AcademicPrep
SHS Portal/English Language/Confused Words, Homophones and Register in Writing
Take Practice Quiz (5 Qs)
ENG • SHS 1Term 3WAEC / WASSCE SyllabusVIP Lesson

Confused Words, Homophones and Register in Writing

The WAEC hot-list of look-alike and sound-alike word pairs (effect/affect, less/fewer, principal/principle, may/can), plus formal versus informal register choices for compositions and letters.

Share Lesson with Students:
Real-World Context & Relevance in Ghana

A district assembly poster once printed "PRINCIPAL officers must respect the CODE OF MORALE" where PRINCIPAL and MORALE were the wrong twins — the educated reading public noticed instantly, exactly as WAEC examiners notice these swaps in scripts.

Key Syllabus Learning Objectives

  • 1Choose correctly between the fifteen most-tested confused pairs in objective items
  • 2Apply the article/object discriminator for effect/affect and noun tests for principle/principal
  • 3Match may/can, less/fewer, amount/number to the grammatical slot available
  • 4Adjust diction to register: formal vocabulary for official writing, informal for personal letters
  • 5Detect and repair register errors in edited passages
1

Verb-Sense Pairs: may/can, borrow/lend, bring/take, do/make

MAY asks or grants permission ("May I leave?"), CAN states ability ("I can swim") — WAEC keeps the line strict. Borrow = receive temporarily ("borrow from"); lend = supply temporarily ("lend to") — the direction of the money is the test. Bring moves toward the speaker, take moves away ("bring the script here; take it to the office"). DO handles actions, MAKE handles producing/causing ("make a mistake", "make her study", "make a plan" — never *do a mistake).
  • "May/Might I suggest..." formal request; "Can I...?" casual — in formal letters choose may.
  • Borrow/lend slots: Ama borrowed a chair FROM Kojo; Kojo lent a chair TO Ama.
  • Bring/take shift with the speaker's position: "The headmaster brought (to him) the report; the messenger took it away."
  • make + object + bare infinitive (cause): "It made me think"; do cannot appear there.
Practical Example:

A friend texts: "Can you lend me your notes? I must return them before Monday; my brother brought mine to his hostel and took them to Tamale." — four direction/ability words in one real exchange.

Core Takeaway:

Direction decides bring/take and borrow/lend; permission vs ability decides may/can.

2

Quantity and Comparison Pairs: less/fewer, amount/number, than/then

FEWER + plural countables; LESS + uncountables: "fewer errors, less ink". AMOUNT + mass; NUMBER + count: "a large amount of rice, a large number of schools". THAN compares; THEN is time/sequence ("then we left"). The WAEC extension: "less" with a plural noun is the error ("less schools" → "fewer schools"); "fewer money" fails the other way. The superlative frame "the most" vs the comparative "any other" was trained earlier — than belongs only to comparatives.
  • Test with the number test: can you say "three ___s"? yes = fewer/number; no = less/amount.
  • "No sooner... than" (not then); "hardly/scarcely... when"; these fixed frames recur in objectives.
  • "lessen" is a verb (to reduce); "less" is the quantifier — do not swap classes.
  • "more" works with both: "more schools, more rice" — the pair only splits when counting down.
Practical Example:

A shop sign: "Fewer items, lower prices — less than the corner store." The sign itself pairs the three discriminators.

Core Takeaway:

Plural-countable sense calls fewer/number; mass sense calls less/amount; comparison alone calls than.

3

Noun-Lookalikes: effect/affect, principle/principal, moral/morale, stationery/stationary

EFFECT is normally the noun (the effect of rain); AFFECT the verb (rain affects crops) — the test: article slot takes effect, "a ___ me" slot takes affect. PRINCIPAL = head (the principal's office) or chief (principal reason); PRINCIPLE = rule/belief (a man of principle, the principle of Archimedes). MORAL concerns right/wrong; MORALE is team spirit. STATIONERY (paper, pens) vs STATIONARY (motionless) — the letter E in stationery stands for envelopes. Add: historic (famous in history) vs historical (from the past), economic (of an economy) vs economical (thrifty), respectful (showing respect) vs respective (separate).
  • "AFFECT" is almost always a verb before a noun ("the policy affects traders"); "EFFECT" almost always after a/an/the ("an effect on trade").
  • The school HEAD is the principal; the rule you live by is a principle.
  • Respective = each in its own place ("they went to their respective dormitories") — never confused with respectful.
  • "in principle" (by the rule) vs "on principle" (because of principle) — fixed preposition frames.
Practical Example:

