Dmytryk A. Y., Panchenko V. V.

Municipal Establishment «Kharkiv Humanitarian Pedagogical Academy»

of Kharkiv Regional Council

Confusing words and some common mistakes in English

In the English language, as in any others, there are many nuances in grammar, punctuation, pronunciation and, of course, vocabulary. Confusing words are considered to be a separate top and obstacle that anyone, who has decided to learn English, must achieve. Mastering English and consequently using it for communication, we often find ourselves in a difficult or even a funny situation using similar, but the wrong word. This is because the English speech is full of such words that are easily confused with each other because of similarity in spelling (advise and advice), pronunciation (allusion and illusion) or meaning (imply and infer) [2]. It is difficult to decide what is right and appropriate in this context, therefore, not to make a mistake in translation or usage of certain words we should clearly realize all the intricacies of their meaning.

So, the aim of this work is to research and identify the most common confusing words for their correct usage and translation. In English they have an unofficial name «Confusing words» or «Confusable words».

The English language has many confusing words. Some words may look alike; some may sound alike, or some may both sound and look alike. However similar these words seem, they may have different meanings and origins. Confusing these words is a very easy mistake to make. Such easily confused words are one of the major challenges faced by English learners as well as native speakers. There are three types of confusing words:

1. words that sound alike:

words that have identical pronunciation are known as homophones in linguistics. Although these words sound alike, they have different spellings and meanings. Stair/stare, feet/feat, right/write, waist/waste, wear/where, there/their are some examples of homophones;

2. words that look alike:

words that have identical spellings, but different meanings are known as homographs: bow – 1) to bend at the waist; 2) the front of a boat; 3)a pair of tied loops, accent – 1) stress or emphasis; 2) a manner of speaking or pronunciation influenced by the region in which one lives or grew up;

3. words that look and sound alike

words that look and sound alike are the trickiest of all. There is often no way to identify the difference but look at the context: rose – the flower/ past from the verb «rise».

Particular attention should be paid to interlingual homonyms, that are similar in spelling and/or pronunciation. They are of common origins, but different in meaning. These words are the biggest obstacle during translation. For example, angina – стенокардія, а не ангіна, genial – добрий, а не геніальний, magazine – журнал, а не магазин; mosquito – комар, а не москіт, data – данні, а не дата.

In the book by Michael Swan «Practical English usage» there are about 93 pairs of confusing words and phrases such as advice/advise, affect/effect, complement/compliment, between/among, to/two/too, weather/whether [3, p. 15]. For example, if we hesitate how to translate words dessert and desert, we should consult the dictionary. These words belong to «Confusing words», because they are similar in spelling but different in pronunciation and meaning, so dessert [dɪzɜːrt] - a sweet food and desert [dezət] – a large area of land where it is always very dry. If there are difficulties in translation, just guess the meaning from the context, for example, 1) Today volunteers will also be selling home-made cookies, cakes and dessert rolls. 2) I listen to the sounds of silence and feel the magic and mystique of the desert. As for complement and compliment, complement is something which completes or brings to perfection, to make complete: Red wine is a nice complement to a steak dinner; compliment is something said in admiration, praise, or flattery, to pay a compliment to congratulate: She gave me a nice compliment when she said I looked thin.

Many words have similar meanings: among/between, continual/continuous, imply/infer, farther/further, can/may. To choose from some of these tricky words, we must learn the shades of meaning, subtle differences between them and select the one that will convey the right idea to the reader. For example, the difference between among and between has nothing to do with number, as is sometimes alleged. Among tends to be a little more vague, referring to collective relationships: «This opinion predominated among the members of the committee». Between is more specific, referring to one-on-one relationships: «Many close and lasting friendships were formed between members of the committee». Continual indicates that an event occurs frequently, but intermittently: «The dog barked continually that week». Continuous implies nonstop activity of some sort: «The dog had barked continuously since the time they arrived». Thus, it would be incorrect to use the word continuous to describe a regularly occurring event. «Independence Day has been celebrated as a federal holiday continuously since 1938» would suggest that every day is Independence Day. Nauseated indicates a state of nausea: «Smelling the old socks made him nauseated». Nauseous indicates the power to produce nausea: «The smell of the old socks was nauseous». Don’t say «I feel nauseous», unless you are sure you have that effect on others.

Travel, trip, tour, cruise, ramble, voyage, trek, wandering, wayfaring, expedition, safari – it is not a full list of the words which British people use to name travelling. However, in some cases context requires to use only one, particular word from the list of synonyms. There are four most common «confusing words» for travelling – travel, trip, voyage and journey: The noun travel is a general word, meaning to move from place to place, usually over long distances: World travel gives you a new perspective .A journey means moving from one place to another, especially in a vehicle. It is a single piece of travel. A journey can also be a regular thing. A journey from London to Paris can now be completed in under than 3 hours. A trip describes the whole process of going somewhere and coming back, we describe the roundtrips, which are made for a particular purpose: Yesterday I went on a day trip to mountains. Voyages are less common nowadays. A voyage is a very long trip, usually at sea or in space: Many voyages were made to the Indian Ocean during that period [1, p. 98].

All in all, confusing words are one of the trickiest areas in the language. The English language is rich in so-called «confusing words». Beautiful, literate English is based not only on the correct usage of grammatical rules and compatibility features of the words, but also on the correct pronunciation. So, for appropriate and advisable usage of confusing words, we shouldn’t pay attention to persistent obstacles, we should conquer the summit «confusing words» and confidently step to reach our goals.

Literature:

1. Англійська мова. Комплексне видання / І. В. Доценко, О. В. Євчук, О.О. Ходаковська. – К. : Літера ЛТД, 2014. – 304 с.

2. Сommonly Сonfused Words. [Electronic resource] / – Maramec: CWC, 2004 –Mode of access: http://www.stlcc.edu/Student_Resources/Academic_Resources/Writing_Resources/Grammar_Handouts/commonly_confused_words.pdf

3. Swan M. Practical English Usage. Third edition. / Michael Swan. –Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. – 690 p.