{"id":7399,"date":"2016-07-29t14:35:46","date_gmt":"2016-07-29t21:35:46","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/?p=7399"},"modified":"2018-03-04t17:15:05","modified_gmt":"2018-03-05t01:15:05","slug":"sat-writing-frequently-confused-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/sat\/sat-writing-frequently-confused-words\/","title":{"rendered":"sat writing: frequently confused words"},"content":{"rendered":"

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 \u2018correct\u2019 in a sentence, but are wrong nonetheless. it\u2019s not the fairest system, but we have to work with what we\u2019ve got.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\"sat
the average high school student’s opinion about the english language.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

before we delve into the words themselves, a disclaimer. besides the words i discuss in this article, there are a lot<\/strong> more out there that have the potential to trick you up. the ones i\u2019ve chosen come from my years teaching high school english and act prep. also, if you\u2019re planning to take the act, it\u2019s a good idea to review this list of words, too. you\u2019ll never know how they\u2019ll try to trick you up on the act english test.<\/p>\n

mr. b\u2019s top 14 frequently confused words<\/h2>\n

advice\/advise<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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:<\/strong> i advise you to listen to my advice about the sat.<\/p>\n

among\/between<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

two different words for two different, but related uses. if you have two things, use between. more than two? use among. ex:<\/strong> i\u2019m stuck between a rock and a hard place. i had a good day being among my five friends.<\/p>\n

compliment\/complement<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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:<\/strong> sally gave jane a compliment about how her pretty hat complemented her green dress.<\/p>\n

p.s.<\/em> grammarly<\/strong> goes into great detail on the differences between compliment and complement here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

disinterested\/uninterested<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

in my opinion, these two words should mean the same thing, even though they don\u2019t. disinterested means you have no opinion either way on a topic. uninterested means you don\u2019t care. ex:<\/strong> mark was disinterested in the election because he didn\u2019t know a lot about the candidates. mark was uninterested in the election because he didn\u2019t like either candidate.<\/p>\n

fewer\/less<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

i reckon there\u2019s a 99% chance that the sat will spring the ‘fewer\/less’ trap on you. if you can count what\u2019s being talked about, use fewer. if you can\u2019t, use less. ex:<\/strong> 90 fewer people showed up today than yesterday. i have a lot less motivation than i did when i was younger.<\/p>\n

personal\/personnel<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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:<\/strong> it is rude to read someone\u2019s personal personnel records.<\/p>\n

who\/whom<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

here\u2019s another one i have trouble with from time to time. the best way to defeat who\/whom is to figure out if \u2018he\/she\u2019 or \u2018him\/her\u2019 would work in the sentence. if \u2018he\/she\u2019 works, use who. if \u2018him\/her\u2019 works, use whom. ex:<\/strong> who is going to the store? to whom do i give this letter?<\/p>\n

final thoughts<\/h2>\n

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<\/a>! also, give\u00a0top 10 new sat writing tips<\/a> a read, too. <\/p>\n

that\u2019s all for now, magooshers. take some time this summer to read a book, because believe it or not, you\u2019ll learn more about the english language from any book than a blog post on the internet.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"sat<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

there are a lot of frequently confused words in the english language. in this article, finally learn the true meanings of 14 of them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":154,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[24915],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nsat writing: frequently confused words - magoosh blog | high school<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"there are a lot of frequently confused words in the english language. in this article, finally learn the true meanings of 14 of them.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/sat\/sat-writing-frequently-confused-words\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_us\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"sat writing: frequently confused words\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"there are a lot of frequently confused words in the english language. in this article, finally learn the true meanings of 14 of them.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/sat\/sat-writing-frequently-confused-words\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"magoosh blog | high school\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/magooshsat\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-07-29t21:35:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-03-05t01:15:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/files\/2016\/06\/b0kmc4w.gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"thomas broderick\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@magooshsat_act\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@magooshsat_act\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"thomas broderick\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"article\",\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/sat\/sat-writing-frequently-confused-words\/#article\",\"ispartof\":{\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/sat\/sat-writing-frequently-confused-words\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"thomas broderick\",\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/#\/schema\/person\/0a42ebf95f4c3aaf08c7f83b3ca64abe\"},\"headline\":\"sat writing: frequently confused words\",\"datepublished\":\"2016-07-29t21:35:46+00:00\",\"datemodified\":\"2018-03-05t01:15:05+00:00\",\"mainentityofpage\":{\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/sat\/sat-writing-frequently-confused-words\/\"},\"wordcount\":662,\"commentcount\":2,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/#organization\"},\"articlesection\":[\"sat\"],\"inlanguage\":\"en-us\",\"potentialaction\":[{\"@type\":\"commentaction\",\"name\":\"comment\",\"target\":[\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/sat\/sat-writing-frequently-confused-words\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"webpage\",\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/sat\/sat-writing-frequently-confused-words\/\",\"url\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/sat\/sat-writing-frequently-confused-words\/\",\"name\":\"sat writing: frequently confused words - 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