Oh God. Why am I so confused? I just read a list of words that actually sound similar,
but mean something else and It's so confusing. It's driving me nuts. Why is English such
a confusing language?
Hello, hello. My name is Rima and welcome to today's lesson. Now today's lesson is going
to confuse you a little bit, but don't worry I'm here and I'm gonna sort out all your confusion.
So there's lot of words out there, which sound similar but mean different things and they
can absolutely drive you crazy. But don't go crazy just yet coz there is a solution.
I'm gonna take you through them and I'm gonna explain the different meanings to you. So
that you can use them and use them well.
So the first one on my list is, Any way and the other one is Anyway. What's the difference?
Well the difference is the space in the middle. The first one is two words, which means Any
way and the next one is Anyway as one word. Now what's the difference in the meaning?
Anyway as two words means in any manner possible as in do anything, make it happen in any way.
And the next one actually means in Any case. So I'm gonna use it, so that the usage becomes
very simple and clear to you. So I could say something like,"Make sure you're there on
time in anyway". Which means use all methods possible but get there on time. Whereas anyway
as one word can be used as, "Anyway I don't plan to share my personal opinion with you
anymore", which means in any case I do not wish to share my personal opinion with you.
So that's the simple difference between Any way as two words and Anyway as one word. The
first one means Any way as in Any manner and the second one means anyway which means in
any case.
So moving on I have the next one. Now this can get really confusing Born and then Borne
with an "E". Which is the difference in the spelling. So born actually means to come into
this world, to be born. So when a baby is born, you can say something like, "My sister
just had a baby girl or a baby girl was born in my sister’s house". "A baby girl was
born to my sister", but if you had to use it differently as in If you had to use Born
you could say something like, "My sister has borne the one with the E. "My sister has borne
baby girl," so see the difference? "My sister has borne a baby girl and a baby girl was
born to my sister".Both the sentences mean the same, but the words are used differently,
so born means to be born or come into the world. And borne means to bear a child. So
this can get really confusing, but I hope that my usage has made it very clear to you
as to how these words can be used.
Moving on Censor and Censure. Now Censor means to delete or monitor. And Censure means
to criticize or offer any kind of unfavorable negative opinion, so the way I will use these
two words in a sentence would be, "I have decided to censor the document".Which means
I have decided to omit and delete certain parts of the document. And the word Censure
can be used as "I am tired of the censure that I am facing because of the media." Which
means I am tired of the negative and unfavorable opinions and comments by the media. So these
two words though they are very, very similar in the way they sound. They definitely spell
differently. One is Sor and the other one is Sure and they definitely mean differently,
coz censor means to delete or monitor, so which means you could check or monitor a document,
a film, a book a piece of information or censure, which means to criticize or offer an unfavorable
comment or opinion.
Now the next one on my list this one slightly familiar to most of us and we actually end
up interchanging these two words, coz they are so close. So Confident the one with an
"E" and Confidant the one with an "A". Now this one actually means someone, who has confidence
or is self-assured. Basically somebody who really believes in themselves is someone,
who we describe as confident. But who is a confidant? Now remember those days, when you're
feeling really low or confused or have this particularly spicy piece of news that you
haven't told anybody. Well, who you're gonna go to is your confidant. Somebody who you
confide in, which means somebody you trust and somebody with whom you share certain information
that you may not share with anybody else, so If I had to use confident in a sentence,
I would say, "She is a confident, young woman". Which means she's a young woman who's full
of self-assurance, who believes in herself and carries a lot of confidence about herself.
And I could say something like , "Remember Jack on the first floor? He is my confidant.
I actually share a lot of exclusive information about work only with him". Which means somebody
whom you trust, so in this case Jack is a person I trust. Someone whom I share exclusive
confidential information with, so that's the difference between confident and confidant.
Remember and listen to the pronunciation, It's confident and confidant and the spelling
to one with an "E" and the other one with an "A".
The next one Biannual, Biennial. How confusing is that? But actually it’s fairly simple,
so Biannual actually means occurring twice a year as in happening two times a year and
Biennial means once in two years. So I could say something like, "The company releases
a biannual progress report", which means the company releases a report every six months
that is twice a year to mark its progress. And If I had to use Biennial in a sentence,
it would be like ,"So the football cup happens biennially or the football cup is a biennial
event", which means the football cup happens once in two years or once every two years.
So that's the basic difference between biannual and biennial. One means it occurs twice a
year and the other one, which means it occurs once in two years.
And the next one on my list is Allusion and Illusion. They both sound very illusive and
what do they mean? So Allusion means to make a reference to something and illusion means
to see something or imagine that, which is not real. So Allusion could be making a indirect
reference to something. Indirect reference could be like, "So it was very awkward at
the dinner table, when Jack made an allusion to Sally's baby weight". Now that is something
you don't want to do as a guy. Never make direct or indirect references to a lady's
weight that's what Jack did; he made an Allusion to Sally's baby weight. Which means he made
a indirect reference to her baby weight. And moving on Illusion now this one means see
or imagine something that's not real. Something that's you know, something which is slightly
deceiving, something that you only can imagine, but it’s not a part of reality. So you could
say something like, "The illusion that was created by the magician, It took my breath
away". Which means when the magician created an image that was not real. It took my breath
away or it surprised me. So that's what the difference between Allusion and Illusion is.
And the next one is, Bath, Bathe. Now bath something we do every day to wash your body
and bathe is actually similar, but it means to apply water to a particular body part,
so I could say something like, "Please take care if the doorbell rings, because I'm going
for a bath". And I could say something like, "You know what my toes are hurting. I am going
to bathe them with hot water". Now the first one means that I'm gonna have a full bath,
whereas the second one means that my toes are hurting and I'm just going to apply some
hot water for comfort. So when you're applying hot water or any kind of water for that matter
to a body part. It means you're bathing the body part and when you're washing your entire
body. It's called having a bath. So that's the difference between bath and bathe.
And that brings me to the end of my list. The last one on my list is Canvas and Canvass.
And how close are these two, coz there's the difference of just one S. Now canvas is actually
a type of cloth. And canvass with a double S actually means to solicit or ask for, so
the first one can be used in a sentence, when I say, I have decided to wear canvas shoes
and carry a canvas bag. Of course I would look very silly, but that's just to explain
to you, How can canvas can be used in a sentence. Also some painters they actually like to paint
on a canvas, so it’s like this board which is covered with canvas paper or canvas cloth
on which the painter paints. So that is also the usage for canvas. But If I have to use
canvass with a double S. I would say something like, "The next time you come here canvassing
for support. Make sure your polite to me". What a threat. Well it means the next time
you're coming here to ask for our support or to solicit our support make sure you're
polite. So canvass with a double S. It means to solicit or ask for. In some cases probably
cooks the other person. So these are the three meanings of canvass with a double S.
So that brings me to the end of today's lesson and today we looked at a lot of words, which
kind of sounded similar but meant different things. Now this can get very tricky, If you
have to use it. So make sure you keep practicing and that's gonna take you places. Well if
you want to watch a lot more videos related to interesting English lessons. Make sure
you subscribe to our channel. If you have something to say to me type in the comment
box below. This is me Rima signing out. Take care keep practicing your English and I'm
gonna see you very soon with the next lesson.