Check out today’s Teatime Titbit: Tuesday Teasers: Confusing little blighters*
Your choice of words is naturally very important, unfortunately English offers a lot of words, which can be very confusing.*Quälgeist
Here are 10 sentences with confusing words. Which words make more sense in the context?
1) How will Brexit affect/effect the British economy?
2) She’s very sensible/sensitive when it comes to criticising her.
3) Please remember/remind me about that later.
4) I’m afraid we can only exchange goods, if you can show us the receipt/recipe.
5) We have to control/inspect the machine at least twice a day.
6) My flight was delayed/postponed on technical grounds.
7) Can you lend/borrow me a tenner until tomorrow and I’ll pay you back.
8) We expect unemployment to raise/rise in the next few years.
9) I am very interested/interesting in finding out more about that.
10) Sorry the meeting has been cancelled/postponed until Thursday.
Answers. The correct answer is ALWAYS the first one:
1) affect = beeinflussen / effect = Wirkung
2) sensitive = sensibel / sensible = Vernünftig
3) remind = jdn erinnern / remember = sich erinnern
4) receipt = Quittung / recipe = Rezept
5) inspect = prüfen / control = steuern/leiten/überwachen
6) delayed = verspätet / postponed = verschoben
7) lend = jdn etw liehen / borrow = sich etw liehen (sich Geld liehen)
8) rise = ansteigen / raise = erhöhen/anheben
9) interested = interessiert sein/ interesting = interessant
10) postponed = verschoben / cancelled = abgesagt