12 Confusing English Verbs

Hello lovely students and welcome back to English with Lucy. Now some English verbs can be extremely confusing. Some have really similar meanings like notice and realise and also steal and rob. What are the differences there? We'll get into it. With others it's tricky to choose the right preposition. Is it win against or win with? And what about wake and wake up? Why do we sometimes use up and sometimes not? In this video we're going to be looking at 12 commonly confused verbs so that you can get rid of all of your doubts once and for all. I'm going to clarify everything I've just mentioned and a lot more. Oh and by the way there is a quiz at the end of this lesson so make sure you pay attention and share your results in the comments section. And as always I've created a free pdf to go with this lesson. In the pdf you will find all of the information from this video and I've added in extra examples and a secret link. When you click on this secret link you will discover a free interactive exercise pack for further practice. It contains interactive activities. If you would like to download that pdf and find that secret link just click on the link in the description box or scan the QR code there. You enter your name and your email address. Choose your English level and then you've signed up to my mailing list and the pdf will arrive directly in your inbox. And after that you've joined my pdf club. You will automatically receive my free weekly pdfs alongside my news course updates and offers. It's a totally free service and you can unsubscribe at any time with just one click. Oh and just in case you're interested I also recently launched my free online vocabulary level test. This free test will help you pinpoint your vocabulary level from A1 all the way to C2. Your results will be sent to you by email. I've left the link for that in the description box and you can scan that QR code there. Okay let's get started with the first two verbs and they might look simple but people confuse them a lot. Get and go. First let's think about travel. Get focuses more on arriving at or reaching a destination. For example when I get to Edinburgh I'll give you a call. This means when I arrive. Or could you tell me how to get to Edinburgh Castle? How do I reach the castle? Go on the other hand focuses more on the journey and moving from one place to another. For example I usually go to Edinburgh by train. I travel. Or you'll go past a great coffee shop on your way to the castle. So get focuses on arrival. Go focuses on the journey. That's not so difficult. But get and go have many meanings. They also mean become or change state. But with this meaning they collocate with different adjectives. Look at this sentence and choose get or go to complete the gaps. As people older their hair often grey. What do you think? Well the first gap is get. Get older. And the second is goes. Goes grey. Let's look at each meaning in more detail now. We tend to use get with adjectives like light, dark, old and late. For example in winter in the UK it gets dark early. It becomes dark early. Or it's getting late. We need to leave. We also use get with ill, sick and tired. I got ill while I was on holiday. I became ill. Now we usually use go with colours meaning to change or turn from one colour to another. We just saw the example go grey when hair turns from one colour to grey. Another example I was so cold that my fingers started to go blue. We wouldn't say get blue. And we use go with some changes that are generally seen as negative. For example go bad for food. Go wrong. Or even go bald. Although I don't think going bald is negative. An example. This meat stinks. It's gone bad. Or he went bald in his 40s. Now there's a lot more to discuss here. So I've put more examples with get and go in the PDF. So don't forget to download that. All right. Pair number two. Notice versus realise. Notice is generally used when you see or hear something and become aware of it. I noticed that the leaves had changed colour on my morning walk. I saw the difference in colour. Realise is connected to understanding. To realise we need to make a connection in our mind. I realised that autumn was on its way. I connected the change in colour of the leaves to the change in seasons. Look at the verbs together now. I noticed the crack in the vase but I didn't realise how fragile the vase was until it broke. I noticed the crack. I saw it. I didn't realise how fragile the vase was. I didn't understand. Another example. We noticed the thunder in the distance and realised we needed to leave the beach. We heard the thunder and we understood we needed to leave. So noticing is more about perception. Realising is more about understanding. Okay. Let's move on to the next two words. We have rob and steal. Both verbs refer to taking something without permission, illegally. Now in a basic sense, rob is used with a place or a person and steal is used with a thing. For example, someone robbed the bank yesterday. What did they steal? They stole a lot of cash. Or I was robbed in broad daylight. They stole my wallet and phone. So a really common mistake I hear my students make with the verb to steal is this. They stole me my wallet. With the meaning of take something from somebody, we don't use a personal pronoun directly after steal. So stole me something is not correct. We can say steal something from somebody, something or somewhere. For example, they stole my wallet from me or they stole my wallet from my bag. Take a look at the PDF for more structures we can use with these verbs. When we talk about certain buildings, especially houses, we usually use burgle or break into rather than rob. For example, we got burgled or our house got broken into. They stole some jewellery. So remember, the most common collocations are rob a place or a person and steal something from somebody and burgle a house. OK, our next pair of verbs are win and beat. Here's the difference. You win something. You win a game, a match, a competition, a prize. But you tend to beat someone or a team. For example, Sina won the match. He beat Djokovic or Klara won a prize for her singing. She beat several other competitors. Simple enough, right? But it's not just the verbs that confuse my students. It's which prepositions to use. Let's think about football. That's something I don't say a lot. I've heard so many students say that their team won with another, trying to say that their team beat another. That's not quite right. So let's learn the correct prepositions. You can say Liverpool won 5-0 against West Ham. So that's win plus score plus against. 