DON'T confuse these words! Either or Neither? Advice or Advise? Affect or Effect? + Free PDF & Quiz

Hello everyone and welcome back to English with Lucy. I am very, very excited about today's

video, because you helped me create it. I asked my Instagram followers to tell me some

of the most difficult pairs of English words, words that my students genuinely find tough

to remember, or to say, or to differentiate between. Words like effect and affect, either

and neither, or is it either and neither? We will talk about that.

What about except and accept, or loose and lose? Should you use assure, ensure, or insure?

What do they mean? How do we use them? We will go through all of these and many, many

more. I have 10 sets of confusing English words, and you will leave the lesson feeling

that little bit more knowledgeable.

Before we get started, I would just like to thank the sponsor of today's video. It is

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Right. Let's get started with the confusing English words. I'm going to present to you

10 pairs, or in some cases, trios of words that are generally found to be very, very

confusing. They are confusing to English learners and native speakers alike. I know that I make

mistakes with these words quite frequently.

To help you out even further, to help you learn and memorise all of these little nuances,

I have created a PDF worksheet. It's got all of the information from today's lesson, plus

some extra activities that I think you'll really like. All you have to do to claim this

free PDF is to sign up to my mailing list and it will be sent directly to your inbox.

The link to do that is also in the description box.

So the first one we have, effect and affect. The pronunciation is so similar. With the

first one, beginning with E, I say effect, effect. It's slightly more of an E sound at

the beginning. With the word beginning with A, I use the schwa, affect, affect.

Please note, I am teaching modern received pronunciation here. Of course, there are lots

of variations. But in general, in the UK, I hear people using the schwa A sound for

both affect, effect, affect, effect, the same. I will say affect and effect to emphasise

which word I'm referring to. Both of these words can take the form of both a noun and

a verb.

Affect is most commonly a verb and effect is most commonly a noun. Usually, something

affects something to produce an effect. So to affect, to affect, is to influence something

or somebody. For example, do video games affect children's behaviour? Effect, the noun version,

is a result or an influence. Do video games have an effect on children's behaviour?

Now, effect can be used as a verb, to effect. However, this is quite rare, but it's not

unheard of. It means to achieve or to produce. For example, we hope to effect a change in

policy. Affect can be used as a noun, but this is incredibly rare and it's used in very

specific situations, normally in psychology or psychiatry. And in this case, it means

an emotional response, but I don't really see the value in going into detail in that.

Now, how can you remember which is which? I have a little memory tip, affect comes first,

alphabetically, with A. And an action, affect has to happen first in order to produce an

effect. I don't know if that's made it easier or more complicated, but it made sense in

my head. Okay.

Now we have one with which I really struggle, a pair that I really struggle with. It is

bring and take. They don't sound similar, but my mother always used these interchangeably

when I was growing up. And it's only since I've been with my fiance, William, that I've

realised how often I use these words incorrectly. I will say, if you use these incorrectly,

it's highly likely that we understand what you mean.

Obviously the most important thing is communication, but here we're getting down to the nitty-gritty.

We're looking deep into these words. So bring movement towards somebody. So it depends on

point of view. Normally it's towards the speaker. Now, take implies movement away from someone

or something. Again, it totally depends on whose point of view we're looking at.

Let's have a look at two dialogues. Both of these dialogues are from Tom's point of view.

We have Tom, we have Jane, we are seeing things from Tom's point of view. Tom and Jane are

in the living room. Tom asks, Jane, "Are you going to the kitchen?" And Jane replies with,

"Yes." Tom responds with, "Can you bring me my phone charger?" So Jane will return from

the kitchen with Tom's charger and give the charger to Tom.

Another dialogue, again from Tom's point of view. Tom asks, Jane, "Are you coming over

for dinner tonight?" And Jane responds with, "Yes." Jane doesn't talk much, does she? Tom

then responds with, "Please, could you bring a dessert?" So Jane will carry a dessert from

where she is to where Thomas is, in his house.

So Tom and Jane are at home together. Tom says, "Please could you take this letter to

the post office?" So the letter is moving away from where they are. It's a different

place. Jane, who seems to be very, very nice, very submissive says, "Would you like me to

take you to the station tomorrow?" So she will be carrying Tom from the house to the

station.

