{"id":2247,"date":"2016-10-21T06:02:52","date_gmt":"2016-10-21T06:02:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.spreeder.com\/?p=2247"},"modified":"2016-10-21T06:02:52","modified_gmt":"2016-10-21T06:02:52","slug":"seven-sets-of-words-to-use-not-confuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spreeder.com\/blog\/2016\/10\/21\/seven-sets-of-words-to-use-not-confuse\/","title":{"rendered":"Seven Sets of Words to Use, Not Confuse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Because many word pairs in English are homophones (words that sound alike), some mistakes that people make when speaking aren\u2019t noticeable to others. For example, if we were to tell you that today its cold outside<\/em> or our dog lost it\u2019s collar yesterday<\/em> you wouldn\u2019t know that we had used the wrong version of its \/ it\u2019s<\/em> in those two phrases. However, if we had written those phrases in a letter or e-mail, you would have noticed right away, and would probably have started doubting that we really know what we\u2019re talking about when it comes to English vocabulary, if we made such an obvious mistake! There are many pairs of words in English that are often confused due to their pronunciation, their spelling, or both. If you\u2019re one of the many people who are confused by them, you\u2019re at risk of seeming less knowledgeable when you make those mistakes. Here are seven word pairs to learn – correctly – by heart:<\/p>\n

forward \/ foreword<\/strong><\/p>\n

Moving forward<\/em> means \u201cmoving ahead.\u201d A moving foreword<\/em> is a preface or introduction to a book that causes an emotional reaction. We\u2019re giving you the extra word pair here of two definitions of the word moving<\/em> as well.<\/p>\n

averse \/ adverse<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you really don\u2019t want to dye your hair blue, it might be because you\u2019re averse<\/em> to making such a radical change in your appearance; that is, you\u2019re unwilling to dye your hair. You might also be reluctant to do it because it would have an adverse<\/em> (negative, detrimental) effect on your chances of a promotion at work.<\/p>\n

counsel \/ council<\/strong><\/p>\n

We would counsel<\/em> (advise, suggest) that you take some time to study the local ordinances before running for a seat on the town council<\/em> (a group of people elected as administrators).<\/p>\n

advise \/ advice<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the previous sentence, we gave you a piece of advice<\/em>. The verb to advise<\/em> means to counsel someone, or to share your knowledge to help another person. The noun advice<\/em> describes what it is you\u2019ve told that person.<\/p>\n

discreet \/ discrete<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re advising someone on a sensitive issue, you should be discreet<\/em> (subtle, cautious, unobtrusive). The word discrete<\/em>, which is pronounced the same way, means \u201cseparate, individual, not connected.\u201d<\/p>\n

inflammable \/ flammable<\/strong><\/p>\n

Unlike the other word pairs in this post, these two adjectives both mean \u201cable to be burned.\u201d The adjective nonflammable<\/em> is the one to use when you want to describe something that can\u2019t be burned.<\/p>\n

viscous \/ vicious<\/strong><\/p>\n

These two words are frequently misspelled and mispronounced. The adjective viscous<\/em> (pronounced VIHS-cuss) describes a sticky, thick liquid, like glue or honey. The adjective vicious<\/em> (pronounced VIH-shuhs) means fierce, angry, or cruel.<\/p>\n

Stick with your daily vocabulary study and you\u2019ll keep moving forward towards your goal of English vocabulary improvement!<\/p>\n

\n

Vocab1<\/span><\/i><\/a> guarantees to help you increase your vocabulary knowledge! Learn more words and apply them in your writings.<\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Because many word pairs in English are homophones (words that sound alike), some mistakes that people make when speaking aren\u2019t noticeable to others. For example, if we were to tell you that today its cold…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vocabulary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spreeder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spreeder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spreeder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spreeder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spreeder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.spreeder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2247\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spreeder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spreeder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spreeder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}