Do You Know Which Word To Use? Confusing WORD PAIRS

hi there I hope you're having a

fantastic day I'm Drew Badger and in

this video we're going to cover seven

word pairs that are confusing both for

native speakers and English learners the

first one is could have should have and

would have now we contrast this with

could of should of and would of when

we're speaking obviously these don't

really make much difference and

typically the sound of it it sounds like

I should have done something I should

have done something like I should have

done something or I could have done

something where I would have done

something but grammatically correct

speech we'd have there so I would have

done something or I should have done

something or I could have done something

but when we form contractions of these

it becomes would've could've and

should've so again when you're speaking

these don't really make much of a

difference because it really obviously

you're not spelling anything but when

you're writing something down this

becomes incredibly important you should

not be using should of could of and

would up you're talking about oh I wish

something maybe I'm regretting something

about the past like I should have I

should of and again this is should have

like I should have locked my door before

i left my house I should have locked my

door before i left my house so the

blending of it the pronunciation is

actually really great if you want to

think about it as should of but when you

write it it's either should with the

apostrophe and ve you're making a

contraction or you have should have if

you're nervous about this you don't

remember which it is don't make the

contraction just make the actual full

two words should have would have and

could have next this is one of the most

commonly confused things and this is for

both native English speakers and

non-natives and this is except vs except

except and except it's basically the

same pronunciation so it's an

understandable thing that people would

have trouble using these in their

writing but when you talk about

accepting something just think of except

as a verb you accept something like

you're receiving something but except

with an e you're talking about like a

result and this is typically a noun so

you're saying oh I like like the

exception to the rule or something again

we're using it this way where we're

talking about a noun as

to whether we should be using like a

verb like I accept the consequences of

my actions so I'm receiving something

and that's the actual verb versus the

noun form so think about whether you're

talking about a noun or verb are you

talking about an action or a result if

you're talking about an action think

about a with action so you've got accept

and you're talking about the opposite

then you wouldn't use a you would have e

for that so that's the exception to the

rule except next we've got loose and

loose lose and loops lose just means the

opposite of whim and if you think about

oh I lost the game I'm losing something

right now LOSC to lose something but

loose loose and listen carefully to the

difference in these pronunciations lose

it's like LOC or Lu Zhi or something

lose versus loose now to have something

that's loose means like if i look at the

neck of my shirt like hear the caller

here my collar is quite loose like the

color is quite loose it's not tight like

it's choking me right now so if it is

tight or the opposite of loose i'm

talking about something that's like

flowing freely or maybe you've got pants

that keep falling down because they're

just not very tight rounded so those

pants are loose but listen carefully to

how these blend and try using them in

your conversations as well as putting

these in the comments below the more you

practice using these the more you will

get used to using them automatically

incorrectly in your conversations so my

pants are very loose but I will lose the

game or we are losing the basketball

game right now next complement versus

compliment this is another hominem and

hominem just means like the same sound

so hum old same home old same so we've

got the same sound for two different

words compliment and compliment and

again this is one of those things where

in a conversation when you're speaking

it doesn't matter because you don't know

what the spelling is but it is really

important for your writing because if

you make these mistakes you really look

well kind of dumb I suppose so people

are maybe looking even at like a resume

or a teacher grading your writing

they're going to think why does this

person not know the difference between

these two words it should be quite

obvious

anyway a compliment when you're talking

about receiving a kind word from

somebody else that is a compliment with

an eye and a compliment where you're

talking about two things going well

together that's complement with an e so

compliment if you think about just a

good way to remember this you're

complimenting or someone is

complimenting you like I am receiving a

compliment so I we've got the compliment

in I the I letter is in that so it's a

compliment for I or a compliment for me

so this is a great way to remember that

so when you're writing this think about

it is someone saying something nice

about I about myself and this is a

compliment where if you're talking about

two things going well ah these two

dishes for our meal complement each

other so this is where you would use the

e complement compliment next is another

pair of words that's really confusing