Now, I don't know why, with English as my mother tongue, I still find this concept so

difficult to use correctly in my daily life. And that's just a clear example of how frustrating

English can be sometimes. It's my mother tongue, and I still struggle with it, so please don't

beat yourself up if you find some of these concepts quite hard. The most important thing

is communication here.

I might accidentally ask Will, "Oh, can you bring me to the station," instead of, "can

you take me to the station?" And he always rolls his eyes and says, "Take." Oh, it's

so annoying. The same thing happens with lefts and rights. I really struggle with lefts and

rights. I just, my brain doesn't do it. And that's the same with bring and take.

Right. Let's move on to these two words, either, or either, and neither or neither. Now, I

really frequently receive questions about the pronunciation of these words, because

I use the pronunciations interchangeably. How confusing is that? But seriously, there

are just some words in the English language that have two or more accepted pronunciations

and people tend to use both pronunciations.

Now in general, in American English, they tend to use, as far as I'm aware, either and

neither. It seems that in British English, we're more inclined to use both either, either,

neither, neither. My recommendation to you is just pick the one you like best. I can

imagine myself at dinner saying, "Oh, carrots or peas, either is fine." But I can also imagine

myself saying, "Either one will do." Isn't that weird?

I bet there is a study on these words and why we do that, and I need to find it. Now

either, or either, means one or the other of two things or people. Anyone will do, it

does not matter which. Neither, or neither, means not one nor the other of two people

or things. Let me show you an example.

Let's pretend I am in my classroom, teaching my class of students and I ask the classroom

for a synonym for happy. So I want the class to give me another word that also means happy.

Now, Miguel might tell me, "Content." And Rania might tell me, "Cheerful." Both of these

answers are correct, so I can use either word.

See, naturally I went to either there. I can use either word. I can use either word. There

must be some logic to that. Now, Aga says, "Sad." And Nguyen says, "Down." Both of these

answers are wrong. Neither answer is correct.

Okay. Number four, we have advise and advice. So, I-S-E is a, zzz sound at the end, eyes,

advise. I-C-E i a sss sound at the end, ice, advice. In this case, ise is the verb, advise,

to advise. And advice, with ice, is the noun. To advise is to tell somebody what you think

they should do in a particular situation.

An example, I would strongly advise against going out alone. Advice is the noun version

of this. It is a suggestion or an opinion on what somebody should do in a particular

situation. His advice was to not go out alone.

Let's move on to number five. It is practise and practise, the pronunciation of both is

the same. Now in British English, the noun is practise, with I-C-E at the end. And the

verb, to practise, has I-S-E at the end, so we have a difference. In American English,

I-C-E is used for both. So a lot of my students always say, "I find American English easier."

And this is one of the reasons why I totally understand, they have simplified, or it's

not even simplified, it's they've just made some things more logical. I can't think of

many situations in which it would be confusing to have the same spelling for practise as

a noun and practise as a verb, but maybe I'm wrong.

So to practise, as a verb, I-S-E in British English, I-C-E in American English, is to

do an activity or to train in order to improve your skill. And practise, always I-C-E, is

the act of doing an activity or training regularly in order to improve your skill. So let's look

at these two sentences, one is British English, the other is American English. They will sound

exactly the same just with different accents.

Oh no, do I have to do my American accent? In British English, I need to practise my

violin as it takes a lot of practise to play well. And American English. I don't know if

I'm going to leave this in the video, we will see how it goes. I'm sure there's an American

out there watching me thinking, "Shut up." I need to practise my violin as it takes a

lot of practise to play well. I sound like Siri.

Oh, that's so much fun. That is so silly. Right. We have still got five more pairs or

trios of confusing words, but I'm going to stop the lesson here. I don't want to overload

you. So next week, we will have the second part of this lesson. Do not forget to download

the PDF for this first section of the lesson and to complete the activities. I think they

will really help you get these differences and these confusing words into your brain.

Don't forget to check out Skillshare. The first 1,000 of my students to click on the

link in the description box will get a free trial of premium Skillshare membership. Don't

forget to connect with me on all of my social media. I've got my Facebook, my Instagram,

and my email list. I've also got to my new British English pronunciation course where

I teach modern received pronunciation. I'm very, very proud of it and we've had some

fabulous feedback from students so far. I will see you soon for another lesson.