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Learning Article : 10 Most Commonly Misused Word Pairs In English

Discuss the Article : 10 Most Commonly Misused Word Pairs In English

<a href='/article/430/10-word-pairs-that-students-often-misuse-in-english' target='_blank'>10 Most Commonly Misused Word Pairs In English</a>

It's often difficult to spot the differences between words with similar meanings, but which are used differently. Are "say" and "tell" the same thing? Read this article to find out more.

Apr 22, 2015 12:00 AM
Comments · 51
9

I'm assuming that this is yet another example of British, as opposed to American, English. There's nothing wrong with writing an article about British English rules, but please inform the readers. According to the article, the following sentences are incorrect:

 

"When I <em>go</em> to your party, I'll bring a bottle of wine."

"When I come to your party, I'll <em>take</em> a bottle of wine."

"I <em>stay</em> with my parents."

"Her flight was cancelled so she <em>must</em> have taken the train."

"Her flight wasn't cancelled so she <em>mustn't</em> have taken the train."

"This is my parking <em>space</em>."

"Mary and I stayed at his <em>home</em>."

"My sister left <em>the house</em> when she was sixteen."

 

 

April 15, 2015
5

Good article but I think it's a bit misleading to say that tell is always followed by a direct personal object.  In general for language learners I guess it's a reasonable rule but there are definitely exceptions...

 

tell it to the person who just took your seat...

I can tell that you are angry...

tell your story and then I'll tell mine

 

 

It's probably better to think that Say is not followed by a direct personal object. (although don't tell that to Lionel Ritchie, ha)

April 15, 2015
3

Yes, Camilo, I understand your problem. Spanish doesn't take into account the position of the speaker. Actually, most of the mistakes I've written about in the article are mistakes made by Latin languages speakers ( especially Spanish and French, but others as well ).

 

So, just to help you a little bit: come means " to go where the speaker is" and go means " to move away from where the speaker is". 

 

Bring and take are used in the same way. Bring means " to take something where the speaker is" and take means " to move soemthing away from the speaker".

 

So when you use these verbs, you always need to think about the position of the speaker (you, in this case).

 

April 15, 2015
2
Then we have "so much for nothing".

Ultimately, I guess the English language is too flexible and unpredictable, to be able to have these kinds of "rules", without a lot of exceptions.
September 25, 2019
2

Many thanks for making this nice article. I realy liked it.

April 17, 2015
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