hello again, magooshers. mr. b here today to talk to you about a topic that can make or break your score on the sat writing and language test: frequently confused words. yes, the english language has left us with plenty of words that sound or look ‘correct’ in a sentence, but are wrong nonetheless. it’s not the fairest system, but we have to work with what we’ve got.
before we delve into the words themselves, a disclaimer. besides the words i discuss in this article, there are a lot more out there that have the potential to trick you up. the ones i’ve chosen come from my years teaching high school english and act prep. also, if you’re planning to take the act, it’s a good idea to review this list of words, too. you’ll never know how they’ll try to trick you up on the act english test.
mr. b’s top 14 frequently confused words
advice/advise
ah, yes, where one little letter makes all the difference in the world. the key difference here is that advice is a noun and advise is a verb. ex: i advise you to listen to my advice about the sat.
among/between
two different words for two different, but related uses. if you have two things, use between. more than two? use among. ex: i’m stuck between a rock and a hard place. i had a good day being among my five friends.
compliment/complement
even i have trouble remembering the difference between these two sometimes. a compliment is when you give praise to someone or something, while complement refers to something that makes something else whole or better. ex: sally gave jane a compliment about how her pretty hat complemented her green dress.
p.s. grammarly goes into great detail on the differences between compliment and complement here.
disinterested/uninterested
in my opinion, these two words should mean the same thing, even though they don’t. disinterested means you have no opinion either way on a topic. uninterested means you don’t care. ex: mark was disinterested in the election because he didn’t know a lot about the candidates. mark was uninterested in the election because he didn’t like either candidate.
fewer/less
i reckon there’s a 99% chance that the sat will spring the ‘fewer/less’ trap on you. if you can count what’s being talked about, use fewer. if you can’t, use less. ex: 90 fewer people showed up today than yesterday. i have a lot less motivation than i did when i was younger.
personal/personnel
like other commonly confused words, this one can fall through the cracks because the words look alike. when something is personal, it relates to just one person. personnel are employees at a company. ex: it is rude to read someone’s personal personnel records.
who/whom
here’s another one i have trouble with from time to time. the best way to defeat who/whom is to figure out if ‘he/she’ or ‘him/her’ would work in the sentence. if ‘he/she’ works, use who. if ‘him/her’ works, use whom. ex: who is going to the store? to whom do i give this letter?
final thoughts
hopefully, this guide has cleared up a few commonly confused words. like i mentioned earlier, there are more out there, so be sure to review other resources. check out magoosh’s expert advice for even more sat writing and language practice! also, give top 10 new sat writing tips a read, too.
that’s all for now, magooshers. take some time this summer to read a book, because believe it or not, you’ll learn more about the english language from any book than a blog post on the internet.
leave a reply