Brzo učenje engleskog jezika...na tuđim greškama, XI deo

Nastavljamo s upoznavanjem najčešćih grešaka u korišćenju engleskog jezika i danas donosimo novu grupu od deset primera:

101. Three different words: “suit/suite/sweet”. Suit (pronounced “sewt”) is a noun that means many different things: a costume, a set of garments, a claim in court, or a set of playing cards of the same marking: Diamonds, Spades, Clovers and Hearts. The noun suite (pronounced “sweet”) means a musical composition, a staff of attendants, a set of things like furniture from the same manufacturer or from the same unit (all living room furniture that is grouped together), or several rooms connecting at a hotel, apartment or dorm that share a bathroom. The adjective sweet means pleasing to the taste and other senses. A candy bar is often sweet. Today the word sweet is used as a slang word for cool or awesome, or something that meets your approval.

102. What’s the difference: “suspect/suspicious”? The word suspect can be a noun to mean someone who is suspected of something. It is a verb to mean to imagine, think, or to have mistrust. It can also be an adjective. Here are some examples: “The burglar was suspect of the crime.” “I suspect that the dog ate the meat off of the table.” “The suspect policy needs to be reviewed by the staff to see if it is the best for the company.” Suspicious is an adjective that means having or showing mistrust. An example sentence would be: “The little boy looked suspicious of taking the cookies when I saw cookie crumbs on his mouth and his bulging pockets.”

103. When do you use “systematic/systemic”? Systematic refers to things that are arranged or dealt with according to some system or organized method. For example, “Jay systematically sorts his letters into piles: those that need immediate attention and those that can wait.” If you need a synonym for “consistent”, then systematic is the word for you. Systemic is a more rare scientific and technical term that refers to parts of a body or system. For example, “A systemic disease affects many parts of the body.” So if you are talking about something happening to a system or inside a system, then the correct word is “systemic”.

104. These words are often confused: “taut/taunt”? The word taut means tight. And the word taunt means to tease. So, you can pull something taut. And if someone teases someone, this is called taunting.

105. When to use “high/tall”? The simple way to remember this is that tall expresses height and it is also used to compare items to each other. For example, “The apartment complex is tall” or “My boss is tall.’ The word high is used to express elevation. So if you said that the building is high, you mean it is raised from the ground. Maybe it is on a hill or there are steps leading up to it. If you said that your boss was high, that would mean he is in a good mood.

106. What is the difference between “though/thought”? These are two different words that are pronounced differently, spelled differently and mean different things. Though means however as in this sentence: “He got up early though he was still tired.” Thought is the process of using your mind to consider something carefully. Thought is the past tense of thinking. For example, “The teacher thought I did a great job in explaining the project.”

107. When do you use “went/gone”? Went is the past tense of to go. It does not take a helping verb. For example, “My friends went to the movies.” Gone is the past participle of to go. It is used with a helping verb: has, have, had, is, am, are, was, were or be. Both words mean the same thing. For example, “My friends have gone to the movies.”

108. Are these words the same: “we’re/were”? We’re a contraction for we are. And the word were is the plural form of the verb are. It is a past tense verb as the action already happened. If you talk about something in the present or in the future, use we’re. But remember you need to substitute the words we are in the sentence in order to use the contraction we’re. To talk about something in the past use the verb were.

109. “Worse/worser?” In many dictionaries, the word worser is listed as “archaic”. This means that the word is seldom used today and it is no longer part of standard English. So you can plan to use the word worse instead. It means below expectations or below standard and having negative qualities. For example, “The damage from the flood is worse today than yesterday” or “Even though I retook the test, my score was worse than before.”

110. How about 15 years old or 15 year old? This depends on what you want to say. For example, “My daughter is 15 years old and she went shopping with a 15 year old.” This would tell you the age of your daughter and that she went shopping with someone who just happened to be the same age.