1. HARD (adj) and HARDLY (adv) Hard means difficult; Hardly means barely, scarely.
The finals were hard and only a few of the students passed.
He was so surprised that he could hardly say anything.
- IMAGINARY (adj) and IMAGINATIVE (adj) Imaginary means something that is not real, Imaginative describes a person who shows great imagination.
The little girl created an imaginary guest and served her tea.
The authors of science fiction stories are imaginative writers.
- IMMORTAL (adj) and IMMORAL (adj) Immortal means something which cannot die; Immoral means something bad or evil according to the moral law.
The music of Beethoven is immortal.
Her immoral conduct shocked her family.
- INDUSTRIAL (adj) and INDUSTRIOUS (adj) Industrial means belonging to industry; Industrious means hard – working.
There is usually a lot of pollution in industrial areas.
He is a very industrious worker and managed to finish his degree in two years.
- INSPIRATION (n) and ASPIRATION (n) Inspiration means stimulation; Aspiration means ambition.
The poet got his inspiration from nature.
Her aspiration was to become a well – known movie star.
- INTELLIGENT (adj) and INTELLIGIBLE (adj) Intelligent means possessing a lot of mental ability; Intelligible means easily understood.
Nine – year – old Tom is so intelligent that he can complete with adults on general knowledge.
Her instructions before the test were not very intelligible.
- LATER (adj) and LATTER (pron, adj) Later is the comparative form of late; Latter means the second of two persons or things.
There is a yellow grammar book and a blue one, but the latter is better.
You are busy now. I’ll come back later.
- LAY (v) and LIE (v) Lay (laid, laid, laying) means to place or put and takes an object; Lie (lay, lain, lying) means to repose horizontally and naver takes an object.
He laid his hand on her head.
She can lie in the sun for hours.
- LIE (v) and LIE(v) Lie (lay, lain, lying) means to repose (as above); Lie (lied, lied, lying) means not to tell the truth.
He is lying on the sofa.
He is lying again about why he did not phone.
- LIKE (prep) and SUCH AS (prep) Like means in the manner of and takes an object; Such as menas for example.
You should like my teacher.
Reading non – fiction such as newspapers and news magazines will help you.
- LONELY (adj) and ALONE (adj) Lonely means feeling abandoned; Alone means not accompanied.
She told us she had no friends and was feeling lonely.
She likes to go shopping alone.
- LOOSE (adj) and LOSE (v) Loose is the opposite of tight; Lose means be unable to find something or the opposite of win.
I always seem to lose my umbrella.
She feels more comfortable in loose clothes.
The team never thought it would lose such an easy game.
- MAYBE (adv) and MAY BE (v) Maybe means possibly; may be means that a possibility exsists.
It may be an easy test.
Maybe we’ll get the results tomorrow.
- PASSED (v) and PAST (n) Passed means went by or took successfully (exam) Past means a time before the present.
He was happy because he passed the exam.
A friend passed by without noticing me.
In the past, horses were used for transportation.
- PERSONAL (adj) and PERSONNEL (n) Personal means private, Personnel means the workers in a company or business.
The letter was marked personal so the secretary did not open it.
All the personnel of the company wore an identity tag.
- PRECEDE (v) and PROCEED (v) Precede means to come before; Proceed means to go ahead.
In the driving test the written exam precedes the practical one.
After a short break, we proceeded with the agenda.
- PRINCIPAL (n,adj) and PRINCIPLE (n) Principal means very important, primary, or the director of a school, Principle means a belief or doctrine.
The principal of the school congratulated the faculty and the students on the good results this year.
The principal cause of World War I was the assassination of an Austrian archduke.
We had to take a course in the principles of education.
- QUIET (adj) and QUITE (adv) Quiet means without noise; Quite means completely, very, or fairly.
The classroom was quiet during the test.
He was quite wrong to ignore the traffic lights when they were red.
The exam was quite difficult.
- RAISE (v) and RISE (v) Raise means to lift and takes an object (raise, raised, raising); rise means to go up and never takes an object (rise, rose, risen, rising).
He raised his hand.
The sun rose.
- REMEMBER (v) and REMIND (v) Remember means to recall or think of again; Remind means to cause someone to remember.
It’s nice of you to remember my birthday.
Can you remind me to bring you the book?
- SENSIBLE (adj) and SENSITIVE (adj) Sensible means having good judgment; sensitive means touchy, or easily affected by external influences.
It is not sensible to do strenuous physical exercise in very hot weather.
Never mention her weight; she is very sensitive about it.
- SPECIAL (adj) and ESPECIALLY (adv) Special refers to unusual quality or something which receives a lot of attention; Especially means particularly.
John is good at art and especially good at portraits.
John has a special talent for portraits.
- STATIONARY (adj) and STATIONERY (n) Stationary means permanent, not moving; Stationery means paper, envelopes, things for writing.
He wrote his letter on hotel stationery.
The car had remained stationary at that spot for two months.
- THOROUGH (adj) and THROUGH (prep) Thorough means complete; through means from one side to the other side of something.
He looked through the window.
The analysis were very thorough.
- WEATHER (n) and WHETHER (conj) Weather means atmospheric condition; Whether means if
The weather has been extremely hot this summer.
He didn’t know whether to go or not.
- WHERE (adv) and WERE (v) Where means that place; Were is the past of “are”.
Where did you go last night?
Were you at the disco last night?
- WHO’S (pron + v) and WHOSE (pron, adj) Who’s is a contraction of “who is” (pronoun + verb) ; Whose is a possesive relative pronoun or adjective.
Who’s your teacher? ( who is)
We do not know whose book this is.
