CONFUSING WORDS FOR ENGLISH LEARNERS 🤔

hello what's up I hope that you're having a great day whenever you might be watching this I have a super super cool lesson that we are going to do today and that lesson is I want to talk to you about some confusing words for English learners but I'd say that they're not just confusing for English learners it can also be confusing for native speakers the one thing I like about this lesson is that when I was putting it together I was actually learning some new things and that's the great thing about English is you know no matter whether you're a native speaker or a language learner or however long you've been studying English or even teaching English you're always learning new things so I want to talk about a few things that can be a bit confusing for learners so we're gonna go over those today and at the end we are going to practice what we've learned so if you're joining us thanks for joining us say what's up in the chat and let me know where you're joining us from who do you have from India Tomica village from India also autocratic Stan Aman oh hey what's up thank you guys for joining me yes men honey yeah awesome great to have you guys here again a very special lesson we're gonna talk about some things that confuse English learners and I am going to ask for your participation I want you guys to write a lot in the comments comments and also even if you're watching this later write to us in the comments participate we really want to involve you in these lessons so let's begin with talking about well why do some words end up confusing English learners what why are these words confusing to begin with well there are there can be many different reasons for that I've just written down three of them the first one I have is some grammar rules maybe there's just a subtle grammar rule that people tend to confuse and mix up and again this is where you practice practice practice you're always improving and your fluency will then improve so it could be grammar rules the next one that I have are different words with similar meaning so you might have two different words that have different meanings but the meanings are very close to each other they're very similar and because they're so similar people might tend to confuse them now if you have joined us if you are with us right now I want you to write hey what's up Carlos sorry I mispronounce names out of suit from Thailand great to have you here in the chat I want you to write down what are some words what are some English words that confuse you it could be two words or maybe if there's just one word that that confuses you I want you to share with everybody share with us it's a great way to again understand where each other is coming from so write down what are some words that confuse you the last one that I wrote down a common reason why words why some words confused learners is right there homonyms now a broad definition of homonyms are words that either have the same spelling or different spelling that have the same spelling but same pronunciation but they have different meanings they have molted words with multiple meanings or it could be words that have the same pronunciation different spelling multiple meanings but that's a very broad definition of homonyms I I put that little graph down there for you because there are in layers to it and if you really want to get specific and learn the difference between you know a homonym or a Hedren 'm or a hydrograph you can study that a little later but these are reasons why some learner some some words might confuse people all right so we got some good ones Oh excellent excellent you know lay light L say effect effect yes these are all differences so this is good because I actually I have some of these words today let's begin let the games begin so the first one hmm because we talked about some grammar rules all right so let's look at a little small grammar nuance and this one I don't think is as bad because there is a rule to it a versus and okay a versus and these are both indefinite articles that introduce a noun phrase so when you think of articles people will think of a and or the I'm just talking about the indefinite ones a or an now when we learn these people some people might say like Oh pay attention to the letter the first letter of the word that comes before the article and that's and that that can confuse people because it's not the first letter that determines whether you use a or n it's the first sound so we use a is used with words that start with a consonant sound right there alright a kangaroo a banana a house a university all right now you notice that University starts with the letter U but we use a because of the first sound you you you yeah it almost has that Y sound so we say a university alright so again it's clean heed to pay attention to that first sound for an alright we use that with words that start with a vowel sound okay words that start with a vowel sound like those examples I have an answer an old car all right it comes before it well the adjective old an hour all right again the word starts hour begins with the letter H but you don't have there is no H sound all right our it's also it sounds like oh you are again it has that short o sound so we're going to use an an hour all right same with mp3 alright so for anybody who's downloaded music you know that those are mp3 files now we say the letter M alright and when we say it M it almost it starts with that short e sound M an mp3 all right an hour and mp3 and I think it's when you hit those words where the it goes against what you want to think