STOP confusing these words Especially or Specially Assure or Ensure Inquire or Enquire

hello everyone and welcome back to

english with lucy today

i’m going to help you out with some

doubts we are going to talk about

five pairs or trios of very confusing

english words pairs of words that native

speakers

struggle with too words like especially

and specially why are they so similar

accept

and except ashore

ensure inshore inquire

enquire which ones do we use i’m going

to tell you

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right let’s get started with the

confusing words

and to make this even easier for you i

have created

a pdf worksheet we’ve got all of the

words their pronunciation

all of the information from the video

plus some

additional activities as well do bear in

mind

this is a two-part video you can also

find the second part

in the description box but the order

doesn’t matter so the first one

we have especially and

especially especially means more with

one person or thing

than with others or more in particular

circumstances

than others in my opinion it’s quite a

hard word to define it’s easier if you

see it

used in a sentence for example i love

seville especially in the spring

so i love seville in general but i love

it even more in the spring

or baby animals are cute especially

puppies

so i think all baby animals are cute but

i really think that

puppies are so cute maybe that little

bit

more cute that little bit cuter now

especially

means for a particular purpose or a

particular person

an example i made this cake especially

for you

now here’s the complicated bit in

british english

we tend to use the two interchangeably

it can be

really hard to hear the difference when

people speak

especially tends to be less formal

and i think that part of the reason for

this is because it sounds like you are

lazily dropping a syllable i made this

cake

specially for you it almost sounds like

someone’s trying to say

especially for you but they’re dropping

a syllable and actually i would be

inclined to say

i made this especially for you and that

is something that you will hear a lot

in british english i made this cake

especially for you i made this cake

especially for you so in general in

american english they differentiate

between these words more and in british

english

we just use especially in formal

situations and especially

in less formal situations but really it

does depend

on the person and what they have grown

up hearing

number two we have loose

and lose so there’s a big

pronunciation difference here well i say

big it’s very subtle

but it is quite important loose

with s at the end and lose

with z at the end but they are

minimal pairs they only differ in one

sound that final

phoneme loose

is an adjective meaning not tight

or not securely fixed for example

i need to go to the dentist because my

tooth is loosed

it’s not securely fixed into my mouth

or i lost weight and now my clothes are

loose

they’re not tight they are loose now

to lose is a verb meaning to not be able

to find something or

to fail to keep something as well

examples go to the dentist before you

lose your loose tooth

before you lose verb your loose

adjective tooth

or she wants to lose weight

to make her clothes loose she wants to

lose

verb wait to make her clothes

loose adjective it is very very common

to see people misspelling these words

and using the wrong one

so don’t beat yourself up about it i

know i say this a lot but seriously it’s

just not the end of the world

we will understand what you’re trying to

say number three we have

accept and accept okay so with

a accept we use the schwa

accept and with e

except we use an e sound

except now in general in british english

in modern received pronunciation

you will hear people just using the

schwa for both

accept accept accept accept when you

speak quickly you often find yourself

using the most

convenient or efficient way of

pronouncing something so the schwa gets

used a lot

now i’m going to use a and e for

emphasis so that you know

which word i am referring to accept is a

verb

but except is usually a preposition

or conjunction it is sometimes a verb

and i will touch on that later

but accept as in to accept

is to agree or to receive something if

offered

an example i will not accept your

apology

or i hope they accept the proposed

changes

now let’s look at except with the e

except it generally means apart from

or excluding or with the exception of

an example i study every day except

sundays

or we look exactly the same except my

hair

is darker a little memory tip

the e x x of

except can be used to remind you that it

is

excluding x excluding

now to accept as a verb

with an e is very very formal and it is

rarely used it means to not include

something or someone you will usually

see it in written english and i’ll

explain

why look at this sentence tours are

arranged

all year round january accepted

okay so it’s quite confusing if that

sentence is said in spoken english

january accepted is january accepted

as in they agree to it or is it accepted

as in it is not included when you see it

written down you can see it means that

it is

excluded january is not included you

won’t come across

this verb very frequently it’s just

another example of

english being a pain in the neck that’s

an idiom meaning

really annoying for accepted and

accepted

to mean the opposite but to sound the

same oh it’s just so annoying

we have number four and this is a

trio we have ashore

in shore and in shore okay so the last

two

have the same pronunciation ensure

ensure so let’s look at the three

to assure with an a is to remove

someone’s doubts i assure you that i

will arrive on time

don’t worry don’t have any doubts i will

arrive on time to ensure with en

is to guarantee or to make sure that

something

happens i need to study to ensure that i

pass my exam

so a short and ensure a very similar

a sure with an a to remove someone’s

doubts

and ensure with en is to guarantee that

something will happen

to ensure with i n is to cover

someone or something like a house

with an insurance policy an example

the insurance company won’t protect my

house against

flooding now frustratingly

some policies some insurance policies

also have assurance policies as well

which just makes it so

confusing but let’s not worry about that

we know the basic differences between

the three

finally we have number five

which is inquire and

inquire the same pronunciation again

they have very similar meanings well

actually they mean the same thing but

sometimes they’re used in different

situations

so they both mean to ask someone for

information

now in american english once again they

have made this

easier for you they tend to favor

inquire with

i n so enquire

you won’t hear us as frequently in

general i’m having to make a lot of

generalizations here

however the uk british english we just

like to make everything that little

more complicated traditionally to

inquire

as in en to enquire simply meant to ask

but inquire i’m just using in and

n for emphasis so you know which word

i’m referring to

inquire was used for formal

investigations

so i would enquire at a tourist

information desk

to see where the best ice cream shop was

but the police or a court

would inquire about something however

nowadays both are used interchangeably

so people are just using words

without knowing exactly what they mean

which is fine i imagine eventually we

will end up just favoring one

i wonder if it will be inquire or

enquire

time will tell probably right

that is it for today’s lesson there is

also a part two

to this lesson which i posted a week

before this one

in that video we discuss either neither

or either and neither we talk about the

pronunciation and which one you should

use

we discuss to bring and to take advise

and advice

practice and practice and also

affect and affect with e and with a

it’s a very interesting lesson if i do

say so myself

and don’t forget i’ve made all of this

easier for you i have created a free

pdf for you to download it’s got

all of these confusing words the

pronunciation information

the clarifications the examples and also

some additional activities that i think

you’ll really like if you would like to

download that pdf

all you’ve got to do is sign up to my

mailing list the link is in the

description box

and the pdf will be sent straight to

your inbox

don’t forget to check out lingoda the

link for the sprint

is in the description box as well and

you can use my code

win7 for 10 euros off

don’t forget to connect with me on all

of my social media i’ve got my facebook

my instagram my mailing list i’ve also

got my personal

vlogging channel where i upload lots of

subtitled always

fully subtitled vlogs so you can use

them as listening practice they’re all

about my life in the english countryside

and i have just released my first ever

course

it is a british english pronunciation

course where i teach

modern received pronunciation that is my

accent

if you are interested in that the link

is also in the description box

as well as a little code surprise

i will see you soon for another lesson

you