Easily Confused Words Trivia Quiz

Answer: insanity

'Allusion', which means 'indirect reference or mention', is widely used when talking about the use of language, as in literary criticism, for example. An illusion is a mistaken or false belief. 'Delusion', however, means serious self-deception and often suggests beliefs that are seriously out of touch with reality and may imply insanity.

While there may be some overlap at the edges with 'illusion', the latter generally implies something much less drastic, more along the lines of mistaken fancies.

Answer: imminent

'Eminent' means 'famous, highly respected, prominent (as a result of positive achievements)'. 'Immanent' (which is not widely used) means 'inherent, intrinsic', and 'inscrutable' means 'difficult to understand, enigmatic (of persons, facial expressions, etc)'.

Some dictionaries give additional meanings of 'immanent', such as 'indwelling'.

Answer: to harass systematically (usually by a government)

'To persecute' implies the systematic denial of rights, usually on grounds of religion, race, political or ideological beliefs (or a combination of these) - almost invariably to a minority that is not well placed to defend itself. It may involve making life so difficult that the victims have to leave the country, and in the most extreme cases of all persecution has culminated in mass murder or genocide.

Note the intransitive use of 'prosecute' in 'Stephen Brown QC, prosecuting, said that the accused had put together a very ingenious set of lies'.

Answer: John is illegible for the prize as he doesn't meet the residence requirement.

The word should be 'ineligible'. Disconcerting as it may sound, 'eligible' and 'legible' were among words listed in a booklet issued by a British university department of English with a very good reputation to its English Literature majors as words that students often confuse. The booklet was compiled in 1995.

Answer: Not relating to the matter in hand

The word 'irrelevant' is commonly used in discussions to indicate that a point or line of argument has nothing to do with the matter under discussion. 'Disrespectful' and 'frivolous' are meanings of 'irreverent', which has nothing (except at an etymological level) to do with being or not being 'reverend' (which means 'to be revered').

Answer: wont

Malapropisms are often thought of as occurring only with long, 'learned' words. However, this is not the case. They are even found with four-letter words! 'Wont' means 'habit, custom'. (Some people who confuse 'want' and 'wont' may also confuse 'wander' and 'wonder').

Answer: The new rules do not effect us.

'Affect' (verb) means 'influence', 'touch', and very occasionally 'claim, pretend' (cf. 'affected', affectation'). 'Effect' (verb) means 'bring about', 'produce', as in 'effect a real improvement'; 'effect' (noun) means 'result', but 'effects' (pl.) can also mean 'belongings, goods' as in 'personal effects'. Note also the specialized meaning of 'special effects', 'sound effects' (on the stage, in film, etc). In addition, there's also the expression 'in (and into) effect', as in: 'Has that part of the Act come into effect yet?' Also: 'Both groups said in effect much the same', where 'in effect' means something like 'virtually, or 'to all practical intents and purposes'.

'Affect' (noun) in the sense of 'emotion, feeling' is largely archaic and is rare, but note 'affective' for 'emotional', as in 'affective development' in the sense of 'relating to the emotions (not intellect)'.

Answer: Angela carefully laid the tray on the little table.

Disregarding the second meaning of 'lie' (to tell something untrue), the key difference between these words is that 'to lie' is always intransitive - that is, cannot have an object, while 'to lay' is always transitive - in other words must have an object. 'To lie' means 'to be in a horizonal position (on a surface)', but 'to lay' means 'to place, put (something on a surface)'. The expressions 'to lay an egg' and 'to lay down the law' may help.

The forms of 'lie' and 'lay' are as follows:

lie (pres.) - lay (simple past) - lain (past participle)
lay (pres.) - laid (simple past) - laid (past participle)

Having said all this, it's possible that the use of 'lay' for both verbs is becoming so common that usage may lead to a change in what is considered acceptable.

Answer: David feels ambiguous about the issue.

Essentially, 'ambiguous' means 'unclear', 'having more than one meaning', while 'ambivalent' means 'uncertain (in one's own mind), to be of two minds or "conflicted" ' - though it usually refers to feelings rather than thoughts.

Answer: Augurs well

Incredible as it sounds, this confusion between 'augurs well' and 'all goes well' is apparently sufficiently common to have made it to at least one major printed reference work on language-use and is also discussed on some websites. All is not well and it doesn't augur well for future language use.