21 Confusing English Nouns | English Vocabulary

Do you like your job or is it?

Do you like your work?

How's the wedding or how's the marriage?

There are many confusing words in English  that students often use incorrectly.

Let's fix that.

Today you'll learn how to use these 21  confusing but very common English nouns.

Welcome back to JForrest English.

Of course, I'm Jennifer.

Now let's get started.

First, let's review job and work,  and let's review these as a quiz.

Here's the question.

She applied for a new at the law firm, a new job.

Did you get that?

I applied for a new job because job is a specific  position or employment where a person earns money.

Of course work though is about the general effort  tasks or labor, so not the actual position.

The tasks for example you  can say do you like your job?

This is asking about the specific position.

Now you can also say do you like your work,  and this is more focused on the tasks you do,  

but ultimately they're the same and a native  speaker would use them interchangeably.

However, you cannot say she got  a new work, she got a new work.

You can't say that.

You must say she got a new job.

Now.

This is because work is a collective noun.

So in the example sentence it use ah.

You can't use ah with work  because work is a collective noun.

So remember you would say I have so much work.

Work would stay as the singular  because it's a collective.

I have so much work to do.

Now remember work is also a verb to work.

So you could say right now I'm working  the verb in the present continuous.

I'm working to jobs, two jobs,  2 positions to make ends meet,  

which means to make enough money  to survive, I have to work.

So now I'll quiz you again.

He's looking for new, but  finding a good takes time.

What do you think?

He's looking for new work, because  remember, work is a collective noun,  

and collective nouns don't take articles.

So he's looking for a good job.

Don't worry about taking notes because I  summarize everything in a free lesson PDF.

You can find the link in the description.

Now let's talk about story and history.

I hear mistakes with these two all the time.

Here's your quiz.

The book is based on real,  not fiction, on real history.

This is history in the making.

So a story is a narrative.

It can be real or it can be fictional, not real,  and is told for entertainment or information.

Now history, this is a  factual record of past events.

So you could say the story about the company dates  back to 1920, dates back to means starts in 1920.

Now, you could also say the history you would need  

the preposition of the history of  this company dates back to 1920.

So with the story of the company,  you're going to hear a story,  

characters, themes, but the history  is going to be the factual record.

You can say he told an amazing  story about his trip to Africa.

And notice here you tell a story.

That's the colocation.

You can also say we learned about  the history of the English language.

Today.

There are many different  verbs that go with history.

For example, you learn, read, discover,  discuss, debate, and many other choices.

How about this quiz question?

He told a funny, but it had  nothing to do with actual.

This one's easy, right?

He told a funny story.

It had nothing to do with actual history.

The record of past events number  three, wedding and marriage.

Do these confuse you?

How about this quiz question?

Were you invited to their to their wedding?

Because wedding is the event, we  are invited to Suki's wedding.

It's a ceremony where two people get married.

So it's an event.

It takes place on a specific  date and time location.

Marriage is the relationship between  two people after they're married.

So you can ask when is your wedding or when  was your wedding because it's in the past.

But you can't say when is or  

was your marriage because it's not an  event so there's no specific date of it.

If you want to ask a question like that,  

you actually have to change the structure  and say how long have you been married.

So to be married, this means  you're legally husband and wife.

Now you can say their wedding didn't last long.

So the actual ceremony where they exchange  rings was only 30 minutes, one hour.

Their wedding.

The event didn't last long.

You can also say their marriage didn't last long,  

but that means their relationship didn't  last long so they are no longer together.

How about this quiz question?

There was beautiful, but there  has been full of challenges.

Their wedding, the event was  beautiful, but their marriage,  

their relationship after the  wedding has been full of challenges.

Bad memories, bad marriage.

Let's talk about these two confusing nouns.

I'm not going to say them because the  main confusion is the pronunciation.

The Sahara is the largest in the  world, so which 11S or 2SS1S is  

desert, dry, arid land with little  rainfall, Which describes our quiz.

The other one with two s s is dessert,  a sweet dish eaten after a meal.

Of course you know that, so let's  focus on that pronunciation.

So one as dry, arid land, desert, desert.

So notice the syllable stress is  on the 1st sound Dada, desert.

And then 2S is sweets, chocolate,  dessert, dessert, dessert.

The syllable stress is on the  second syllable da da dessert.

So make sure you practice that pronunciation.

So let's practice this together.

Now after crossing the desert,  we enjoyed a delicious dessert.

Make sure you shadow my pronunciation.