and people might make those mistakes and they might say uh mp3 and no it's an mp3 so those are some of the differences between a and an now speaking of mp3s alright this is the next part that I want to talk to you about abbreviations and acronyms okay so in the chat what I want you guys to do is because I think all of us we have cell phones and we use shorthand I want you to write your favorite texting or SMS acronym that you like to use you know OMG BTW write it in the chat let me know what is your favorite acronym to use now this is where this is something that I learned today and this is where you get really nitpicky as to what the meaning is and again some of these rules you don't have to follow it strictly it's up to you so let's look at the meaning of these words so an abbreviation is just a shortened form of a word it's an abbreviation an acronym think of an acronym is a type of an abbreviation so it is kind of a subcategory of an abbreviation so for an abbreviation I think some many of us are familiar with like dr. all right it gets shortened to the dr our dr. so-and-so same with st. before like a Cathedral st. James alright you see that s T that becomes an abbreviation now you're probably looking at FBI and lol thinking well wait a second those are acronyms and again this is where it gets nitpicky if you know you refer to him as acronyms I would refer to them as acronyms that's fine I don't think anybody is going to challenge you on it but the difference is is that when you shorten some words and you take that first letter FBI stands for Federal Bureau of Investigation lol laugh out loud when you actually say the letters it's technically an abbreviation alright an acronym is an abbreviation that's formed by the initial letters of words but it's pronounced as one word that's a subtle difference between an abbreviation and an acronym so FBI we actually say the letters so it's an abbreviation lol same thing but an acronym like NASA alright for those of you unfamiliar with NASA it stands for oh goodness national astrological space association it is an organization part of the government of the United States and we just call it NASA all right for space yolo okay that's another texting acronym you only live once but we don't say y Olo alright it's just we say it as one word yolo alright so those are technically speaking those are acronyms when we say it as one word same with nato the the northern Atlantic Treaty Organization a wall which I don't know if you're with that that's kind of a military term it means oh gosh what does it mean absent without official leave it's a military term that somebody basically they didn't get permission they left they went AWOL so those are acronyms when we say them as one word get some good ones in there lol all right favorite is OMG yes we use it Karlos WTF yes that is a very popular and effective acronym to use but again technically those aren't acronyms they would be abbreviations but I don't think anybody is is gonna you know again this is not nobody gonna challenge you on it this is something that just just for you guys to know fun facts I learned this new today Otto said rip alright rest in peace all right that would be an acronym people say rip rest in peace so those are her abbreviations and acronyms next somebody had mentioned this before the difference between effect and effect okay so the pronunciation is very similar I'd say the big difference and this goes back to grammar mostly is that effect is going to be a verb and effect is the noun the pronunciation is very similar effect the verb has that schwa at the beginning that a sound effect and effect the noun it's more of a shortened e but it's very slight effect effect often I think I'm guilty of this I'll kind of just pronounce them very much the same mostly with that schwa and instead of effect I might say effect so that's why that's another reason I think it can be confusing is because of the pronunciation but in order to really know the difference and learn the difference realize that affect is a verb and effect with an e that is a noun so again right to me in the chat or the comments even if you're watching this later tell me something what is something that affects your mood I'm using it as a verb there because effect as a verb it means to influence to influence something what is something that affects your mood I want you to write a sentence using effect as the verb okay what's something that affects your mood I gave you an example sentence right there the bad weather affected our travel plans all right it affected our travel plans it influenced those plans now effect the noun it's the meaning is a little similar but it's mostly if you want to get precise it's talking about an impact or a change all right something has an effect all right the the hurricane had a devastating effect on the area all right it had a huge impact or change it had an effect so we got a great good excellent sentence politicians affect my mood in a bad way Laura I completely agree with you yes they definitely affect everybody's mood again hi Barbara said us if you're just joining us we are talking about confusing words in English and I have 10 of them for you and then at the end we're going to practice so if you're just joining us again say what's up in the chat and let's continue oh this is another one speaking of politicians okay this is a topic that's come up a lot lately and it's frustrating to me so these are two words to emigrate and to emigrate and there is a difference between them so they're both verbs in to emigrate is your when you're leaving one country in