[ssba]
Did you walk to work this morning? I wonder if you bought a wok to cook dinner then went for a wander and a beer with a bear. Here are 10 commonly confused words, we hope you thoroughly enjoy them: These two words are very often confused. Both use long vowels: Try to remember that ‘walk’ looks like and rhymes with ‘talk’. These are very similar and the main thing to remember is that they are both pronounced in the way that you do not expect: These very small but extremely useful words differ in very subtle ways: You can see that ‘of’ ends – surprisingly – with a voiced /v/ sound. This is the only word in English (to my knowledge!) that ends with an ‘f’ but sounds like a /v/. Take care to remember to use the schwa in ‘of’ if it’s the weak form. [thrive_leads id=’7075′] A very tricky, contradictory little group here! Sadly there is not much to do but memorise these ones: Sometimes students use the voiceless sound at the ends of words when they should really use the voiced sound. This can change the meaning of the word quite drastically! Some examples include: Although there is only one spelling pattern being used here, there are two different pronunciations and multiple meanings! The two pronunciations are /əʊ/ to rhyme with ‘oh’ and /aʊ/ to rhyme with ‘ow’. These words all use diphthongs: Similar sorts of words include: In this previous blog post I talked about the many different pronunciations of the spelling ‘ough’. Here, I’d like to clarify the pronunciation of these five ‘ough’ words specifically because the rest of the spelling is so similar and therefore so confusing:10 Commonly Confused Words
1. walk, work
work /wɜ:k/ – looks like it should rhyme with ‘for’, but the ‘w’ changes the vowel sound to /ɜ:/2. bought, boat
boat /bəʊt/ – this uses the diphthong in ‘no’3. match, much
much /mʌtʃ/ – this uses the short vowel in ‘cut’ – make sure you relax the lips and tongue for this sound.4. wonder, wander
wander /ˈwɒndə/ – ‘wan’ looks like it should rhyme with ‘ban’ but in fact it rhymes
with ‘on’5. of, off
off /ɒf/6. loose, lose, choose, chose
lose – infinitive verb – /lu:z/
chose – past simple of choose! – /tʃəʊz/7. leave, leaf
8. bow, bow, row, row, sow, sow
bow /baʊ/ – noun – the front of a ship
bow /baʊ/ – verb – ‘actors bow at the end of a play’
row /rəʊ/ – verb – ‘row a boat’
row /raʊ/ – verb – to argue
sow /saʊ/ – noun – a female pig9. bear, beer
beer /bɪə/ – this rhymes with ‘ear’
here, hear /hɪə/
tear (water from your eyes when you cry) /tɪə/
rear /rɪə/10. tough, though, through, thorough, thought
though /ðəʊ/
through /θru:/
thorough /ˈθʌrə/
The above words all end in ‘ough’ but below is a very similar one ending in ‘ought’:
thought /θɔ:t/