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  • Hi.

  • I'm Rebecca from engVid.

  • There are really only two ways to improve your English: Go forward and learn what's

  • right, and go back and correct what's wrong.

  • In this lesson we're going to do a little bit of both.

  • We're going to look at 10 confusing words and see if you know the difference.

  • Sometimes it's a different word form, sometimes it's actually a different verb altogether,

  • or a different word.

  • So, let's look at these.

  • They are confused very often, so stick with me and you'll understand the difference.

  • Let's get started.

  • The first one: "How can I succeed?"

  • or "How can I success?"

  • So obviously the pair we're talking about here is "succeed" and "success".

  • So, what is correct in number one?

  • "How can I succeed?" or "How can I success?"

  • The answer is:

  • "succeed". Okay?

  • All right.

  • Number two:

  • "How can I achieve succeed?" or "How can I achieve success?"

  • What's the right answer?

  • Do you know?

  • I hope so.

  • It is: "How can I achieve success?"

  • All right?

  • So, what happened here?

  • Well, "succeed" is the verb.

  • All right?

  • And "success" is the noun.

  • That's a really important difference.

  • Thousands and thousands of students, probably millions make a mistake with these two words.

  • So make sure you are not one of those.

  • All right?

  • Let's go on.

  • Number three:

  • "Smoking affected her health."

  • or "Smoking effected her health."

  • All right?

  • I hope you can hear the difference in pronunciation and also in spelling.

  • So, what's the correct answer here?

  • "Smoking affected her health." or "...effected her health."?

  • It should be:

  • "Smoking affected her health."

  • Very good.

  • And number four:

  • "Smoking had a bad affect on her."

  • or "Smoking had a bad effect on her."?

  • What's the difference?

  • Well, it should be:

  • "Smoking had a bad effect on her."

  • So the two words we were looking at here were "affect" and "effect".

  • And which one is the verb?

  • "Affect" is the verb and "effect" is a noun.

  • All right?

  • Good.

  • Number five:

  • "Could you give me some advise?" or "Could you give me some advice?"

  • What's the correct word there?

  • "Could you give me some

  • advice?" Okay?

  • Good.

  • And number six: "Could you advise me?" or "Could you advice me?"

  • Which is correct?

  • It should be: "Could you advise me?"

  • Two words here: "advise" and "advice".

  • "Advise" is the verb, and "advice" is the noun.

  • Now, also, "advice" is a non-count noun, so we cannot say: "advices".

  • All right? Sometimes people say: "advice", but then they make it "advices".

  • That's not correct.

  • You can't say that.

  • So, "advise" which is spelt with an "s" but sounds like a "z",

  • and "advice" which is the noun.

  • Now, don't worry.

  • If you got any of these wrong we have actually detailed lessons on each of these points which

  • I will refer you to afterwards.

  • Okay? Stick with me.

  • Number seven:

  • "We will choice the new Prime Minister (PM)."

  • or "We will choose the new Prime Minister."?

  • What do you think it should be?

  • "We will

  • choose the new Prime Minister."

  • Okay? Good.

  • "He was our first choice."

  • or "He was our first choose."

  • Which one is it?

  • Can you tell?

  • "He was our first

  • choice." Okay?

  • So, here again, "choose" is the verb and "choice" is the noun.

  • Okay?

  • We made a choice, but we chose him.

  • "Choose" in the past becomes "chose".

  • All right?

  • "Choose", "chose", "choice", you have to work with them-all right?-to really master those words.

  • And the last one: "They emigrated to Canada."

  • or "They immigrated to Canada."?

  • Which one is it?

  • This one is confused a lot, and actually one of our other engVid teachers, Emma, has done

  • a great one on this one.

  • So if you're confused, I'm going to tell you where you can find her lesson, too.

  • So: "They emigrated to Canada."

  • or "They immigrated to Canada."?

  • Well, it should be: "They immigrated to Canada."

  • Okay?

  • And number 10: "They emigrated from Mexico."

  • or "They immigrated from Mexico."?

  • Okay?

  • This time you have both verbs.

  • Right?

  • So if that was "immigrated", this one is actually "emigrated".

  • "They emigrated from Mexico."

  • Now, here, it's not a question.

  • They're both verbs.

  • Okay?

  • "Emigrate" is a verb and "immigrate" is a verb, but what's the difference?

  • You see that you immigrate to a place, but you emigrate from somewhere else.

  • All right?

  • Now, if you got any of these wrong, don't worry, it's actually quite common to make

  • mistakes with these words.

  • But there are some steps you can take to fix this problem.

  • First you've taken the right step by watching this lesson.

  • Now you can go to our website, www.engvid.com, do a quiz on this just to reinforce that.

  • Also, check our lesson description because you're going to have links to detailed lessons

  • on each of these points.

  • So if you didn't get it here...

  • This was like a review, but if you need a detailed explanation, you can watch one of

  • the videos-okay?-on that topic.

  • And, of course, don't forget to subscribe to my channel because I keep pointing out

  • all kinds of things to you that will make a big difference in your English.

  • Thanks very much for watching.

  • Bye for now and good luck with your English.

Hi.

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