Identify and correct errors with frequently confused words
Key notes :
Certain words are often confused with one another. In your writing, you should pay close attention to these words and make sure you are using them correctly.
For example, fewer and less have similar meanings, but you should use them differently. Use fewer to describe things you can count, like pencils. Use less to describe things you can’t count, like water.
Fewer people than expected came to watch the race.
Our town received less rain this year due to the heat wave.
Effect and effect have similar spellings and can sound the same, but they have different meanings. Affect is usually a verb that means to change or influence. The effect is usually a noun that means an outcome or result.
Our team was losing, but I tried not to let that affect my performance.
The new medicine has an amazing effect on cold symptoms.
Learn with an example
🎯 Fix the one word that is used incorrectly.
When Martin Luther King Jr gave his famous I Have a Dream’ speech on August 28, 1963, he opened with an illusion to President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
Illusion should be changed to allusion.
An allusion is an indirect reference to something else, like a piece of literature or a historical event. An illusion occurs when something isn’t what it appears to be.
This is the correct text:
When Martin Luther King Jr gave his famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech on August 28, 1963, he opened with an allusion to President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
🎯 Fix the one word that is used incorrectly.
Humans, bonobos and chimpanzees all use gestures to communicate. In human infants, these gestures proceed language development.
Proceed should be changed to precede.
Precede means to come before. Proceed means to continue on.
This is the correct text:
Humans, bonobos and chimpanzees all use gestures to communicate. In human infants, these gestures precede language development.
🎯 Fix the one word that is used incorrectly.
The unique ways in which the bones in our skulls vibrate in response to sound waves may subtly effect our musical preferences.
Effect should be changed to affect.
Affect is usually a verb that means to change or influence. Effect is usually a noun that means an outcome or result.
This is the correct text:
The unique ways in which the bones in our skulls vibrate in response to sound waves may subtly affect our musical preferences.
let’s practice!