A school notice: "The PRINCIPAL reminds us that punctuality is a PRINCIPLE; latecoming has an EFFECT on results and cannot AFFECT the exam timetable unfairly."

Core Takeaway:

Assign the article or the object: nouns settle in article slots, verbs settle before objects.

4

Register: Choosing Words for the Audience

Formal register (official letters, reports, articles): no contractions, no rhetorical questions aimed at a friend, connectives like moreover/consequently/nevertheless, precise verbs (commence, inform, request), polite modals (would, could, may). Informal register (letters to kin, speeches to peers): contractions, phrasal verbs (sort out, put off), direct address, exclamations, questions to the reader. Slang and abusive words belong to neither in WAEC writing. The exam punishes MIXING: a formal letter that opens "Dear Sir" and then writes "What's up?" loses Expression marks.
  • Formal swaps WAEC rewards: buy→purchase, get→obtain, ask for→request, tell→inform, fix→repair/rectify, kids→children/pupils.
  • Never contract in formal writing: cannot (not can't), will not (not won't), do not (not don't).
  • Keep cliché padding out of both registers: "Respect is due...", "As you are aware of..." — examiners read them as zero-content filler.
  • In speeches, the register is semi-formal: respectful salutations, then energetic but clean language.
Practical Example:

One truth, two registers: informal — "Mum, the tap's broken, we can't fetch water." formal — "Madam, the water pump is faulty; residents are unable to obtain water for household use."

Core Takeaway:

Same facts, two wardrobes: dress the letter for its reader, and never mix outfits.

WAEC / WASSCE Examiner Tips
  • Objective strategy for effect/affect: look LEFT of the blank — a, an, the, this, that means the noun (effect); a noun or pronoun right after the blank means the verb (affect).
  • For less/fewer and amount/number items, underline the noun after the gap and run the "one, two, three" test before choosing.
  • In the essay, a register mismatch is more damaging than a spelling slip: examiners mark Expression holistically — decide the audience in the first planning minute and hold it.
  • Learn pair-frames with their prepositions as one item: differ FROM, marry TO, consist OF, accustom TO, abstain FROM, adhere TO, depend ON. A verb memorised without its preposition is only half learned.
  • Proofread for the three homophone spellers that essays repeat: their/there/they're, its/is, than/then — one targeted pass fixes them all.
Common Candidate Pitfalls & Errors to Avoid
  • "The new law will EFFECT the traders" — verb slot demands AFFECT.
  • "Less students sat the mock exam this year" — students count, so FEWER.
  • "He is the PRINCIPLE of the school" — the head is the principal.
  • "Can I borrow you your pen?" — borrow takes FROM; the sentence means LEND.
  • Writing "than" for "then" in narration: "First we voted, THAN we sang."
  • Using contractions and "guys/dudes" in a formal letter to the District Chief.
Topic Mastery Checklist
  • Can I state the discriminator for each of the fifteen hot-list pairs?
  • Can I choose may vs can by permission-vs-ability in five sample requests?
  • Can I repair "less roads and more amount of dust" correctly?
  • Can I rewrite a friendly paragraph as a formal report in four moves?
  • Can I spot the wrong twin in a printed public notice?
Test Your Knowledge

Ready for the Topic Quiz?

5 WAEC-standard multiple choice questions with instant explanations.

Start Quiz Now

Student Study Notes & Discussion

Share what you understood, ask questions, or drop helpful revision tips on Confused Words, Homophones and Register in Writing.

0 Notes
0/500 characters • Keep discussions respectful and educational
Loading community notes...
Summary Writing: Finding Points and Packing Them