order to live in another now the difference I think part of a big difference when you think of when you're immigrating to somewhere else it does have a more legal context to it that you have permission for our work or maybe your spouse your husband and wife is from that country and you have all your documents and papers and order and you emigrate to another country and you plan to live there so like for example I have that sentence they emigrated from Brazil to France all right this is a little different than emigrate which is also can be used as a verb as a noun we talk about immigration but it's entering a new country to live there and sometimes when you when people immigrate to a new country they may not be doing it legally they may be going there and living there and working and that we would say they emigrate to so they immigrated to Brazil from France all right the key here when you're talking about the difference between these two is the preposition that follows so you immigrated from somewhere you are leaving this place in going somewhere else you emigrate from somewhere and you immigrate to somewhere so in those sentences like I have they immigrated from Brazil all right they left Brazil and the other one they immigrated to Brazil all right that's where they were going and this is where I think not to get all political it's been a very big topic of conversation immigration I know in Europe and in the United States and I think one thing that gets challenging when you talk about the person which we would refer to somebody as an immigrant whether you emigrated or immigrated you're still often referred to as an immigrant which is just a person who is from another country and they are living in you know this country and it gets muddled and confused and people do a very big disservice to the conversation about what's going on one of them being the president of I'm from who is an absolute but anyway I don't want to turn this into a political discussion let's move on to the next one so next we have these right here okay let's talk about this every day versus every day all right people might think it's the same word and this is where I think it's mostly in writing because when you're speaking I don't think it's as much of an issue but when you're writing people will tend to confuse these two now every day two words is an adverb phrase okay that means how often you do something a lot of times it answers the question how often alright so in the comments in the chat I want you to write okay tell me something what is something that you do every day all right write your answer because again this is good you're practicing writing and I'm asking for the to word every day all right what is something you do every day so for example I could say I exercise every day is it true no I do wish it were true though I I want to exercise every day but unfortunately I do not but it is something it's talking about how often something happens I exercise every day now every day one word that is an adjective and it's talking about something that is it's part of a daily routine so for example my sentence right down there jumping jacks are part of my everyday exercises it's part of my everyday exercises it's an adjective and it's modifying exercises it's talking about which type of exercises now in case you're wondering that picture right there that is not that is not a picture of somebody doing jumping jacks it's just a funny little picture I saw however we did do a video on workout vocabulary where we talk about jumping jacks so if you're not sure what those are I highly suggest you check out that lesson it was a great lesson we had a lot of fun so let's see um everybody some practice all right I practice English lessons every day remember it's two words two words every day I practice I practice learning English every day excellent I do I try to learn English every day perfect alright I study every day so when you're talking about something you do every day two words okay that's what we're using so let's continue again if you're joining us we are talking today about confusing words confusing English words okay the next one this would be another hominem complement and complement okay they sound exactly the same they're spelled differently and they have different meanings so a compliment with an AI all right it can be a noun or a verb but those are just nice words or gestures if I do like okay that you know is gesture good job that's a compliment so right now in the chat because again this is we know that it's always good to be positive on the internet there's so many bad things out there I want you to give everyone a compliment okay some nice words say some nice words about everybody who's joining us today practice using it say a compliment and my compliment to all of you is you guys are awesome all right you're awesome you guys are doing really well you like you're hanging out so it's great that is my compliment to you you're awesome all right that is a compliment those are nice words now complement with an e all right it can also be a noun or a verb but that means that you are adding something to enhance something else you're adding something to make something else better so I'm American yes stereotypically we eat hot dogs so I could say that and this is true I believe spicy mustard really complements the hot dog alright so if I have a hot dog I'm going to use spicy mustard because I think it complements the taste it makes it better alright it improves it enhances something so that is complement within II don't confuse those all right some other examples oh I sing in