Commonly Confused Words in English Part II by Himmet Caner Kara
11.credible/creditable/credulous
Her story is barely credible.
When things were being arranged, he sent his telegram; and Paul came. As a result, when classes were announced, he had not obtained a first, only a good second. It was creditable in the circumstances, but less than Paul had hoped.
Being credulous in matters of sorcery, they began to put it about that the Frank doctor not only had the power of expelling demons but had dominion over them.
Credible means believable or reasonable.
Something creditable deserves praise.
Credulous is used to define someone who is ready to believe easily.
12.disinterested/uninterested
But, if the wife has been in receipt of the advice of a stranger whom the creditor believes on reasonable grounds to be competent, independent and disinterested, then the circumstances would need to be very exceptional before the creditor could be held bound by any equity which otherwise might arise from the husband's conduct and his wife's actual failure to understand the transaction...
Only Doc Threadneedle was apparently uninterested in the game.
We expect judges to be disinterested; namely, they shouldn’t seek personal gains or interests; however, we don’t want them to be uninterested because they may not even bother to come to the court.
13.emigrate/immigrate
Mr X may emigrate from the United Kingdom leaving behind members of his family who he may wish to benefit from his assets.
It was during this visit that I realized what people must have gone through simply to immigrate to the United States.
Emigrate is to leave from somewhere to another place to settle down there.
Immigrate means to migrate to somewhere.
14.incident/incidence
If there's an incident happens, doesn't mean you have to wait for the local police officer to tell.
At a time when the incidence of AIDS has risen to er approximately to two thousand four hundred a year.
According to Collins Dictionary, incident is something that happens, often something that is unpleasant.
Incidence means occurrence of something.
15.ingenious/ingenuous
Gaelic is a complicated language phonetically, expressed in writing by an alphabet of only 18 letters used in a most ingenious way.
They started to give him more advice. You're so ingenuous. You tackle things the wrong way.
Something or someone brilliant is called ingenious.
If you are ingenuous, that means you are simple or naïve.
16.farther/further
But only a few miles farther on, the convoy was halted again.
I will further provoke him by saying that anchor-man is a most fitting name for his role.
According to the free dictionary, they can be used interchangeably; however, we can only used further to give additional information.
17.material/materiel
Then dig in as much organic material as possible.
The government announced on Feb. 11 that it had authorized the USA to use its airport for the transit of materiel, troops and casualties.
Material is a substance while materiel is supply of a military force.
18. moral/morale
Sadly, many people still regard addictions as a moral weakness.
Charlie has revealed that he regularly phones to boost her morale.
Moral means ethical while the other is spirit or mood.
19. impracticable/impractical
The level of stress being towed would inflict made the idea utterly impracticable.
We know that Jack is full of himself as he shows off about the fact that he can sing the top C in a scale, which is very impractical.
Something we can’t do is called impracticable.
If something is impractical, it’s better not to practice it.
20. oral/verbal
The distribution speed of oral rumour was much quicker than that of newspapers
In medieval times, the curriculum was divided into the trivium of the three verbal arts (grammar, rhetoric and logic or dialectic) and the quadrivium of the four mathematical arts (arithmetic, music, geometry and astronomy) (Wagner 1983).
Oral is spoken; verbal is written.
21. persecute/prosecute
And so his words,' Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse' sound like a counsel of perfection only if we fail to realise the process of transformation which is needed to enable us realistically to respond in this way to aggression from others.
Whoever wins will face a dilemma -- whether to prosecute military personnel for human rights abuses.
Persecute is to bother while prosecute is to start legal proceedings.
22. sensual/sensuous
She is temporarily hanging up her hat and exploring her sensual, feminine side.
They were fascinated by the kind of sensuous sounds we were producing.
Sensual means sexually attractive.
Something affecting senses is called sensuous.
23. prophecy/prophesy
I prophesy that 1914 will eclipse the great upheaval of 1911.
A prophecy was given which pictured a smartly dressed young man in a zip-up leather jacket.
Prophesy is the verb form of prophecy.
24. presume/assume
My wife and I don't believe this practice can be illegal but we both feel that such a man with influence over vulnerable young boys is the wrong person to teach them. I don't want my son to grow up to be a sexual pervert because of lessons he's learned at school. I assume this man is a homosexual.
We were fed in a soup kitchen. And I presume you know what a soup kitchen was like.
Both of them mean suppose, but when you presume, you have an evidence.
Note: Example sentences were taken from British National Corpus.