Commonly misused words

past = not an action - opposite of future Ob Many little, simple words and punctuation are misused. They are incorrect. passed = to overtake past = not an action - opposite of future affect = an action that influences something effect = the result on an action accept = a verb - to agree or receive something except = not including

where, were, wear and we’re Ob Here’s a few others: where, were, wear and we’re where = place and position were = past form or are (They were studying glaciers.) wear = to put on we’re = we are Where are we at now? Well, we’re studying volcanism now but last week we were studying glaciers. We wear goggles to watch the volcano we made in class.

number = an exact number you can count Ob Hear are a few more: number = an exact number you can count amount = more than three - a rough guess - not exact The number of students that went to QEGS was 23. There were 23 students altogether. The we need a large amount of fertiliser for our back garden.

TASK: choose the correct spelling word and write it in the blank. amount/number The were a large __________________ of geese on the river today! There is a significant _________________ of CO2 given off my trees every day. (NOT everyday) passed/past 3. The ________________ does not determine our future if we choose to make better choices. 4. I _________________ my exams! I need to get _______________ my own poor self-esteem. My ________________ self is not as good as my present self! affect/effect 5. The full ___________________ of the paracetamol won’t be felt until the next half on hour. 6. I watched the new John Lewis advertisement and was _________________ ed by it. I shed a tear. 7. The __________________ of iPads in schools boosts students’ grades by 60%. 8. I think I was _____________________ed by the Apple advertisement and got a little carried away with that figure. accept/except 9. I will only __________________ your apology if you stop swearing for three days. 10. You can all go __________________ Billy. He was swearing again. wear/we’re/where/were 11. We ____________________ skiing in Banff, Canada this Christmas. 12. When I am skiing, I need to __________________ goggles and a balaclava. 13. When __________________ skiing, we like to go on the “black diamond” runs and wipe out! 14. We asked __________________ the bank machine was but we _____________________ told there wasn’t a bank machine on the ski slopes.