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
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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
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it is a british english pronunciation
course where i teach
modern received pronunciation that is my
accent
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is also in the description box
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i will see you soon for another lesson
you