Language Arts Grade Six

Unit Fifteen, Lesson Three: Confused Words


  1. thick
  2. brick
  3. quick
  4. pride
  5. stride
  6. wide
  7. nutrition
  8. mineral
  9. zinc
  10. retinol
  1. carotene
  2. beta
  3. relaxation
  4. flexibility
  5. stamina
  6. endurance
  7. strength
  8. physical
  9. exercise
  10. athlete
Confused Words

Certain words are often the victims of mistaken identity. They look or sound a lot like other words and so people sometimes confuse them. Here are a few such 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

Words such as dessert and desert are confused because they are spelled almost the same (the only difference being a single "s").

Other words, such as device and devise, sound a lot alike and for some people this may be the main reason they are confused. Remember that different words are confusing to different people. A couple of words which you do not ever confuse, may be often confused by another person.

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.

ANSWERS: 1) diary, 2) soup, 3) dessert, 4) then


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