Top 10 Most Confusing Words for Advanced English Learners

Should you use "affect" or "effect"? "Advise" or "advice"? "Emigrate" or "immigrate"? Not sure? In this lesson, I will explain the differences between ten commonly confused English words. This is a quick way to improve your English immediately and get higher marks on your IELTS, TOEFL, or TOEIC. Learn what's right and what's wrong, and upgrade your English!

RELATED VIDEOS
Succeed, Success, Successful: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCoTL16EaUA
Affect or Effect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwKPJfYpjA0
Advice or Advise: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCbAx9pZU7k
Choice and Choose: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGfRMRwAJMU
Immigrate or Emigrate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uicRkouflCE

Take the quiz here: http://www.engvid.com/top-10-most-confusing-words-for-advanced-english-learners/

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Rebecca from engVid. There are really only two ways to improve your English: Go forward and learn what's right, and go back and correct what's wrong. In this lesson we're going to do a little bit of both. We're going to look at 10 confusing words and see if you know the difference. Sometimes it's a different word form, sometimes it's actually a different verb altogether, or a different word. So, let's look at these. They are confused very often, so stick with me and you'll understand the difference. Let's get started.

The first one: "How can I succeed?" or "How can I success?" So obviously the pair we're talking about here is "succeed" and "success". So, what is correct in number one? "How can I succeed?" or "How can I success?" The answer is: "succeed". Okay? All right.

Number two: "How can I achieve succeed?" or "How can I achieve success?" What's the right answer? Do you know? I hope so. It is: "How can I achieve success?" All right? So, what happened here? Well, "succeed" is the verb. All right? And "success" is the noun. That's a really important difference. Thousands and thousands of students, probably millions make a mistake with these two words. So make sure you are not one of those. All right? Let's go on.

Number three: "Smoking affected her health." or "Smoking effected her health." All right? I hope you can hear the difference in pronunciation and also in spelling. So, what's the correct answer here? "Smoking affected her health." or "...effected her health."? It should be: "Smoking affected her health." Very good.

And number four: "Smoking had a bad affect on her." or "Smoking had a bad effect on her."? What's the difference? Well, it should be: "Smoking had a bad effect on her." So the two words we were looking at here were "affect" and "effect". And which one is the verb? "Affect" is the verb and "effect" is a noun. All right? Good.

Number five: "Could you give me some advise?" or "Could you give me some advice?" What's the correct word there? "Could you give me some advice?" Okay? Good.

And number six: "Could you advise me?" or "Could you advice me?" Which is correct? It should be: "Could you advise me?" Two words here: "advise" and "advice". "Advise" is the verb, and "advice" is the noun. Now, also, "advice" is a non-count noun, so we cannot say: "advices". All right? Sometimes people say: "advice", but then they make it "advices". That's not correct. You can't say that. So, "advise" which is spelt with an "s" but sounds like a "z", and "advice" which is the noun. Now, don't worry. If you got any of these wrong we have actually detailed lessons on each of these points which I will refer you to afterwards. Okay? Stick with me.

Number seven: "We will choice the new Prime Minister (PM)." or "We will choose the new Prime Minister."? What do you think it should be? "We will choose the new Prime Minister." Okay? Good.

"He was our first choice." or "He was our first choose." Which one is it? Can you tell? "He was our first choice." Okay? So, here again, "choose" is the verb and "choice" is the noun. Okay? We made a choice, but we chose him. "Choose" in the past becomes "chose". All right? "Choose", "chose", "choice", you have to work with them-all right?-to really master those words.

And the last one: "They emigrated to Canada." or "They immigrated to Canada."? Which one is it? This one is confused a lot, and actually one of our other engVid teachers, Emma, has done a great one on this one. So if you're confused, I'm going to tell you where you can find her lesson, too. So: "They emigrated to Canada." or "They immigrated to Canada."? Well, it should be: "They immigrated to Canada." Okay?

And number 10: "They emigrated from Mexico." or "They immigrated from Mexico."? Okay? This time you have both verbs. Right? So if that was "immigrated", this one is actually "emigrated". "They emigrated from Mexico." Now, here, it's not a question. They're both verbs. Okay? "Emigrate" is a verb and "immigrate" is a verb, but what's the difference? You see that you immigrate to a place, but you emigrate from somewhere else. All right?