Spoken words and written words are distinctly on the opposite sides of the bank, even though it runs along the same river. Reason being language spoken tends to be more informal than the written word. For instance you certainly will not write “hey there, what’s up”……but when you chance upon a friend, these words are inevitable.

Do not worry if this is a common occurrence with you. Many of us face such daily word confusing torrents as we are not well acquainted to it. In fact even if you happen to come across the right grammar it may seem incorrect to you as you have never heard of it.

Also if your work deals with more talking and less writing, the shift to not know the right grammar is apparent. Also songs, rap songs, pop, poetry and other forms of songs do not use the right grammar and indentions. So if you are prone to listing to such words then you get immune to grammar.

The very reason you are reading this shows your interest in correcting yourself, which is the first step to be taken in knowing right from wrong. The below mentioned are commonly misused words and phrases and their right usage is elucidated.

Emigrate / Immigrate
Emigrate is to leave one country and settle in another while Immigrate is to enter a country you are not a native of. People mostly emigrated because of war, famine and reasons that pushed them out of their own country. Whereas Immigration happens when one most heartfully wants to leave his country and enter a new one to start a new life.


Affect / Effect
Affect is a verb that qualifies an action. So when Sita fell ill, it affected her studies. Effect is a noun that qualifying result. It also acts as a verb in different sentences but it always means result. Sita was always studies hard and you can see its effects in her flying results.

Accept / Except
Accept is a verb that means to take in whereas except is a preposition that means to do away with it. Ram came home with his invitation and the Das’s accepted it. This means that the Das family received the invitation willingly.
Ram came home with everything except his spectacles. This sentence explains that Ram forgot his spectacles.

Capital / Capitol
Capital is the centre city of a country or state. Mumbai is the capital of Maharashtra. Capitol is where all the lawmakers meet. South Mumbai is the capitol of the city. Hence when one says it, it sounds similar but the meanings are varied.

Elicit / Illicit
To elicit the documents from the bank all necessary signatures were required. The couple is said to have an illicit relationship. These two sentences clearly explain that to bring out or to evoke means to elicit while illicit means illegal and can be used in many negative phrases.

Principle / Principal
This is the most common mistake we make right from our school days. Simply remember that an –a- added makes up your school Principal while the principle amount of the loan has an –e-

If you wish to learn good English you can check our websites on english speaking , speed reading course. You can also check out for quotes by famous people.