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Dear friends, 

Here are some english words that gave me troubles when i first decided to learn this language.. I am so glad i found those online and that i can, now, share them with you.
I hope this post will help you.

All and ever

All and every can both be used to talk about people or things in general. There is little difference of meaning. Note that these two words are used in different structures.
Every is used with singular countable nouns. To give the same meaning, all is used with plural nouns.

Compare:

Every house in the street is yellow.
All the houses in the street are yellow.

Examples:

Every summer we have a holiday at the sea.

Every country has a national flag.

Every question has an answer.

They watch TV every evening.

I have invited every friend I have.

Steve’s job is very boring. Every day is the same.

°°°°°°°
It rained all day yesterday.

All children need love.

I was tired yesterday and watched TV all evening.

All of us are going to John's party next week.

I am not going out tonight. I’ll be at home all evening.

With Uncountable Nouns

We can use all with uncountable nouns. Every cannot be used with them.

I like all music. (not …every music.)

I like all food.

Both , Either, Neither,

Subjects connected by both meaning two take a plural conjugation.

Examples:

Both Steven and Anthony attended the training.

Mary has two children. Both are married. (both children are married)

Both Frank and Lisa are attending the conference in Chicago this weekend.

Both Sara and Melissa were late.

Last summer I went to Paris and Cannes. I liked both cities very much.

either … or

'Either … or' is used in sentences in a positive sense meaning "one or the other, this or that, he or she, etc." in other words it is used to offer a choice between two possibilities

Examples:

I’m not sure where Laura is from. She’s either German or Italian.

Would you like tea or coffee? - Either. I don’t mind.

There are two ways from here to the airport. You can go either way.

neither … nor

'Neither … nor' is used in sentences in a negative sense meaning "not this one nor the other, not this nor that, not he nor she, none of them etc." - in other words it is used to deny both possibilities

Examples:

Is your friend British or American? - Neither. She’s Australian.

Neither of the restaurants I went to was (or were) expensive.

Neither Mike nor my other friends care about their future.


Felt of fell

felt: past tense and past participle of the verb 'to feel'

Examples:

I felt better after I had a good dinner.

Never in their life had they felt so happy.


fell: past tense of the verb 'to fall'

Examples:

Mike fell from a tree and hurt his leg.

A bomb fell on the church and destroyed it.


It's and ITS

IT'S => is short for it is or it has

Examples:

It's been a long time since we saw each other!

It's been a long time since you were at school.

ITS => means belonging to it

Examples:

Our friends have had the same TV for twenty years now and it's really on its last legs. (on its last legs = in such bad condition that it will soon be unable to work as it should)

A leopard can't change its spots. (means a person's character, especially if it is bad, will not change, even if they pretend it does)


Much and Many

Much and many are mainly used in questions and negative sentences to mean 'a large number of'. There are, of course, alternatives to “a lot of” / “lots of”, depending on the context: “ a great deal of”, “large amounts of”, etc.

QUESTIONS

How much ....? + uncountable nouns

Examples:

How much sugar do you take in your coffee?

How much money do you want for this?

Do you have much work to do?

°°°°°°
How many ....? + countable nouns

Examples:

How many students are there in each class?

How many people are you expecting?

°°°°°°

NEGATIVE SENTENCES

Examples:

He doesn’t earn much money. (money => uncountable)

Not many people have heard of her. (people => countable)

Barbara doesn’t have many friends.

Past or Passed

PAST => used mainly for time gone by - past is an adjective or describing word

Examples:

During the past few months they have experienced several power outages due to the weather.

In the past, this sort of work was done by hand.

°°°°°

PASSED => moved by - passed is a verb or action word

Examples:

The car that passed us was going very fast.

Jack passed me on the stairs this morning.


PERSONAL AND PERSONNEL

personnel -> the people who are employed in a company, organization or one of the armed forces or the department of a company or organization that deals with its employees when they first join, when they need training or when they have any problems (=> Human Resources)

Examples:

For more information about the job, please contact the personnel manager.

Who’s the personnel manager in this company?

Personnel selection is the process which is used to hire individuals.

°°°°
personal -> private

Examples:

My letter was answered by his personal assistant.

I don’t want to discuss it, it’s a personal matter.


Quite or quiet

QUIET => making very little or no noise

Examples:

Keep quiet!

It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

QUITE => fairly, almost, rather, completely

Examples:

That's quite possible.

It is not quite correct.

I think it would be quite safe to go there alone.


Sell and sale

SELL verb (!) sell - sold - sold => to give something to someone else in return for money

Examples:

This page is intended to help vendors find out how to sell (verb) goods on eBay.

The shop sells (verb) drinks and snacks.

Mike buys and sells (verb) options and stocks to make money.

°°°°

SALE noun (!) => an act of exchanging something for money

Examples:

The building company gets 15 % commission on each house sale (noun).

The entire week following Christmas is a bargain hunter’s dream as stores deeply discount merchandise for quick sales (noun) at year end.


Whose or Who's

WHO’S => is short for who is or who has

Examples:

Who's got the dictionary?

Who’s that man?

WHOSE => means who does it belong to; used for adding information about a person or thing just mentioned

Examples:

Whose car is this?

Brian, whose contract expires in two weeks, is likely to move back to the States.

Quiet and still

till => staying in the same position; not moving

Example:

Young children find it difficult to sit still for long.

°°°°

quiet => making very little noise

Examples:

Please be quiet (= stop talking)!

It's so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Richard, could you keep quiet while I'm on the phone, please?


Made of – made from

We use made of if something keeps its form.

Examples:

Our house was made of wood with an iron roof.

Many things nowadays seem to be made of plastic.

°°°°°
We use made from if the form is changed during the process of making.

Examples:

Paper is made from wood.

Wine is made from grapes.


Little and few - a little and a few

Little (=> not much or not enough) is used with uncountable nouns:

Examples:

They have very little money.
There seems little hope.
He ate very little at lunch.

Few (=> a small number, not many or not enough) is used with countable nouns:

Examples:

Only few people can afford to pay such prices.
I know few places that I could recommend to you.

Note: little and few have somewhat negative meanings:

Example:

I know few places that I could recommend to you = I would like to be able to recommend more places, but unfortunately there aren't more.
When we use the indefinite article a before little and few, it has a more positive meaning, similar to some.

a few is used with countable nouns

Examples:

We need to get a few things in town.
We've got a few cakes left over from the party. = We've got some cakes left over from the party.

a little - is used with uncountable nouns

Example:

With a little training Mike could do very well.


During and for

During is used to say when something happens and for is used to say how long it lasts.

Examples:

Her grandfather died during the war.

Kevin left during the meeting.

Examples:

It rained for five hours.

We will visit you for a few minutes during the afternoon.



If you wish to learn more about other confusing words, check this very intersting link :
http://www.english-daily.com/