No matter your level of English, there will always be some difficult terms to grasp. Even the most advanced speakers sometimes struggle with confusing English words.
From irregular grammar rules to tough pronunciation and unusual spelling, English has a selection of words that don’t make sense straight away. It’s natural for language learners to make mistakes with these words.
By identifying tricky English words and common mistakes in English, you can avoid making and repeating errors in your IELTS exam and in general.
Confusing English words and common mistakes
1. Colonel
Why it’s a confusing English word: People sometimes pronounce this as it’s written: ‘col-o-nel’, but it’s said like ‘ker-nel’.
Example in a sentence: The colonel gave orders to the troops.
Tip to avoid mistakes: The pronunciation is the same as when talking about a piece of popcorn, a kernel.
2. Though / Thought / Through / Thorough / Tough
Why they’re confusing English words: All these words look similar, so it’s easy to miswrite them or use the wrong pronunciation.
Example in a sentence: Though it was tough, she made it through with thorough effort and deep thought.
Tip to avoid mistakes: Practice your phonetics. ‘Though’ is /ðoʊ/ and rhymes with ‘go’. ‘Thought’ is /θɔːt/ and rhymes with ‘bought’. ‘Through’ is /θruː/ and rhymes with ‘blue’. ‘Thorough’ is /ˈθʌrə/ and sounds like ‘thuh-ruh’. ‘Tough’ is /tʌf/ and rhymes with ‘rough’. Once ready, you could try using them in tongue twisters.
3. Read
Why it’s a confusing English word: The present and past tense of this word are spelled the same, but the pronunciation changes. Language learners therefore get mixed up between the two. The present ‘read’ is pronounced like /reed/. The past is /red/.
Example in a sentence: I read (/riːd/) every morning (present) and I read ( /rɛd/ ) three chapters yesterday (past).
Tip to avoid mistakes: Look at the sentence for time clues. The above sentence specifies ‘every morning’ and ‘yesterday’ to indicate which version of ‘read’ to use.
4. Said
Why it’s a confusing English word: The spelling doesn’t match its pronunciation (/sɛd/). People make the mistake of saying ‘say-ed’.
Example in a sentence: He said he’d be late.
Tip to avoid mistakes: Try to talk about events in the past that include people’s opinions. That way you can practice phrases like ‘he said’, ‘she said’, ‘they said’, and build the pronunciation into your audio memory.
5. Yacht
Why it’s a confusing English word: English words rarely have ‘cht’ in their spelling, so language learners don’t know how to write or pronounce ‘yacht’.
Example in a sentence: The wealthy couple took the yacht out.
Tip to avoid mistakes: Use the unusual spelling to connect the word to its definition. Yacht = a special boat with a special spelling. The correct pronunciation is /jɒt/.
6. Women
Why it’s a confusing English word: ‘Women’ is the plural of ‘woman’, but the pronunciation isn’t consistent. Rather than say ‘wo-men’, the pronunciation is more like ‘wih-men’.
Example in a sentence: The women in the group voted unanimously.
Tip to avoid mistakes: Say it out loud repeatedly, and keep in mind that ‘women’ rhymes with ‘swimmin’.
7. Knife
Why it’s a confusing English word: The ‘k’ at the beginning of ‘knife’ is silent. The plural spelling is also irregular – rather being ‘knifes’, it’s ‘knives’.
Example in a sentence: That knife is sharp, you’ll need to use it carefully.
Tip to avoid mistakes: Learn the rule that words beginning with ‘kn’ are pronounced as ‘n’ (‘know’, ‘knee’, ‘knock’).
8. Choir
Why it’s a confusing English word: This word looks like it should be said as ‘choy-er’, but it’s pronounced /kwaɪər/.
Example in a sentence: She sings in the church choir every Sunday.
Tip to avoid mistakes: Link the pronunciation to known sounds. Think of the sentence: ‘The choir requires quiet coordination’ to emphasise the softer ‘c’ sound and the stressed ‘i’ sound.
9. Debt
Why it’s a confusing English word: Language learners often pronounce the ‘b’ in this word, but it’s silent.
Example in a sentence: There are ongoing discussions about cancelling all student debt across the country.
Tip to avoid mistakes: When speaking, imagine that there’s no ‘b’ in ‘debt’. Practising by saying similar words like “doubt” (pronounced “dout”) can help too. It is number 19 on our list!
10. Cough / Dough / Rough / Through
Why they’re confusing English words: All these words end in ‘ough’, but they all have different pronunciations.
Example in a sentence: He had to get through baking dough while he had a rough cough.
Tip to avoid mistakes: Recognise the unique pronunciation options for ‘ough’ words. ‘Cough’ is /kɒf/ and rhymes with ‘off’. ‘Dough’ is /doʊ/ and rhymes with ‘go’. Rough is /rʌf/ and rhymes with ‘bluff’. Through is /θruː/ and rhymes with ‘blue’.