Let us enjoy the wonderful desserts  #5 Let's talk about price and cost.

Here's your quiz question.

The of studying abroad is high when you factor  in tuition, housing, food and transportation.

Here, because of the context, we need cost.

The cost of everything is too high because price  is the amount of money needed to buy something.

So there's A tag or a  sticker, and it has the price.

Cost, on the other hand, is total.

So think of total expenses,  including hidden or indirect factors.

Now, in a store, you would absolutely  say how much does this cost?

But keep in mind that the word cost here  is a verb, and this lesson is about nouns.

That's going to cost a lot of money.

You would not say how much does this price  because price is a noun and not a verb.

You can absolutely say what is and then  the noun what is the price of the laptop.

Now you could also ask what is the total  cost of the laptop and many speakers  

will add the word total in front of cost.

So that means the price of the  laptop, tax warranty, accessories,  

anything else that's included, that's the cost.

Now remember as a verb you can absolutely  say the laptop costs 1200 dollars.

But remember cost there is a verb.

Let's review these together as a quiz.

The of the car was low, but the long term  of insurance and maintenance is high.

The price of the car is low, but then  the total cost insurance, maintenance.

So the second one is cost number  six, chance and opportunity.

This job offer is a great for your career.

What do you need?

A great opportunity.

It's a great opportunity.

Chance is a possibility or  probability of something happening.

It sounds quite neutral, but opportunity, this  is a favorable situation for achieving something.

So the word opportunity sounds positive.

There is a 30% chance of rain tomorrow.

You wouldn't say opportunity.

You would use chance because  you're talking about probability.

Now you could also say there's  a chance of probability.

I could get the job.

Not the work, the job.

Now you can modify chance.

You can say slight, small or low,  

good, fair or moderate chance or  high, strong or excellent chance.

There's an excellent chance I'll get the job.

Now you can say I hope I get the job  because it's a great opportunity.

So to modify opportunity, we generally  use positive words such as great,  

amazing, excellent, perfect, or golden.

A golden opportunity.

How about this quiz?

This scholarship is a real and you  have no of winning the lottery,  

you have no chance of winning the lottery.

So go for the scholarship  because it's a great opportunity.

Small chance, What a chance #7 loan and debt.

How about this?

We took out A to buy the car.

Ah, we took out a loan, got it covered.

I took a loan.

So a loan.

This is Money borrowed that must be repaid.

You can get this from a bank, a friend  or a family member, or a private company.

Now debt, this is the total amount of money owed.

You take out a loan, that's  the most common colocation.

You take out a loan, You can  also use get you get a loan.

But with debt, you simply have,  you possess it, you have debt.

Now why do you have debt?

Because you took out loans.

So they go together.

You can say I have so much debt.

Debt is a collective noun,  so notice no S and so much.

Or you can say I have so many  loans I need to repay this year.

Loan is a regular noun, so it's singular plural.

How about this quiz question?

The helped him buy the car, but  now he has to manage his the loan.

It's something the money you borrow the  loan, but he has to manage his debt,  

the total amount of money he owes  and notice that pronunciation.

Did you notice the B was silent?

Debt, debt, debt.

I'm deep in debt.

Now let's talk about these two again.

I will not say them because the confusion is  in their pronunciation and similar spellings.

So here's the quiz question.

Can you pick up my from the dry cleaners?

Can you pick up my suit?

Suit.

I'll go get my suit on.

This is a set of matching clothes.

It can also mean a legal case, but most  commonly it means a set of matching clothes.

But the other word is pronounced sweet suite.

This is a set of connected  rooms, often in a hotel,  

but can also be in an apartment  complex or condo complex.

It can also be a collection of software, so you'll  probably hear that word with software as well.

So now let's focus on the  pronunciation with these examples.

He wore a Navy blue suit, so repeat out for me.

Oot oot suit suit.

He wore a Navy blue suit to  the interview our hotel suite.

It's the exact same as chocolate is suite.

The hotel suite had a beautiful ocean view.

How about this quiz?

Why are you wearing your NR?

What do you need for pronunciation?

Why are you wearing your suit in our suite?

Your suit in our suite?

That's one for you to practice and of  course, take it off and relax for a bit.

Where on vacation?

Our next confusing pair.

Again, the confusion could be because of the  spelling and pronunciation, so I won't say them.

Here's the quiz.

Please keep your for reimbursement.

Please keep your receipt Receipt.

There is no P in the word receipt, no receipts.