1-5-0 against. Notice how I said nil, not zero or nothing. Another example, Liverpool won by five goals to nil against West Ham. Or they beat West Ham by five goals. So you can win against someone or a team, or you can describe the score with win by a margin, five goals, to a specific score, nil. Okay, moving on. Our next pair of verbs sound very similar. And in writing, even fluent speakers of English get confused about which one to use. I will admit, I have to double check when I use these. There's just something about this pair. They are effect and effect, effect, effect. Can you hear the difference? Both are stressed on the second syllable. But the first syllable in effect with an A is pronounced with a schwa sound, that very lazy sound that takes little effort to make. Uh, uh, effect. The first syllable in effect spelt with an E is often pronounced with an I sound. But you'll also hear people use a schwa. So they could sound the same, effect and effect. So that's clear, but how do we use them? Effect with an A is usually a verb meaning to influence or change something. A lack of sleep often affects your ability to concentrate. Or the loud music didn't affect my sleep. Effect with an E is usually a noun, not always, we will discuss that, and it refers to the change that is caused. For example, one effect of eating chocolate cake is that I instantly feel happier. Or my teacher's words of encouragement had a lasting effect on me. To have an effect on somebody is a common collocation. Here's another example using both this time. Gloomy weather affects my mood, but sunny weather has a positive effect on me. See the difference? But we're not finished, because effect with an E can also be used as a verb. To effect something means to make or cause something to happen, and it's formal. It collocates strongly with nouns like change and improvement. For example, the new policy is expected to affect a significant change in the education system. To cause a change. I've put some more examples in the PDF, but to sum up, effect with A means to influence or change something. Effect as a verb means to make something happen, and effect as a noun refers to the change that is caused. Okay, let's move on to look at our final pair. We have the single word verb, wake, and the phrasal verb, wake up. Wake and wake up have similar meanings. To stop sleeping, or to make someone else stop sleeping. So is there any difference? Well, they can often be used interchangeably. For example, we wake at seven. We wake up at seven. Or, my parents used to wake me every morning before school. Or, my parents used to wake me up every morning before school. And, the noise of the storm woke us. The noise of the storm woke us up. Now, it's more common to use wake up. Wake on its own sounds more formal. There are many verb-phrasal-verb pairs in which the particle doesn't have much effect on the meaning. Have you ever wondered about hurry, and hurry up? Or stand, and stand up? I've put some information about those verbs in the PDF. But back to wake and wake up. There are bigger differences. Wake up can also mean to make someone feel awake. For example, going outside in the fresh air helps wake me up. It helps me feel more awake. Or, I need a strong cup of coffee to wake up in the morning. We wouldn't say, fresh air or coffee wake me. And, what do you say if someone's asleep and you want them to stop sleeping? We say, wake up. Wake up, we're going to be late. We don't shout wake at someone if we want them to stop sleeping. Similarly, in a hotel, we might ask reception for a wake up call, not a wake call. Okay, we've covered all 12 commonly confused verbs. Now, I want to do a little quiz to see what you remember. Here are five sentences for you to complete with the correct verb. Make sure you conjugate the verbs. That means to use them in the correct form. Let me know your score in the comments. I will read through them, but use the pause button if you need more time. One, it's starting to light earlier now that spring is coming. Is it get or go? Well done if you chose get. Remember, get collocates with light and dark with a similar meaning to become. If I'm feeling tired, splashing cold water on my face helps too. Should it be wake me or wake me up? I hope you used up. We use wake me up here. We use wake up to mean feel more awake or more lively. Someone tried to my camera when I was on the train. Rob or steal? If you said rob, that wouldn't be right. Steal is the correct answer. You steal something like a camera, but you rob a person or place. I was robbed on the train. They stole my camera. Number four, when I went outside this afternoon, I... The daffodils were in bloom. Did you notice or did you realise? It is noticed. We can use notice to mean see. And then finally, number five, there are two gaps in this sentence. It's a tricky one. The new government immediately... Economic changes, which positively... The job market. Where do we want effect with an A? And where do we put effect with an E? Well, the first is affected with E, made economic changes happen. And the second is affected with an A, impacted the job market. How did you do? Let me know your score out of five. Okay, I really hope this lesson has cleared up some of your doubts. I've included lots more information about these verbs, including extra examples in the PDF that goes with this lesson. So remember the link is in the description box, or you can scan that QR code here. Also, you can now take my free online vocabulary level test to discover where you shine and where you need some polish. The link for that is also in the description, and I'll put a little QR code there for you. I will see you soon for another lesson. Bye.