11. Bizarre
Why it’s a confusing English word: The pronunciation is not intuitive based on the spelling. It’s pronounced /bɪˈzɑːr/ (rhymes with ‘czar’) with a strong ‘z’ (not an ‘s’ sound that is usually associated with the letter ‘z’).
Example in a sentence: Their behaviour at the party was utterly bizarre.
Tip to avoid mistakes: Memorise the pronunciation with a sharp ‘z’, like ‘bih-ZAHR’. After all, ‘bizarre’ has a bizarre pronunciation.
12. Fewer vs. Less
Why they’re confusing English words: People sometimes think that these two terms are interchangeable, but they aren’t. ‘Fewer’ is used for countable nouns, and ‘less’ for uncountable nouns.
Example in a sentence: I have fewer books than you. There is less water in the bottle.
Tip to avoid mistakes: Use ‘fewer’ for things you can count (books, apples) – these tend to be words with ‘s’ on the end. ‘Less’ is for things you can’t count (water, air).
13. Queue
Why it’s a confusing English word: By its spelling, ‘queue’ should be pronounced ‘kwue’, but it’s said as /kjuː/, like the word ‘cue’.
Example in a sentence: We had to wait in a long queue for the concert tickets.
Tip to avoid mistakes: The first letter of the word ‘queue’ is how you say it – ‘Q’!
14. Pronunciation
Why it’s a confusing English word: Ironically, the spelling of 'pronunciation' doesn’t match how it’s written. It doesn’t incorporate the same pronunciation as the word ‘pronounce’. Instead, it’s pronounced like /prəˌnʌnsiˈeɪʃən/.
Example in a sentence: The pronunciation of the Parisian accent is distinct.
Tip to avoid mistakes: Focus on the ‘pronun’ part of the word and remember that it’s different to ‘pronounce’.
15. Eavesdrop
Why it’s a confusing English word: The word is often misspelled as ‘eavsdrop’, but the correct spelling has two separate e’s.
Example in a sentence: The company has been eavesdropping on employee conversations.
Tip to avoid mistakes: Eavesdropping requires two ears, that’s why it has two ‘e’s!
16. Conscious vs. Conscience
Why they’re confusing English words: These words get mixed up because they sound similar but have different meanings. ‘Conscious’ means being aware of or responding to something, or having knowledge of it. ‘Conscience’ is your moral sense of right and wrong.
Example in a sentence: He was conscious during the operation. Her conscience told her it wasn’t fair.
Tip to avoid mistakes: When writing about your conscience, there’s a ‘science’ to knowing between right and wrong (this trick doesn’t apply to speaking, as the pronunciation is not the same as the word ‘science’).
17. Island
Why it’s a confusing English word: The ‘s’ is completely silent. Non-native English speakers tend to incorrectly pronounce it as ‘is-land’.
Example in a sentence: We spent the summer on a remote island.
Tip to avoid mistakes: Ignore the ‘s’ completely! The correct pronunciation is /ˈaɪlənd/’.
18. Breathe vs. Breath
Why they’re confusing English words: These words look similar but they are pronounced differently. ‘Breathe’ is a verb, and ‘breath’ is a noun.
Example in a sentence: I need to breathe deeply. You should take a deep breath before you speak.
Tip to avoid mistakes: ‘Breathe’ with an ‘e’ is the action of breathing. The ‘e’ makes an ‘ee’ sound. ‘Breath’ is the name of what you do while you breathe, i.e. take a breath. The single ‘e’ sounds more like ‘eh’.
19. Doubt
Why it’s a confusing English word: Similar to ‘debt’, the ‘b’ here is silent. A common mistake is to say ‘doubt’ as ‘dow-b-t’.
Example in a sentence: We doubt that the weather will change this afternoon.
Tip to avoid mistakes: The pronunciation is /daʊt/, so ignore the ‘b’. You could think of it as doubting that the ‘b’ should be there at all!
20. Wednesday
Why it’s a confusing English word: The ‘d’ in ‘Wednesday’ trips up a lot of language learners. It’s pronounced /ˈwɛnz.deɪ/, which sounds like ‘Wenz-day’ – different to the spelling.
Example in a sentence: Our next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday morning.
Tip to avoid mistakes: ‘Wed-nes-day’ is a good three-part way to remember how to spell ‘Wednesday’. When saying it though, run ‘Wed’ and ‘nes’ together to make the sound ‘Wenz’.
Final thoughts
These are just some of the confusing words that appear in English. Use these tips to master challenging terminology and improve your vocabulary for IELTS Writing tasks, as well as improve your overall fluency. Doing so can also help you with broader themes in English like grammar rules, nuanced pronunciation, and English synonyms.
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