The mistakes that never feel like mistakes
Most errors give you a small warning. Something feels off, so you stop and check. These do not. You write "effect" with complete confidence and it should have been "affect", and nothing inside you objects. That is why students at a good level still make them, and why they survive every re-read. The only fix is to learn the ten pairs once, properly.
6 pairs worth learning today
affect / effect
✕Pollution effects the health of children.
✓Pollution affects the health of children. Its effect is worst in large cities.
Affect is the action, so it is the verb. Effect is the thing that happens, so it is the noun. A trick that sticks: the Effect is the End result, and both start with E.
advice / advise
✕My teacher gave me some good advise.
✓My teacher gave me some good advice. She advised me to start earlier.
Advice is the thing, advise is the action. The s sounds like a z, and that is your clue: if you can hear the z, it is the verb.
fewer / less
✕There would be less cars and less noise.
✓There would be fewer cars and less noise.
Fewer is for things you can count one by one. Less is for things you cannot: traffic, money, time, water, noise. Cars you can count. Noise you cannot.
rise / raise
✕The government has risen taxes again.
✓The government has raised taxes again, so prices will rise.
Something rises by itself. You raise something else. The sun rises. You raise your hand. Nothing can rise a price.
lose / loose
✕Many workers will loose their jobs.
✓Many workers will lose their jobs.
Lose is the verb, with one o sound. Loose is the opposite of tight, and it rhymes with goose. The extra o makes the word looser, which is a silly trick that works.
than / then
✕Cities are more expensive then villages.
✓Cities are more expensive than villages, and then people move anyway.
Than compares two things. Then is about time or order. If you can put the word "after that" in its place, it is then. Otherwise it is than.
4 more that change your meaning
1economic / economical
about the economy / cheap to run
Example: Economic growth is strong. A small car is more economical.
2sensible / sensitive
practical and wise / easily hurt or affected
Example: That is a sensible plan. He is sensitive to criticism.
3historic / historical
important in history / connected to the past
Example: A historic decision. A historical novel.
4a number of / an amount of
for things you count / for things you measure
Example: A number of students. A large amount of money.
How to stop mixing them up
✓Learn the pair together, never one at a time. Alone, each word looks obviously correct.
✓Write one true sentence with each half of the pair. Your own sentence is easier to remember than a rule.
✓If you are unsure in the exam, rewrite the sentence to avoid the word completely. Nobody is checking whether you used it.
✓Keep a short list of the ones YOU get wrong. It is usually only two or three, not ten.
Why these cost more than a typo
It is tempting to think of these as small slips. They are not scored that way. They sit inside Lexical Resource, next to your word choice, because using the wrong one shows you do not fully control the word yet. A page with three of them reads as less precise, even when every tense is perfect. The good news is that this is a short list, and once a pair is fixed, it stays fixed for life.
Read next
More vocabulary that changes your score: words that travel in pairs and 8 words to delete from your IELTS essay.
Find out which pairs are yours
You do not need all ten. You need the two or three you personally keep swapping, and you cannot find those by re-reading, because both versions look right to you. Write your next essay in VoyaLang and read the corrections. Each wrong word is marked in your own sentence with the right one beside it, so after two or three essays you know exactly which pairs to drill. Create a free account and check your next essay in about a minute.
