Episode 71: Guess Before You Know: The Trickiest Word Pairs in English

[00:00:00] Welcome to English, please, the podcast where we explore interesting topics in under ten minutes in clear, intermediate English. I’m your host, Christopher. I live in New York City, and I’ve always been passionate about languages and how we learn them. Whether you’re listening on your way to work or while cooking dinner at home, this show is designed to help you with your English listening and comprehension skills.

Before we begin, I want to mention something free. If you go to comullen.com/free, you can sign up and get two guides sent straight to your inbox. One has twenty-five idioms native English speakers use every day. The other has sixty common English phrases. [00:01:00] Both are written specifically for intermediate learners, and they’re absolutely free.

Today, we’re trying something new. Quick challenges with word pairs that English learners mix up constantly. For each one, I’ll read you a sentence, and somewhere in it, I’ll say the word “ blank” instead of the real word, and that’s how you will know a word is missing. Then, I’ll give you two choices, and I want you to pause and guess which one fits before I tell you the answer. Some of these have real rules behind them. Pay attention because they’ll help you get the answer right, and more importantly, they’ll help you use and understand these common pairs of words on your own.

Okay, let’s begin!

Listen to this sentence: I’ve been working at this company _____ five years.

Pause here [00:02:00] and guess. I’ve been working at this company SINCE five years, or I’ve been working at this company FOR five years?

The answer is FOR five years. I’ve been working at this company for five years. Here’s the rule, and this one holds up every time. Use “for” with a length of time, an amount, a duration. For five years, for two weeks, for a long time. Use “since” with a starting point, a specific moment something began. Since 2019, since last spring, since I moved here. A quick test: if you can put a number in front of it, like five years, it’s for; if you’re naming a point on the calendar, it’s since. Learners whose first language uses one word for both of these [00:03:00] ideas often confuse these words. But once you hear the difference laid out this way, it tends to stay with you.

Here’s one that confuses almost everyone. Listen to this sentence: “She didn’t _____ me the truth, so I had to _____ something to change the subject.”

Pause here and guess. Did she TELL or SAY the truth? And did the speaker TELL or SAY something to change the subject?

The answer: “She didn’t tell me the truth, so I had to say something.”

Here’s the rule. “Tell” always needs a person as the object. Tell me, tell him, tell your boss. “Say” doesn’t take a person directly. You say something, you say hello, but you don’t say me or say him. If a person immediately follows the verb, it’s always “tell.” [00:04:00] If the sentence goes straight to the words or to the topic, it’s “say.” This is one of the cleaner rules in English, which is exactly why it’s very satisfying when it clicks.

The next one is about two sides of the same event. Listen to this sentence: Could you _____ me twenty dollars until Friday? I promise I’ll pay you back.

Pause here and guess. Could you BORROW me twenty dollars or could you LEND me twenty dollars?

The answer, LEND me twenty dollars. Could you lend me twenty dollars until Friday? I promise I’ll pay you back. This pair confuses people because both words describe the same transaction, just from opposite sides. “Lend” is what the person with the money does. They give it temporarily. “Borrow” is what the other person does. They receive it [00:05:00] temporarily and plan to give it back. So you lend money to someone and someone borrows money from you. The same event, two verbs, depending on which side you’re describing.

Here’s one about direction. Listen to this sentence: Can you _____ me to the airport tomorrow? And on your way back, could you _____ my mail in from the porch?

Pause here and guess. Which one is TAKE and which one is BRING? The answer, TAKE me to the airport then BRING my mail in. Can you take me to the airport tomorrow? And on your way back, could you bring my mail in from the porch?

The rule is about direction relative to the speaker or the main point of conversation. “Take” moves something away from here. “ Bring” moves something toward [00:06:00] here. If you’re describing a movement away from where you are, or where the conversation is centered, use “take.” If it’s movement toward that point, use “bring.” Native speakers get this right without thinking, but naming the direction explicitly like we just did is usually enough to help learners remember this.

The next one is a little trickier. Listen to this sentence: Just _____ the documents on my desk, and then go _____ down for a few minutes. You look tired.

Pause here and guess which one is LAY and which one is LIE. The answer: LAY the documents on the desk, then go LIE down. Just lay the documents on my desk, and then go lie down for a few minutes.

You look tired. Here’s the difference. “Lay” needs an [00:07:00] object, something you’re placing somewhere. You lay a book. You lay the documents. You lay your keys on the table. “Lie” doesn’t take an object. It’s about a person or thing resting. You lie down. The cat lies in the sun. This pair is really difficult, even for native speakers, partly because the past tense of lie is also lay, which makes it worse.

For now, the test that helps most: if there’s something being placed, it’s lay. If nothing is being placed, it’s just resting, use lie.

One more. Listen to this sentence: Before the meeting, I _____ a few notes. Then I _____ some coffee, and later, I _____ the dishes before everyone gets home.

Pause here and guess. Where does MAKE go and where does DO go?

The [00:08:00] answer: I MAKE a few notes, I MAKE some coffee, and I DO the dishes.

This one’s different. There’s no real rule here, just pairs that you need to remember. Make a plan, make coffee, make a mistake. Do the dishes, do homework, do a favor. If you try to reason your way through these pairs, you’ll get it wrong about half the time because making coffee and doing dishes aren’t really different in any way that helps you choose the right word. The only real fix here is repetition. Hearing “do the dishes” often enough that “make the dishes” starts to sound wrong to you, the same way it does for a native speaker who never thinks about which word to use.

If you’ve noticed something here, it’s that some of these have real rules you can apply immediately, and at least one, [00:09:00] you just have to hear enough times before you know it. Both are normal parts of learning a language. 

If this kind of practice was useful, it’s actually the idea behind the English, please Accelerator, a guided 10-lesson course that trains you to understand real, natural English. Each lesson has you listen first, try to understand it on your own, and then check yourself against the transcript, which is the same guess-first, check-second process we just did with these six pairs. You can find it at comullen.com/listen.

Again, I’m Christopher, and I want to invite you to join me in future episodes of English, please to hear about a variety of topics, all focused on helping you with your English. Subscribe now wherever you listen, and let’s continue this adventure together in clear, understandable English.

Sincere thanks, as always, for listening.

See you [00:10:00] soon!