750 “TWIN” WORDS FOR AVOIDING SPELLING WOES IN WAEC/NECO ENGLISH LANGUAGE (1)

 BEWARE OF THESE TROUBLESOME PHONETIC TWINS!

 Words causing phonetic misspellings come in different shapes and sizes. They look like they are everyday common-place words. But do not be deceived!  That is where the road ends! Yes, many of them sound familiar orally and aurally but are they? You need to read the essays of many students in SS3 to understand how bad the situation really is and why we again had to spend time and effort to complete this “TROUBLESOME TWINS PROJECT”. But is it really exhaustive? Definitely not! For instance, twin words under W to Z are not yet added. But we shall do so from our records later. All said and done it is still a very credible and pain-staking effort comprising of errors of many years. It will definitely be useful to most tutors and their students.

This group of “twin” words, like the “2500 list” was compiled from errors made in past WAEC/NECO and schools’ examinations. The errors cover Essay, Comprehension and “Lexis and Structure” question papers of many years. They were also extracted from textbooks and various write-ups available on the net and are hereby put together as a sort of labor-saving mechanism for use by tutors in improving the spelling and oral usage of their students.

 In real life, do all twins look alike? Definitely not! So, there is another list of troublesome pairs which don’t really look or sound alike but are wrongly used grammatically by students. Some say it is because of what is called “the Nigerian factor”. For example we do find students using the word “fatal” instead of “serious” to describe an accident scene in which no life was lost! Also they use “second day” for “following day”,” borrow” for “lend”, ”carry” for “take” and “convince” for “persuade” etc. Why and how do we do this without batting an eyelid? The answer of course is not far-fetched. It is because of the saga arising from direct translations of our vernacular! But our focus here is on the first set of twins. So, more shall be said later about the second under “COMEDY OF ERRORS IN WAEC/NECO ENGLISH LANGUAGE EXAMINATIONS BY NIGERIAN STUDENTS”.

Please read our “intro” to the 2500 word list. The content below can be used by tutors in the same ways and for the same reasons. Again some of the structural/organizational slips in the arrangement of words shall be corrected over time.

Thank you

POST SCRIPT

KINDLY POINT OUT ERROR(S) FOUND ON ANY OF OUR COMPILATIONS FOR CONSIDERATION AND INCLUSION.WE CAN NEVER BE 100%  CORRECT ALWAYS. AS A MATTER OF FACT THE LISTS THEMSELVES SHALL ALWAYS BE WORK IN PROGRESS!

WORDS  = COLUMNS 1,3,5 and 7.    TWIN WORDS =  COLUMNS 2,4,6 and 8 beside WORDS....about 95% or more of all instances given!

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A
aboard	abroad	allusion	Illusion/delusion	accept	except	already	all ready
access	excess	altar	alter	acme	acne	accession	ascension
ad	add	alternative	alternatively	adapter	adaptor	amateur	amateurish
addition	edition	amend	emend	adverse	averse	amiable	amicable
advice	advise	among	between	aesthetic	ascetic	amoral	immoral
affect	effect	amoral	immoral	affluent	effluent	angel	angle
ail	ale	annals	annuals	air	heir	annex	annexe
all	awl	annuals	annals	allay	alley	antiquated	antique
allegory	allergy	arc	ark	arisen	arose	alliterate	illiterate
artist	artiste	allot	a lot	allude	elude	assent	ascent
ate	hate	alteration	altercation	aural	oral	astrology	astronomy
axes	axis	axe	ask	awl	all
B
bad	bade	bade	bid	bail	bale	bail	bale
baited	bated	ball	bawl	ballet	ballot	banns	bans
bare	bear	ban	barn	baron	barren	base	bass
bated	baited	bath	bathe	baton	batten	bawl	ball
bazaar	bizarre	beach	beech	bean	been	bean	being
beau	bow	became	become	beech	beach	beat	beet
beer	bier	beet	beat	befallen	befell	began	begun
belief	believe	belie	belle	bellow	below	beret	berry
beret	bury	berth	birth	beside	besides	between	among
bid	bade	bier	beer	been	being	birth	berth
bit	bitten	bite	bight	bizarre	bazaar	blew	blown
blew	blue	bloc	bight	bite	blonde	blow	blown
blow	blew	blue	blew	boar	boor	boar	bore
board	bored	boast	bloc	block	bony	bookie	bouquet
boor	boar	boor	bore	boost	boast	bootee	booty
bore	boar	bore	boor	bore	born	bow	beau
bow	bough	boy	buoy	brae	bray	brake	break
brazier	brassiere	breach	breech	bread	bred	breath	breathe
bridal	bridle	broach	brooch	broke	broken	bought	but
buffet	buffer	broach	borough	bury	beret	boost	bonny
TO BE CONTD.