Misused English Words

Some words have a similar sound but have very different meaning. Here is a test to see how good your English really is.

Explain the difference between the following commonly confused words:

1. abuse, misuse

2. adapt, adopt

3. affect and effect

4. agnostic, atheist

5. allusion, illusion

6. alternative, alternate

7. all right, alright

8. bare, bear

9. childlike, childish

10. compliment, complement

11. course, coarse

12. credible, credulous

13. cynic, sceptic

14. elemental, elementary

15. emigrate, migrate

16. except, accept

17. descent, dissent

18. dual, duel

19. fair, fare

20. flout, flaunt

21. gorilla, guerrilla

22. hare, hair, heir

23. heard, herd

24. heroin, heroine

25. it’s and its

26. licence, license

27. lose and loose

28. peak, peak, pique

29. poll, pole

30. principal and principle

31. refer, allude

32. simple simplistic

33. stationary, stationery

34. story, storey

35. You, Your and You’re

36. Their, there and they’re

So how did you do ? Are you an English Scholar or did you just do “All Right” or should that be “Alright”?