No, that’s not what I meant

No, that’s not what I meant

One of the biggest challenges faced by children preparing for their eleven-plus is learning a wide enough vocabulary so they’re not left high and dry in the English and Verbal Reasoning parts of the test.

The English language is a veritable feast of words and the differences between two seemingly similar words can be slight. There can often be more than one word that ‘might’ work in a sentence, but only one answers the question correctly.

A great example of this is Rhyming Synonym questions. With these, we’re given a keyword that is a synonym of the missing word, but not a synonym itself. Still with me? Good!

Here’s an example:

Keyword: SHOE

“From the top of the mountain, the team gazed in wonder at the amazing _____ .”

A. goat

B. peak

C. vista

D. village

E. base

How to solve: Re-reading the sentence, any of the words ‘might’ fit, but since the word ‘shoe’ rhymes with ‘view’ we need to consider which of options A-E is a synonym for view. The correct answer is ‘C. vista.’

Being able to do ‘verbal dancing’ like this is what sets great 11+ candidates apart from the rest and something that is best learned over time.

Here’s a selection of some ‘confusables’ words that look and sound confusingly alike, but have differences, some subtle, others not so.

Knowing these words and their meanings will help to broaden your child’s vocabulary, so why not print out the list below and see how many they know.

Confusables

Adverse / Averse

Affect / Effect

Aggravate / Annoy

Allay / Alley / Alloy / Ally

Alternate / Alternative

Bail / Bale

Chord / Cord

Compliment / Complement

Defuse / Diffuse

Discrete / Discreet

Draft / Draught

Eminent / Imminent

Endemic / Epidemic

Enquire / Inquire

Feint / Faint

Fare / Fare

Flounder / Founder

Forbear / Forebear

Genius / Ingenious

Gild / Guild / Guilt / Gilt

Loose / Lose

Metal / Mettle

Mooted / Muted

Naught / Nought

Principal / Principle

Raise / Raze

Role / Roll

Sleight / Slight

Stationery / Stationary

Whet / Wet

Well there you go. The above list of confusables should present your child with an interesting exercise in understanding the differences between various pairs of similarly spelt and sounding words.

Depending upon their age and if you’d like to stretch them further you could always ask them to come up up with some sentences that use any of the words that are new to them. eg, if ‘mooted’ was a word they had to look up, how would they include it in a sentence?

Spending time like this digging below the surface of ‘just’ a word list will help your child in many ways.