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There are pairs (and sometimes trios) of words in the English language that sound enough alike or look enough alike that they are sometimes confused for each other. Using the wrong word in a written passage is a mistake and so becoming more aware of frequently confused words will, hopefully, help us to avoid these kinds of mistakes in our writing. Here are a few examples of frequently confused words:
than/then farther/further quiet/quit/quite loose/lose empire/umpire desert/dessert your/you're personal/personnel medal/metal human/humane fury/furry device/devise dairy/diary soup/soap
For instance, desert and dessert do not sound much alike, but their spellings differ by only one letter. The same is true of medal and metal. These slight differences make it very easy to confuse these words.
Select the correct word from the pairs presented in parentheses:
1) Jill wrote about the wedding in her (dairy/diary). 2) Jack ate two bowls of (soap/soup). 3) Jack always eats two servings of (desert/dessert). 4) Jill did her homework and (then/than) she went out to play.