Vocabulary questions at highly selective universities often ask students to distinguish between pairs of words with similar forms or meanings. Here, we will organize especially common pairs and develop ways to tell them apart.
Basic Rules
Pairs with similar forms:
- affect (verb: influence) vs effect (noun: result; verb: cause)
- economic (related to the economy) vs economical (saving money)
- historic (important in history) vs historical (related to history)
- sensible (wise; reasonable) vs sensitive (easily affected; easily hurt)
- considerate (thoughtful) vs considerable (fairly large in amount)
- respectable (admirable) vs respectful (showing respect) vs respective (individual)
Pairs with similar meanings that are easily confused:
- imply (suggest indirectly: subject = a statement or fact) vs infer (draw a conclusion: subject = a person)
- borrow (take and use for free) vs rent (pay to use; let someone use for payment)
- raise (lift something, transitive verb) vs rise (go up by itself, intransitive verb)
- lay (put something down, transitive verb) vs lie (be in a horizontal position, intransitive verb)
Confusion can be reduced by distinguishing these words from grammatical perspectives such as their part of speech, what can be their subject, and whether they are transitive or intransitive verbs.
The new policy had a significant effect on employment rates. (The new policy had a major effect on employment rates.) ← effect is a noun
Rising sea levels will affect coastal cities within decades. (Rising sea levels will influence coastal cities within decades.) ← affect is a verb
The speaker's tone seemed to imply that the project had failed. (The speaker's tone seemed to suggest indirectly that the project had failed.) ← the subject of imply is a statement or attitude
From her silence, we inferred that she disagreed with the plan. (From her silence, we concluded that she disagreed with the plan.) ← the subject of infer is a person
Prices have risen sharply over the past year. (Prices have gone up sharply over the past year.) ← rise is intransitive
※ The part of speech and type of subject are the keys to distinguishing them
Points to Note
① affect/effect are distinguished by their parts of speech: if the word is in a verb position, use affect; if it is in a noun position, use effect (the pattern have an effect on ~ is common).
② imply/infer are distinguished by their subjects: if the subject is a “fact, statement, or data,” use imply (it suggests ~); if the subject is a “person,” use infer (the person concludes ~). Memorize the pair as The data implies ~ / We infer ~.
③ Memorize raise/rise and lay/lie as complete transitive/intransitive pairs: raise (transitive, lift) / rise (intransitive, go up), lay (transitive, put down) / lie (intransitive, lie down). Their past forms, lay/lied/lain, are confusing, so you must also learn their conjugations.
④ In pairs such as economic/economical and historic/historical, -ic tends to have a specialized meaning related to the field, while -ical tends to be a general adjective. However, there are exceptions, so memorize the words individually.
- Distinguish affect (verb) and effect (noun) by their parts of speech
- Distinguish imply (a fact is the subject) and infer (a person is the subject) by their subjects
- Learn raise (transitive)/rise (intransitive) and lay (transitive)/lie (intransitive) as pairs, including their conjugations
- Understand the tendencies of the endings in economic/economical and historic/historical
- sensible (reasonable)/sensitive (easily affected) and considerate/considerable are also common
Practice
- Fill in the blank with affect or effect: Sleep deprivation can seriously ___ concentration.
- Answer whether imply or infer is appropriate: From his hesitation, I ___ that he was not telling the whole truth.
- Answer whether raise or rise is appropriate: The government decided to ___ the minimum wage next year.