As NPR podcast hosts and language experts, we regularly hear people misusing words that seem alike but mean very different things. We call them "confusables" — because they are, well, confusing.
These word pairs look or sound similar (some even sound identical), which makes it easy to mix them up. But when you use the wrong one, you risk saying something completely different than you intended, often in a professional setting where precision matters.
Here are 12 of the most commonly confused word pairs we've encountered — whether on social media, in the news, or during live interviews — and how to use them correctly:
We see this all over social media. People ask for "advise" when they mean "advice." Here's our advice for them: "Advise" is a verb, not a noun. You advise someone, but you give advice.
Even top newspapers mix these up. One article referred to a movement that can "magically create an allusion more powerful than the real thing." Not quite. An allusion is an indirect reference; an illusion is a false perception or trick.
