Tricky Words

🧳 Uncountable nouns

No a/an, no -s, singular verb:

advice, information, news, luggage, furniture, equipment, homework, research, evidence, knowledge, wildlife

The ranger gave us some useful advice. There is a lot of wildlife in Kruger.

❌ an advice, luggages → ✅ a piece of advice / luggage

👮 Always plural

police, people, cattle take a plural verb:

The police are patrolling the beach. Many people speak two languages.

❌ The police is …

🦓 Same form – one or many

species, series, means, sheep, deer, fish

one species – 147 species · a means of transport – different means of transport

❌ specieses, a mean of transport

📚 -s but singular

news, economics, politics, physics, mathematics take a singular verb:

Economics is my favourite subject. The news is good.

🏛️ Greek and Latin plurals

crisis → crises · criterion → criteria · phenomenon → phenomena · analysis → analyses

❌ crisises, criterias

become ≠ bekommen

become = werden · get = bekommen

I want to become a pilot. I got a present.

actually ≠ aktuell

actually = eigentlich, tatsächlich · current(ly) = aktuell

the current news · Actually, Cape Town is not the capital.

eventually ≠ eventuell

eventually = schließlich, am Ende · possibly / perhaps = eventuell

sensible ≠ sensibel

sensible = vernünftig · sensitive = sensibel

chef ≠ Chef · handy ≠ Handy

chef = Koch · boss = Chef
handy = praktisch · mobile phone = Handy

rise · raise

rise – rose – risen: goes up by itself
raise – raised – raised: somebody lifts something

Prices rose. Eskom raised its prices.

lend · borrow

lend = (ver)leihen, geben · borrow = (sich) ausleihen, nehmen

Can you lend me your torch? May I borrow your torch?

affect · effect

affect = verb (beeinflussen) · effect = noun (Wirkung)

Power cuts affect people. They have a big effect.

historic · historical

historic = very important in history · historical = about the past

economic · economical · lose · loose

economic = wirtschaftlich · economical = sparsam
lose = verlieren · loose = locker