both of these words are correct but

they're often just misused in

conversations and these are less and

fewer less and fewer now people will

often talk about less and fewer when

they're talking about maybe the amount

of something but one is used for the

amount of something where you can't

count it and the other is used for

counting the amount of something where

you actually have an individual thing or

individual things you can count now

we're talking about let's say if you're

at the grocery store and you see the

sign that says 10 items or less the sign

actually should say 10 items or fewer

now the reason people don't use this in

conversations is because people just

want to express themselves more quickly

and it's easier to say 10 items or less

10 items or less than it is to say 10

items or fewer it just has kind of a

maybe a more awkward way of pronouncing

it and people actually get the sense for

less being correct in that way but when

you're talking about les like les

information this is something that you

can't count so I have less money than I

had yesterday but I have fewer dollars

in my pocket so if you're talking about

the amount of something like you can

lower your hand like this but you can't

count it exactly you got less and less

space in your hand but if this way

you're talking about the amount of

something you've got fewer and fewer and

fewer you're talking about the actual

number

something like that so to remember it

nice and easily if you think about fewer

you've got the ER at the end of that for

number so fewer you've got numbers for

that so you can actually remember it

more easily that way and again this is

really important for writing but in your

conversations as well if you can use it

correctly it certainly help you and make

you look more intelligent or at least

maybe not look dumb like we sometimes do

when we express things in an incorrect

way anyway so if you're talking about

less than something we're talking about

the amount of something but fewer and

something we've got that er for number

we can count that things you should have

fewer items in your shopping cart

instead of less items next we've got

amused and a bemused amused and bemused

both of these are a little bit more

advanced and you might not hear them as

often in conversations or see them as

often in writing but they will appear

when you were amused by something it's

funny to you it's interesting i'm like

amused by that clown that's dancing and

doing something maybe I've got like

something stuck on my face right now and

that's amusing to you but when you are

bemused by something this means maybe

you're confused by something so you're

actually like I don't really know what

to do i'm dealing with a problem over

here that's bemusing it's troubling for

me or confusing for me in some way so

when you think about be something like

be like become or bemused you're talking

about like being in a position of

something so you're bemused you're in a

position of like muse montork like kind

of confusion in some way but amused

you're just talking about having

something that's funny or interesting

for you and the final tricky pair that

we'll talk about is disinterested versus

uninterested disinterested versus

uninterested now if the the key to

understanding these really is in the

prefix and this is a little bit of the

word at the beginning we've got diff and

on so disinterested and uninterested

they sound like basically they're the

same word but the meanings are actually

quite different if you think about just

being interested in something like wow

I'm like focused on something hopefully

you're interested in this lesson if you

are not then I'm guess I'm doing a bad

job but if you are interested in the

lesson it means you're focusing and your

giving me your attention but if you're

uninterested that would be the opposite

so maybe you're just like oh look there

goes a bird and I'm watching something

like you're not paying any attention to

this lesson also it is not interesting

you it is uninteresting so this is when

you're talking about using the UH this

is typically when we would talk about

the opposite of something interested

uninterested but this interested means

you're just kind of impartial and you

want maybe a disinterested judge in a

court case where you've got two

different people if they are both

arguing if you have a person that maybe

cares about more about one side or one

group of people than the other than you

haven't like an interested party

somebody that's actually caring about

one person or group more than the other

one and that's going to make for a very

very bad judge in that case so you want

a disinterested person any disinterested

person is not interested one way or the

other it doesn't really matter so when

you're thinking about like oh like I was

talking to my brother and he seemed

uninterested in what I was saying I'm

saying that he is he's not interested or

he doesn't care but if I'm talking about

maybe I need some like advice from

someone I need some advice from a disk

interested person so it doesn't matter

like they're not trying to sell me

something or get me to do something it

doesn't matter to them so they are

disinterested disinterested well I hope

these have been interesting for you hope

you have been interested in not either

either disinterested or uninterested but

hopefully it's been an interesting

lesson if it has do click that like

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that and I look forward to seeing you in

the next video bye bye