As a prospective lawyer, the words you use are going to play a big role in the way your future shapes up.

This is why you should be particularly careful about the words you use. There are various words which continue to confuse us due to their similarities either in terms of appearance or phonetics. While these words may look or sound similar to each other, the difference in their meanings often sets them poles apart.

It is necessary to get rid of this confusion if you want to get your point across in a clear, concise and coherent manner. It is for this reason that CLAT challenges you to fill up blanks with the options containing commonly confused words clubbed together.

A little practice and alertness can help avoid mistakes of in the usage of such words.  Let us now take a look at a list of commonly confused words and attempt to rectify the errors we tend to make.

1. Expect: regard (something) as likely to happen

Except: not including; other than

Accept: consent to receive or undertake/ believe or come to recognize as valid or correct

2. Rain: the condensed moisture of the atmosphere falling visibly in separate drops

Reign: hold royal office/ the period of rule of a monarch

3. Hair: any of the fine thread-like strands growing from the skin of humans, mammals, and some other animals

Heir:  a person legally entitled to the property or rank of another on that person’s death

Air: the invisible gaseous substance surrounding the earth, a mixture mainly of oxygen and nitrogen

4. Auricle: a structure resembling an ear or ear lobe.

Oracle: a priest or priestess acting as a medium through whom advice or prophecy was sought from the gods in classical antiquity

5. Ball: a solid or hollow spherical or egg-shaped object that is kicked, thrown, or hit in a game

Bawl: shout or call out noisily and unrestrainedly/ weep or cry noisily

6. Barren: too poor to produce much or any vegetation

Baron: a member of the lowest order of the British nobility

7. Genes: a unit of heredity which is transferred from a parent to offspring and is held to determine some characteristic of the offspring

Jeans: hard-wearing casual trousers made of denim or other cotton fabric

8. Weight: a body’s relative mass or the quantity of matter contained by it, giving rise to a downward force; the heaviness of a person or thing

Wait: stay where one is or delay action until a particular time or event

9. Tear: pull (something) apart or to pieces with force/ a drop of clear salty liquid secreted from glands in a person’s eye when they cry or when the eye is irritated

Tier: each in a series of rows or levels of a structure placed one above the other

Tyre: a rubber covering, typically inflated or surrounding an inflated inner tube, placed round a wheel to form a soft contact with the road

10. Jewel: a precious stone

Joule: the SI unit of work or energy

11. Altar: the table in a Christian church at which the bread and wine are consecrated in communion services

Alter: change in character or composition, typically in a comparatively small but significant way

12. Dairy: a building or room for the processing, storage, and distribution of milk and milk products/ containing or made from milk

Diary: a book in which one keeps a daily record of events and experiences

13. Peace: tranquility

Piece: a portion of an object or of material

14. Principal: the most important or senior person in an organization or group

Principle: a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behaviour or for a chain of reasoning

15. Scene: a sequence of continuous action/ the place where an incident in real life or fiction occurs

Seen: past participle of ‘see’

16. Waist: the part of the human body below the ribs and above the hips

Waste: unwanted or unusable material, substances, or by-products.

17. Taught: past and past participle of teach

Taut: stretched or pulled tight, tense

 

Choose the correct word to form coherent sentences.

1. Jonathan mentioned that mixing different (i) flours/flowers to create perfectly baked items was (ii) aloud/allowed. However he also warned us against using our (iii) bare/bear hands to pack the food inside plastic (iv) wrappers/rappers. (v) Later/ Latter he also provided guidance on the method of presenting dishes in an appetizing manner.

2. Nothing can (i) undo/undue the effect that the book had on me when I was in the (ii) forth/fourth grade. We had been instructed to (iii) read/reed the entire book during the weekend.

 

ANSWER KEY

1.

(i) flours

(ii)allowed

(iii)bare

(iv)wrappers

(v) Later

 

2.

(i) undo

(ii) fourth

(iii)read