the shower every day excellent use every day of two words perfect so again in the chat you know throw out a compliment oh you are a great teacher thank you thank you so much that is an excellent compliment I really appreciate that the next two words that can confuse people are these two we have exacerbate and exaggerate so these especially especially exacerbate it's not a I'd say it's commonly used but it's good maybe for a more academic sense and being more precise with your descriptions I always think it's it's good to build your vocabulary so these are two words that can confuse people mostly because well the spelling is a little similar and same with the the pronunciation so we have exacerbate which is a verb and that means to make a situation worse and I just noticed that I misspelled situation so that's fine I'm telling you it's to make a situation worse alright so for example you could say that my sentence they're the rainy weather exacerbated the playing condition so maybe you're playing I don't know football and you're playing on a field the grass is all torn up the field is in bad condition and before you start to play it starts raining so it makes it muddy it makes it worse all right it exhausts where it's it exacerbated the playing conditions it made worse that is very different than exaggerated which is again I noticed another mistake it's a verb it's not a noun okay so just to ignore that right there exaggerate to exaggerate is a verb and it means to stretch the truth all right he always exaggerates when telling stories now I put that fish there because it's it's like a common joke when you're talking about somebody exaggerating something when they go fishing and they say wait a second okay I caught a fish this big when the fish was really that big all right people tend to exaggerate the the truth because well a lot of times people find say that it's more interesting all right so another common that you're doing a great job thank you excellent um thank you guys for I cornucopia of knowledge excellent that was a word from a few weeks ago thank you a lotta so yes those are great great compliments we appreciate it very much it's always good to give people compliments and I'll say that is your homework assignment for today when you are done I want you to give somebody a compliment say something they have a nice smile you do a really good job thanks for your help all right give a compliment that's your homework assignment for today so that is the difference between exacerbate and exaggerate let's look at this one this is an easy one I think okay it is easier criminal and thief okay this can be confused though because a lot of times people think they're synonyms and they're not necessarily synonyms alright again think of it as you have a criminal which is a broad word a thief is a type of criminal okay so a criminal is it's a noun it's a person it's somebody who breaks the law alright so in the chat give me what are what are some examples of criminals give me some time of criminals all right whoo what could we say make it more specific so a criminal is just in general somebody who breaks the law for example I'd say the criminal ran from the police we know that they broke the law but we don't know exactly what they did why are they running we don't know now a thief is also a noun because it's a person and it's someone who takes or steal something so if I say the thief ran from the police then I know okay they're running from the police because they stole something all right that is the difference between criminal and thief they are not synonyms all right remember that drug you'd say drug drug dealers yes drug dealers that that is a criminal that is a type of criminal perfect Charles Manson yes he was a criminal perfect good example let's look at the next one okay so this is another one that I think people commonly confuse even you know native speakers they commonly confuse these the difference between farther and further okay so both of them are adverbs but when we are saying when we're talking about farther with an a we're talking about a physical distance a real physical distance that you know we can we can think about whether it's one kilometer or 50 kilometers or a thousand kilometers okay it is a physical distance farther so for example I could say now we live farther away from the airport maybe you moved apartments or you moved homes and you are now farther away from the airport it is a physical distance that is different than further because when you're talking about further technically it's it's to a greater distance or degree but you can also think of it like a a figurative distance all right not something that you know you can say how many kilometers it is so for example if this is a common sentence that you might hear when you're talking about something and somebody says well you know it's the furthest thing from my mind all right I'm not thinking about this thing I have a lot of other things I'm thinking about more other priorities and something is the furthest thing from your mind I don't know actually the distance about how far it is it's a figurative way of talking about distance all right it is you know something is further from your mind so example like maybe you could say another example like your skills go maybe you're a talented athlete all right you're a good athlete but you're also a good singer and you could say you know your skills go further than the basketball court all right you know your your skills go further you know they go beyond that it is a figurative distance now one reason why these get confused regularly