Commonly Confused Words

1. Commonly Confused Words 8th Grade

2. capitol/capitol capitol capital Capitol refers to a building where lawmakers meet • Capital refers to a city, or it can refer to wealth or resources. The capitol has undergone extensive renovations. The residents of the state capital protested the development plans.

3. cell/sale/sell sale cell sell Sell is to exchange for money or some other form of exchange • Saleis either offering something for purchase (“for sale”) or offering it at a special price (“on sale”) • Cell refers to a small room, organism, or space in an document on a computer I tried to sell the cell phone at the yard sale.

4. choose/chose choose chose Chose is the past tense of to choose • Choose is a verb that means to make a choice He chose the first option because he knew he had to choose soon.

5. emigrate/immigrate emigrate immigrate Immigrate means to enter another country and reside there. Many Mexicans immigrate to the U.S. to find work. • Emigrate means to leave one country or region to settle in another. • In 1900, my grandfather emigrated from Russia.

6. farther/further farther further Further is used for non-physical • Farther is used for physical distance The farther we walked the more hostile the terrain became. I promised to give the plan further thought.

7. new/knew new knew Knew is the past tense of know • New is the opposite of old I knew my sneakers weren’t new, but I loved them anyway because they were so comfortable.

8. loose/lose loose lose Lose means mislaying or dropping something and not being able to find it. Or it means the opposite of “to win.” • Loose means slack or free My pockets are loose, so I am likely to lose my money.

9. passed/past passed past Past means a time that has gone • Passed is the past tense of pass, which means “to go by or across” Time passed and we forgot all of our past problems.

10. quiet/quit/quite quit quiet quite Quit means to stop doing something that you once did • Quite when used in fiction means moderately, but can mean totally or entirely • Quiet means without noise Quit talking and be quiet because you’re not quite hearing what I’m trying to tell you.

11. there/their/they’re their there they’re There is the possessive of they. • They’re is short for they are. • There is a location They hung their coats over there by the door where they’re unlikely to miss seeing them on their way out.”

12. weak/week weak week Week is seven days, Sunday to Saturday • Weak is the opposite of strong I worked out all week, so I wasn’t as weak as before.