STOP confusing these words! Especially or Specially? Assure or Ensure? Inquire or Enquire?

hello everyone and welcome back to english with lucy today i'm going to help you out with some doubts we are going to talk about five pairs or trios of very confusing english words pairs of words that native speakers struggle with too words like especially and specially why are they so similar accept and except ashore ensure inshore inquire enquire which ones do we use i'm going to tell you before we get started i would just like to thank the sponsor of today's video it is the number one trusted european language school lingoda with their language sprint with the sprint you can learn to speak english confidently in just three months gain 100 of your money back and get free access to the cambridge online speaking test you just need to take one of their 24 7 classes every day for three months and get your course fees completely refunded click on the link in the description box to check the dates for this sprint be quick if you missed the deadline or the spaces are already filled you will 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your deposit to secure your spot you can get 10 euros off by using my code win 7. lingoda will refund your tuition fee in full if you attend the agreed number of classes within each sprint month by following the contest rules remember places in the sprint are limited this is a language school places fill up so you have the link in the description box you have my 10 euro discount code win7 what are you waiting for right let's get started with the confusing words and to make this even easier for you i have created a pdf worksheet we've got all of the words their pronunciation all of the information from the video plus some additional activities as well do bear in mind this is a two-part video you can also find the second part in the description box but the order doesn't matter so the first one we have especially and especially especially means more with one person or thing than with others or more in particular circumstances than others in my opinion it's quite a hard word to define it's easier if you see it used in a sentence for example i love seville especially in the spring so i love seville in general but i love it even more in the spring or baby animals are cute especially puppies so i think all baby animals are cute but i really think that puppies are so cute maybe that little bit more cute that little bit cuter now especially means for a particular purpose or a particular person an example i made this cake especially for you now here's the complicated bit in british english we tend to use the two interchangeably it can be really hard to hear the difference when people speak especially tends to be less formal and i think that part of the reason for this is because it sounds like you are lazily dropping a syllable i made this cake specially for you it almost sounds like someone's trying to say especially for you but they're dropping a syllable and actually i would be inclined to say i made this especially for you and that is something that you will hear a lot in british english i made this cake especially for you i made this cake especially for you so in general in american english they differentiate between these words more and in british english we just use especially in formal situations and especially in less formal situations but really it does depend on the person and what they have grown up hearing number two we have loose and lose so there's a big pronunciation difference here well i say big it's very subtle but it is quite important loose with s at the end and lose with z at the end but they are minimal pairs they only differ in one sound that final phoneme loose is an adjective meaning not tight or not securely fixed for example i need to go to the dentist because my tooth is loosed it's not securely fixed into my mouth or i lost weight and now my clothes are loose they're not tight they are loose now to lose is a verb meaning to not be able to find something or to fail to keep something as well examples go to the dentist before you lose your loose tooth before you lose verb your loose adjective tooth or she wants to lose weight to make her clothes loose she wants to lose verb wait to make her clothes loose adjective it is very very common to see people misspelling these words and using the wrong one so don't beat yourself up about it i know i say this a lot but seriously it's just not the end of the world we will understand what you're trying to say number three we have accept and accept okay so with a accept we use the schwa accept and with e except we use an e sound except now in general in british english in modern received pronunciation you will hear people just using the schwa for both accept accept accept accept when you speak quickly you often find yourself using the most convenient or efficient way of pronouncing something so the schwa gets used a lot now i'm going to use a and e for emphasis so that you know which word i am referring to accept is a verb but except is usually a preposition or conjunction it is sometimes a verb and i will touch on that later but accept as in to accept is to agree or to receive something if offered an example i will not accept your apology or i hope they accept the proposed changes now let's look at except with the e except it generally means apart from or excluding or with the exception of an example i study every day except sundays or we look exactly the same except my hair is darker a little memory tip the e x x of except can be used to remind you that it is excluding x excluding now to accept as a verb with an e is very very formal and it is rarely used it means to not include something or someone you will usually see it in written english and i'll explain why look at this sentence tours are arranged all year round january accepted okay so it's quite confusing if that sentence is said in spoken english january accepted is january accepted as in they agree to it or is it accepted as in it is not included when you see it written down you can see it means that it is excluded january is not included you won't come across this verb very frequently it's just another example of english being a pain in the neck that's an idiom meaning really annoying for accepted and accepted to mean the opposite but to sound the same oh it's just so annoying we have number four and this is a trio we have ashore in shore and in shore okay so the last two have the same pronunciation ensure ensure so let's look at the three to assure with an a is to remove someone's doubts i assure you that i will arrive on time don't worry don't have any doubts i will arrive on time to ensure with en is to guarantee or to make sure that something happens i need to study to ensure that i pass my exam so a short and ensure a very similar a sure with an a to remove someone's doubts and ensure with en is to guarantee that something will happen to ensure with i n is to cover someone or something like a house with an insurance policy an example the insurance company won't protect my house against flooding now frustratingly some policies some insurance policies also have assurance policies as well which just makes it so confusing but let's not worry about that we know the basic differences between the three finally we have number five which is inquire and inquire the same pronunciation again they have very similar meanings well actually they mean the same thing but sometimes they're used in different situations so they both mean to ask someone for information now in american english once again they have made this easier for you they tend to favor inquire with i n so enquire you won't hear us as frequently in general i'm having to make a lot of generalizations here however the uk british english we just like to make everything that little more complicated traditionally to inquire as in en to enquire simply meant to ask but inquire i'm just using in and n for emphasis so you know which word i'm referring to inquire was used for formal investigations so i would enquire at a tourist information desk to see where the best ice cream shop was but the police or a court would inquire about something however nowadays both are used interchangeably so people are just using words without knowing exactly what they mean which is fine i imagine eventually we will end up just favoring one i wonder if it will be inquire or enquire time will tell probably right that is it for today's lesson there is also a part two to this lesson which i posted a week before this one in that video we discuss either neither or either and neither we talk about the pronunciation and which one you should use we discuss to bring and to take advise and advice practice and practice and also affect and affect with e and with a it's a very interesting lesson if i do say so myself and don't forget i've made all of this easier for you i have created a free pdf for you to download it's got all of these confusing words the pronunciation information the clarifications the examples and also some additional activities that i think you'll really like if you would like to download that pdf all you've got to do is sign up to my mailing list the link is in the description box and the pdf will be sent straight to your inbox don't forget to check out lingoda the link for the sprint is in the description box as well and you can use my code win7 for 10 euros off don't forget to connect with me on all of my social media i've got my facebook my instagram my mailing list i've also got my personal vlogging channel where i upload lots of subtitled always fully subtitled vlogs so you can use them as listening practice they're all about my life in the english countryside and i have just released my first ever course it is a british english pronunciation course where i teach modern received pronunciation that is my accent if you are interested in that the link is also in the description box as well as a little code surprise i will see you soon for another lesson you

Channel: English with Lucy

Views: 801,154

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Id: zQBx-uU7F7U

Length: 14min 35sec (875 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 02 2020