and this was according to the Cambridge dictionary is that when you're using it as a comparative and superlative so for example for farther you would say farther than or further than it is common to use further for both of them all right that is a common usage for both and that that is one reason I think that it can be very confusing because people will use farther in a comparative sense but they're talking about further alright so maybe they say like oh the road you know many times in a comparative or superlative sense when you are making these comparisons people 10 a lot of times to use further so that's just you know food for thought something that you guys should know the next one we got one more and then we're going to practice all right so so get ready to to type in the chat this one somebody had mentioned this at the beginning and this lay versus lie it is confused all the time it doesn't matter whether you are learning English or whether you're a native speaker I am guilty of this as well and you use these interchangeably and I don't think again people nobody's gonna call you out on it really I think everybody's gonna understand what you're trying to say as long as you're you know speaking using it grammatically correct I would actually say sometimes if you use it correct and I'll give you an example in a minute people might do a little like strange like what what what are you talking about because of the way we use it today and how it spoke how it's spoken mostly so lay both of these are verbs lay and lie now lay is a verb and it means to put or place okay so another way to think about this is that it is a transitive verb it's often followed by a it's followed by a direct object okay so you you lay something somewhere all right you lay something somewhere you're putting it in a certain place so for example I gave these examples in the past tense I laid the cup on the table okay I laid the cup on the table I also gave you the conjugation of this so for the verb lay you have lay laying I am laying or laid or laid and laid okay so lay it is the past tense laid would be the past participle all right I have laid the cup on the table okay so that is for lay it is putting or placing something and remember it's used it's Trent its transitive so it's going to be with a direct object now lie okay is to rest or recline all right and the reason it's confusing I think one of the reasons because again I put these sentences in the past tense yesterday I lay in bed all day now you might be looking at that and be like wait wait what the heck all right we're talking about lie here not lay and that is the issue is that the past tense of lie is lay okay so you can see down there the conjugation lie I lie in bed I am lying in bed yesterday I lay in bed and the past participle which I don't think this is where I said if you use it correctly people might be like what I don't think many people use this at all yesterday are not yesterday are like I have lain in bed alright that is not common at all what is common however when you conjugate this is the other meaning of lie now lie is it's again it's a homonym it has to it has multiple meanings it means to rest or recline or it means to say something that's not true alright so for example we say ah he lied to me somebody lied they say something that's not true all right you guys are using them okay come great yeah I lied yesterday after well again lying is cursed yes alright so what I wanted to show you here when I'm talking about saying something that's not true the conjugation lie I lie to somebody I am lying to somebody I lied in the past tense and I have lied to somebody okay that is the conjugation now what's very common is that for the verb lie to rest or recline they people will use the conjugation for the other meaning alright so you might hear instead of somebody say like yesterday I lay in bed all day you might hear somebody say yesterday I lied in bed all day okay they use that other conjugation and that is you know I don't want to say if it's becoming accepted or not obviously that is debatable but it is something that people end up using and especially when they're talking about the present perfect and they're using that past participle most people will say you know I've lied in bed all day I have lied here all day they don't really use lain okay so that's why I put that other meaning up there and again this is something I just wanted to go over with you as I said people misuse this all the time so you it's good to practice this and to understand and study the differences but if you misuse these then you know don't don't stress out about it okay so it's some examples yes while lying in while lying in bed I laid a book on the pillow okay excellent could a great example sentence all right I don't know why you put a book on a pillow but I guess so you know if somebody says oh yeah I'm lying yes okay perfect all right those are good lying as a curse yes you know lying is bad so these are you know good it's good to know the differences between these now I hope you're ready because I want to practice what we've learned today so I'm gonna give you some questions and I want you to write the answers in the chat all right even if you're watching this later a year from now it doesn't matter practice you know writing with us use the comment section write your answers in the comments okay you ready so let's practice this is your first question all right it's truly honor to meet you okay this was the first one we went over what are we going to use which article a or n all right it's truly honor to meet you I want