards somebody. So it depends on
point of view. Normally it's towards the speaker. Now, take implies movement away from someone
or something. Again, it totally depends on whose point of view we're looking at.
Let's have a look at two dialogues. Both of these dialogues are from Tom's point of view.
We have Tom, we have Jane, we are seeing things from Tom's point of view. Tom and Jane are
in the living room. Tom asks, Jane, "Are you going to the kitchen?" And Jane replies with,
"Yes." Tom responds with, "Can you bring me my phone charger?" So Jane will return from
the kitchen with Tom's charger and give the charger to Tom.
Another dialogue, again from Tom's point of view. Tom asks, Jane, "Are you coming over
for dinner tonight?" And Jane responds with, "Yes." Jane doesn't talk much, does she? Tom
then responds with, "Please, could you bring a dessert?" So Jane will carry a dessert from
where she is to where Thomas is, in his house.
So Tom and Jane are at home together. Tom says, "Please could you take this letter to
the post office?" So the letter is moving away from where they are. It's a different
place. Jane, who seems to be very, very nice, very submissive says, "Would you like me to
take you to the station tomorrow?" So she will be carrying Tom from the house to the
station.
Now, I don't know why, with English as my mother tongue, I still find this concept so
difficult to use correctly in my daily life. And that's just a clear example of how frustrating
English can be sometimes. It's my mother tongue, and I still struggle with it, so please don't
beat yourself up if you find some of these concepts quite hard. The most important thing
is communication here.
I might accidentally ask Will, "Oh, can you bring me to the station," instead of, "can
you take me to the station?" And he always rolls his eyes and says, "Take." Oh, it's
so annoying. The same thing happens with lefts and rights. I really struggle with lefts and
rights. I just, my brain doesn't do it. And that's the same with bring and take.
Right. Let's move on to these two words, either, or either, and neither or neither. Now, I
really frequently receive questions about the pronunciation of these words, because
I use the pronunciations interchangeably. How confusing is that? But seriously, there
are just some words in the English language that have two or more accepted pronunciations
and people tend to use both pronunciations.
Now in general, in American English, they tend to use, as far as I'm aware, either and
neither. It seems that in British English, we're more inclined to use both either, either,
neither, neither. My recommendation to you is just pick the one you like best. I can
imagine myself at dinner saying, "Oh, carrots or peas, either is fine." But I can also imagine
myself saying, "Either one will do." Isn't that weird?
I bet there is a study on these words and why we do that, and I need to find it. Now
either, or either, means one or the other of two things or people. Anyone will do, it
does not matter which. Neither, or neither, means not one nor the other of two people
or things. Let me show you an example.
Let's pretend I am in my classroom, teaching my class of students and I ask the classroom
for a synonym for happy. So I want the class to give me another word that also means happy.
Now, Miguel might tell me, "Content." And Rania might tell me, "Cheerful." Both of these
answers are correct, so I can use either word.
See, naturally I went to either there. I can use either word. I can use either word. There
must be some logic to that. Now, Aga says, "Sad." And Nguyen says, "Down." Both of these
answers are wrong. Neither answer is correct.
Okay. Number four, we have advise and advice. So, I-S-E is a, zzz sound at the end, eyes,
advise. I-C-E i a sss sound at the end, ice, advice. In this case, ise is the verb, advise,
to advise. And advice, with ice, is the noun. To advise is to tell somebody what you think
they should do in a particular situation.
An example, I would strongly advise against going out alone. Advice is the noun version
of this. It is a suggestion or an opinion on what somebody should do in a particular
situation. His advice was to not go out alone.
Let's move on to number five. It is practise and practise, the pronunciation of both is
the same. Now in British English, the noun is practise, with I-C-E at the end. And the
verb, to practise, has I-S-E at the end, so we have a difference. In American English,
I-C-E is used for both. So a lot of my students always say, "I find American English easier."
And this is one of the reasons why I totally understand, they have simplified, or it's
not even simplified, it's they've just made some things more logical. I can't think of
many situations in which it would be confusing to have the same spelling for practise as
a noun and practise as a verb, but maybe I'm wrong.
So to practise, as a verb, I-S-E in British English, I-C-E in American English, is to
do an activity or to train in order to improve your skill. And practise, always I-C-E, is
the act of doing an activity or training regularly in order to improve your skill. So let's look
at these two sentences, one is British English, the other is American English. They will sound
exactly the same just with different accents.
Oh no, do I have to do my American accent? In British English, I need to practise my
violin as it takes a lot of practise to play well. And American English. I don't know if
I'm going to leave this in the video, we will see how it goes. I'm sure there's an American
out there watching me thinking, "Shut up." I need to practise my violin as it takes a
lot of practise to play well. I sound like Siri.
Oh, that's so much fun. That is so silly. Right. We have still got five more pairs or
trios of confusing words, but I'm going to stop the lesson here. I don't want to overload
you. So next week, we will have the second part of this lesson. Do not forget to download
the PDF for this first section of the lesson and to complete the activities. I think they
forget to connect with me on all of my social media. I've got my Facebook, my Instagram,
and my email list. I've also got to my new British English pronunciation course where
I teach modern received pronunciation. I'm very, very proud of it and we've had some
fabulous feedback from students so far. I will see you soon for another lesson.