The Pitfalls of English Words

As you could read in the last ‘Language Corner’, English is a funny language. It is also full of traps for language learners who are faced with a language where the spelling of words often has little to do with their pronunciation. To illustrate this, George Bernard Shaw, who was very much in favour of a spelling reform, imagined that ‘ghoti’ could be another way of writing the word ‘fish’ = f-i-sh with ‘gh’ for ‘f’ like in enough ‘o’ for ‘i’ like in women ‘ti’ for ‘sh’ like in nation.

English is also a language where slang and idioms are intertwined with standard phrases, and where most words have multiple meanings. As the American writer Bill Bryson said in his book ‘Mother Tongue’, ‘Any language where the unassuming word fly signifies an annoying insect, a means of travel, and a critical part of a gentleman’s apparel, is clearly asking to be mangled.’

Some words are confused because they are lookalikes, such as ‘suit’ and ‘suite’, some because they are soundalikes (homophones) such as ‘reigns’ and ‘reins’, which can be mixed up because they are both pronounced ‘rains’, although they mean very different things.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of the most commonly mistaken homophones or words which are not strictly homophones, but which sound so similar that they are frequently confused.

We hope it will help non-native speakers to avoid spelling confusion and native speakers to realise how difficult their mother tongue really is!           

accept             except            cereal            serial            grate            great            pain            pane            wait            weight

            access            excess            coarse            course            heard            herd            pedal            peddle            wander            wonder

            aisle            isle            decent            descent            idle            idol            personal            personnel         

wave            waive

            ate            eight            dual            duel            leak            leek            rapt            wrapped          waste            waist

            bare            bear            fair            fare            lessen            lesson            role            roll            were            where

            brake            break            father            farther            loose            lose            sole            soul            which            witch

            buy            by            formally            formerly          miner            minor            stationary            stationery         wood            would

            to            two, too       forth            fourth            of            off            right            wright, rite

As usual, you can come and check the meaning of these words at the SHAPE Language Centre. If you are an English language learner, why not have a go at the exercise:

Which spellings are correct?

1.         If (there, their) is another sound I shall be very angry.

2.         Please, wait (there, their).

3.         He went (of, off) to fetch the book.

4.         She is the older (of, off) the two.

5.         The wall was (to, too, two) high to climb.

6.         The (to, too, two) robbers were (to, two, too) shaken to escape.

7.         The kangaroo can jump (its, it’s) own height.

8.         This play is for adults only. Children under 15 years are not (excepted, accepted).

9.         I shall know when (it’s, its) the right time.

10.       Do not (waste, waist) my time!

Smash/smaef/verb and noun, as a verb, means to

break something such as a window, violently:

‘Another smash-and-grab raid on a jewellery

shop’. As a noun, ‘smash’ can mean physical

violence and, as the sound of the word implies,

loud noise is involved. The related adjective

‘smashing’ is used in informal BE to mean

            excellent and enjoyable.

            source: ‘Word for word’ OUP