This is a document that proves payment  so you get it when you buy something.

Now reimbursement means you give this receipt  

to your employer for the laptop  and they give you the money back.

That's reimbursement now recipe repeat  after me Recipe recipe, receipt, recipe.

So notice receipt.

You have the word seat in it.

Receipt, recipe recipe of course  is instructions for preparing food.

You can absolutely say I lost the receipt, but  make sure your pronunciation matches what you  

say because you can equally say I lost my  recipe, but the meaning is very different.

You can also say I need a  receipt or I need a recipe.

So grammatically, often both sentences are  correct, but the meaning is very different.

Let's try this quiz.

I kept the for the ingredients  and I followed the AH.

Did this confuse you?

You keep a receipt, the  receipt for the ingredients.

It shows you what ingredients you bought.

Maybe because it's for reimbursement and you  follow a recipe, you follow instructions,  

and a recipe provides instructions.

Did you get that one?

Did you follow the recipe #10  again, confusing spelling,  

confusing pronunciation,  totally different meanings.

I won't say them yet.

What can we do to improve  workplace workplace morale?

Morale, morale.

Watching the gossip and lifting  the morale in the house.

Now compare that to moral.

Moral.

The sound is less stressed.

I don't open my mouth as wide moral moral.

Now a moral is a lesson about right or wrong.

It's also standards of right or wrong.

So you can think of it as  ethical lessons or ethical codes.

It tells you how to behave.

Morale Repeat after me morale.

So notice that long ow morale.

Morale.

This is the level of confidence  or enthusiasm in a group.

It's very common in business.

You can think of it as the  team spirit or the team mood.

So the moral of the story, the lesson,  

the ethical lesson, the moral of  the story, which is very common.

The moral of the story is  to always tell the truth.

Or parents should teach  their children strong morals.

As a noun, you can have singular or plural morals.

How about this one?

Employee morale.

Remember, this is commonly  used in a business context.

It can also be used in a sports context.

Anything where teams are involved.

Employee morale improved, so the spirit, the  mood, the confidence of the group of the team.

Employee morale improved after the company gave  bonuses, or you could say after the CEO quit,  

the company's morale dropped to an all time low.

So the mood, the spirit, the  confidence of the team was low.

How about this quiz?

The leader's speech boosted the teams and taught  an important lesson about, well, the teams.

That tells you it would be morale.

Morale and taught a lesson.

Moral so also look for those keywords  that tell you which one you need.

It's called the moral of the story #11  again, pronunciation and perhaps spelling.

So here's the quiz.

The of the apartment complex are very friendly.

The residents.

The residents.

This is people who live in a place.

But when you have an S on that noun meaning more  than one, it sounds exactly the same as residence.

Residence, which is a place where someone lives.

So the pronunciation is virtually identical when  

resident is in the plural form,  and it sounds like residence.

So this might be confusing in spoken English.

You can say his official  residence place where he lives.

His official residence is in New York.

You could also say residents of New  York, people who live in New York.

Residents of New York must pay a new tax.

Now you can use this in the singular and  there's less confusion with the pronunciation.

She's all resident in the new senior residence,  the place where seniors live or in the plural,  

where it sounds similar, identical their  residents in the new senior residents.

How about this quiz?

The new has space for 50.

The new residents place where  people live has space for 50 people.

SO50 residents.

Mazal Residence.

Our final confusing pair, weather and climate.

What's the like today?

The keyword is today.

So today we need weather because weather  

is for short term conditions in a  specific place at a specific time.

Climate is of course the longer term  conditions in a specific place and  

it's over a significant period of time, 30 years.

So you can of course ask what's  the weather like in Singapore.

If you ask that, you're basically  saying today or right now.

If you ask what's the climate like in  Singapore, you're going to get a different  

answer because that means in general,  not necessarily right now, in general.

So both are grammatically correct, but  the answer you receive will be different.

Now you could say we had to cancel  the event because of the weather.

The event takes place on a specific  day, so it's not climate, it's weather.

But you can make a general statement  and say we have less outdoor events  

because of climate change,  because of climate change.

So that's talking about overall  and not necessarily now.

How about this quiz?

The in the mountains changes quickly, but  the is generally cold throughout the year.

Well, throughout the year tells me that you're  talking about climate and changing quickly.

Well, that tells me you're  talking about current conditions.

So weather, Hey John boy, how's the weather?

There are many more confusing  words in the English language.

If you want another lesson like this, put let's  go, let's go put, let's go in the comments.

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