you to write your answers in the chat what do you guys think all right we're talking about the difference between a and and okay I'll give you a hint all right remember keep in mind what though the one thing that is important is the first sound that you hear all right it's truly honor to meet you okay what do you guys think a or and alright getting some mixed roll all right in this case honor alright is the key word what's the first sound you hear honor all right there is no H sound we don't you're not hearing haha honor all right honor it's that short o sound so we would say it's truly it's truly an honor to meet you ok it's truly an honor to meet you excellent let's do another one ready let's see if you guys write your answers in the chat or in the comments ok what do you think the exam had a profound on my grade which one are we going to use effect or effect hey it sounds similar I'm trying to having a tough time pronouncing them differently now so the exam had a profound effect or effect on my grade which one are we going to use effect or effect which one do you think okay write your answers in the chat ok so getting some good answers yes we're talking about in this case a noun and the noun that we should use is effect all right the exam had a profound effect on my grade all right excellent good job next one alright give this one a try let's see here we go and I want you to tell me I mean shorten this there we go which one is it Minoo is it a compliment or a compliment again the pronunciation is the same if if I were to say you know you're such a beautiful person alright you're such a beautiful person which compliment am i talking about which one I want you to write your answer in the chat again this is a word these two words are confused a lot alright which one am i talking about if I tell you you're such a beautiful person alright and it's true I think you guys are beautiful people and giving some good answers excellent and it's true alright if I tell you you're such a beautiful person that means that is a compliment with the eye alright compliment with an eye because complement with an e means you're adding to something you're trying to enhance it make it better okay here's another one let's see if you can answer this one alright so you can see it alright we from Russia to Jamaica okay not sure there's anybody out there who's actually done this we from Russia to Jamaica or are you going to use emigrated or emigrated which one do you think all right write your answer in the chat or in the comments participate with us okay we from Russia to Jamaica Russia maybe it's very cold so this person wanted nicer weather and they went to Jamaica alright the key here as I was talking about before is keep an eye on that preposition from alright so because we're talking about from we would say we emigrated from Russia to Jamaica alright you emigrate from somewhere you emigrate to somewhere alright that is one little difference between those confusing words alright here's another one okay boom try this one alright if you're not feeling well you should go in bed which one do you think alright lay or lie and again with this one you might hear somebody use either one okay and you know that that's just the way it is people interchange these two a lot I'm not saying it that it's right or wrong that you should but it's just something that happens okay what do you think if you're not feeling well you should go in bed alright so I think one reason that this can be confusing yes all right you guys you guys Rock all right give them some good answers if you're not feeling well you should go lie in bed remember lie is talking about you should go rest you should go recline and relax and you can you can substitute that in if you're not feeling well you should go rest in bed alright lay is to place something remember it's followed it's a transitive verb so it's followed by a direct object okay in is not a direct object it's a preposition okay so in bed would be a prepositional phrase so you should go lie in bed alright so that is our practice thank you guys so much for joining us today I hope that maybe if you thought some of these words were confusing before maybe they are less confusing now but as always it's good to practice these things and to learn more about it I know I learned a lot in doing this lesson some of the differences between these words so it's always great to learn more thank you guys for joining us remember please if you had a good time like this video and also share it with other people you know trying to practice and improve their skills so again thank you guys so much for joining us lotsa Francisco hanya thank you guys patricia lara glad you guys were here blue thank you guys for joining us again as always you can find us down here join our social media classes Facebook Twitter Instagram snapchat YouTube okay I'm done advertising us for right now have a great day and we'll see you next time

Channel: Interactive English

Views: 32,100

Rating: 4.8889952 out of 5

Keywords: Learn English Free, Learn English Online, improve english vocabulary, learn english vocabulary, english vocabulary lesson, ingles vocabularia, aprender ingles vocabularia, commonly confused words in english, tricky english words, interactive english, fun english lesson, english words, confusing english words, a vs an difference, affect effect difference, lay vs lie, compliment vs complement, further vs farther, every day vs everyday, how to build vocabulary, confusing words

Id: gQsMwLUVNUo

Length: 44min 58sec (2698 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 09 2017