8 Confusing Word Pairs EXPERT Speakers Get WRONG

Eat Sleep Dreamers welcome back to another lesson with me Tom. Today we are looking at

eight word pairs that are super confusing. We know the words but we don't know how to

use them quite right and often we use them in the wrong place at the wrong time. So this

is going to be super useful for English learners and for native English speakers because sometimes

we make mistakes too. All that is coming right up.

Before we get started guys, if you haven't already, hit that subscribe button so that

you don't miss a single lesson with me. Right, let's get straight into the first confusing

word pair.

This is a classic, good versus well. I remember as a teacher when I first started, I had no

idea. We don't get taught this stuff at school so yeah I had to learn it and you should too.

So let's take good. Good is an adjective, whereas well is the adverb. Therefore we use

good to modify nouns and we use well to modify verbs. So let's take an example 'She's a really

good guitar player.' Guitar player is the noun and we need an adjective to modify that.

So she's a really good guitar player. Now let's change that sentence 'She plays the

guitar really well.' Now well, the adverb, is modifying the verb play. She plays the

guitar really well. Another example 'He's a good English speaker.' So English speaker

is the noun and we need the adjective good to modify that. Whereas 'He speaks English

really well.' Speaks English, speak is the verb we need an adverb to modify that to tell

us how he does the verb. So he speaks English really well. So good is the adjective, well

is the adverb. And guys wait till the end, there's a little practice exercise for you

to try to see if you can use good and well and all the other confusing word pairs correctly.

So make sure you stay till the end. Let's take number two. Listen versus hear. When

someone first asked me this question I had no idea, there's a difference between listen

and hear? What is it? I'm going to tell you. The big difference between listen and hear

is whether you choose to do the action. So with listen we choose to pay attention to

a sound. For example 'I love listening to music' I choose to pay attention to the music.

It could be jazz, could be soul whatever. With the verb hear we're not choosing to pay

attention to the sound. The sound just comes to us. 'Did you hear that dog barking last

night?' So you are not choosing to pay attention to the sound, the sound it comes to you. There's

no choice in the matter. Now we can use both of them in the same sentence because we can

show that we are suddenly paying attention to a sound. So for example 'Did you just hear

the neighbours? They were having an argument. Let's listen and see if we can hear what they

are saying.' So at first you hear the sound of them arguing, you didn't know they were

going to argue. The sound comes to you and then you choose to pay attention to what they

are saying, you want to know what they are saying. So can you hear our neighbours arguing,

let's listen and see what they are talking about. So let's pay attention to what they

are saying. Remember guys there's a quiz coming up at the end. This one is often confused.

Lend versus borrow. So this is all about who is doing the action. Let's take the example

of a library. I go to the library and I want a book. I want to take a book, read it for

a short time and then give it back. I would borrow the book. So I want the book, I receive

the book, I borrow the book. The library lends me the book. It's their book, they give it

to me for a short time so they lend me the book. Here's a difficult one that often native

speakers find difficult bear and bare. Now these are homophones, they sound the same

but they have different meanings. So bare as a verb it means to uncover and as an adjective

it means something that's not clothed or naked. It can also mean basic and simple like without

extra stuff. So as a verb you could use it 'he bared his chest' so he exposed his chest.

Bear as a verb has lots of different meanings. To carry, could be one. To give birth could

be another one. To hold or support something could be another. Another common one is to

accept an unpleasant situation. Using that meaning a really common phrase would be 'I

can't bear the suspense' So if you think about the end of a TV series and you are really

excited and then it ends and you don't know what's going to happen next you might say

'I can't bear the suspense, what's going to happen?' Like I cant tolerate this unpleasant

situation, the nerves of this moment. Going back to the meaning of carrying something,

you might arrive at someone's house bearing gifts. That means you are carrying gifts.

So yeah it has a couple of meanings that you are going to need to learn. But those are

pretty useful to get you started. One that is often confused for native English speakers

again is affect and effect. Let's take affect with an A. This is a verb. So for example

'I get really affected by sad films'. So you can see there, it's a verb it's being used

as a verb. Whereas effect with an E is a noun and you'll often see it collocate with other

words like special effects for example is a common collocation. 'I love the special

effects in Star Wars.' For those of you that watch Eat Sleep Dream English a lot will know

that I've never seen Star Wars so that sentence isn't true but the grammar is correct. This

is one that my students often confuse rob versus steal. So both of them have the same

idea, that your possession is gone, it's been taken by somebody without your permission.

Rob focuses on the action or the place. So for example 'Did you hear John's house got

robbed last night?' So we are focusing on the location, John's house, and the possessions

were taken from there. Steal focuses on the object, the thing that was taken. So 'When

I was in Barcelona someone stole my phone.' So we are focusing there on the phone. The

thing that was taken. So Rob is for the place or for the action, steal is for the object.

Let's take practise versus practice. One with a C and one with an S. The difference in British

English, one is a noun, one is a verb. With an S, it's a verb. So 'I'm going to go and

practise my guitar.' Using it as a verb. 'I've got football practice tonight.' Football practice

is a noun, so it's with a C. And the final one, altogether versus all together. This

is another one that native English speakers sometimes make mistakes with. Now altogether

is an adverb and it means completely or entirely. 'I went to the Doctor and he gave me some

medicine and my headache disappeared altogether.' So there it means completely or entirely.

No more, gone, finished, it disappeared altogether. All together, two words, all and together

means in a group. So 'We should go to the concert all together.' As a group, all together.

Alright Eat Sleep Dreamers, it's time to practise. Now I'm going to throw up some sentences on

the screen and I want you to choose which word should go into the gap. Are you ready? Here we go!

How was that guys, I hope you found that useful. I hope that you are a little clearer now about

which word to use in a sentence. So, let me know in the comments below if you have any

other confusing word pairs like those ones, let me know. Put them in the comments below,

share them with the rest of the Eat Sleep Dreamers. Remember to follow me on Instagram

where I am @EatSleepDreamEnglish and on Facebook as well. And of course I've got new videos

every Tuesday and every Friday helping you take your English to the next level. Until

next time, this is Tom, the Chief Dreamer, saying goodbye.