9 English Word Pairs That Confuse Absolutely Everyone

We all know English is a crazy language.

Lots of different words share the same spellings and pronunciations.

Some of these words are confusing even for native speakers, especially in writing.

For example, when do we use “affect” and when do we use “effect”?

Or what about the verbs “to bear” and “to bare”?

For learners of English, these similar words can be incredibly confusing.

You don’t want to stop your English conversations to wonder (think about) which word is correct.

To help you out, we’ve created this list. On it, you’ll find some pairs of similar sounding English words that confuse people all the time. We will reveal these 9 pairs in separate posts in the coming month.

9 English Word Pairs That Confuse Absolutely Everyone

1. Lose and Loose

We spell them differently and we pronounce them differently, but English speakers still use these words incorrectly. Luckily, they’re easy to distinguish.

Lose – pronounced with a “z” sound – is a verb meaning to not have something anymore, to be unable to find something or to not win. You lose your cell phone, or you lose your way while driving somewhere.

• I don’t want my football team to lose the game.
• She will lose her money if she gambles with it.

Loose – with an “s” sound – on the other hand, is an adjective that means free, unattached or not tight. It’s also a verb meaning to untie or let go of something.

• The door handle fell off because it was too loose.
• A loose sweater feels very comfortable.

Another common mistake people make is with the word loser, meaning a stupid, uncool or unfortunate person. You can say “You’re a loser.” But don’t call someone “a looser.” If you do that, then you’ll be the loser!