Pairs that look alike but mean different things, where mixing them up changes your sentence.
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Not one of these is a spelling mistake. Every one is a correctly spelled word doing the wrong job.
- The minister assured that the funding would continue.
- Several firms were found to be flaunting the safety regulations.
- The two policies compliment each other well.
- The committee proscribed a set of minimum standards for the sector.
- The team's performance was credible given the resources available.
- The survey was designed to illicit responses from non-users.
Run a spellchecker over them and it will find nothing. Every word is spelled correctly. Every sentence is grammatical.
And four of the six now say something the writer did not mean.
One reliable test per pair — usually about grammar rather than meaning, because grammar is easier to check under time pressure.
These are the easy wins, because you do not have to remember a meaning — you have to look at what comes next.
ensure / assure — assure needs a person.
The minister assured the committee that funding would continue. ✓
The minister acted to ensure that funding would continue. ✓
Assure is about removing somebody's doubt, so there has to be a somebody. If there is no person after the verb, you want ensure.
(You may also meet insure, which is about financial cover — arranging a policy. In American writing it sometimes covers the ensure sense too, but keep them separate in your own writing.)
elicit / illicit — different parts of speech.
elicit is a verb: to elicit a response, the question elicited little
illicit is an adjective: illicit trade, illicit substances
If the slot needs a verb, only one of them can go in it. That is the entire test.
prescribe / proscribe — and this is the most dangerous pair on the page.
| prescribe | lay down as a requirement, order — the regulations prescribe a minimum width |
| proscribe | forbid, outlaw, ban — the treaty proscribes the use of such weapons |
A hook that holds: pro- here is the same pro- as in prohibit. Proscribe bans. Prescribe demands.
Everything else on this page blurs your meaning. This one inverts it.
Eight words, eight tells. Most of them are about grammar or collocation rather than definition — which is what makes them usable at speed.
Terms
Definitions
Eight sentences. Half are already correct, and two of those look wrong until you check the tell.
Four of these eight are correct as written.
Where you can, use the structural tell rather than the meaning — is there a person after the verb, is the object a rule or a possession, does the slot need a verb or an adjective. It is faster and it does not depend on remembering anything.
"The department assured residents that the works would finish by March."
Three chains. The third one resolves to rewriting around the pair, which is a real answer.
Chain 1
The sentence: The regulations were tightened to ______ that no applicant could be excluded on grounds of age.
Candidates: ensure / assure
Step 1 — Is there a person directly after the blank?
Step 2 — Therefore the expert writes: The regulations were tightened to that no applicant could be excluded.
Chain 2
The sentence: The 1996 Act ______ the sale of such devices to anyone under eighteen.
The Act made these sales illegal.
Candidates: prescribed / proscribed
Step 1 — Does the Act require the sale or forbid it?
Step 2 — Therefore the expert writes: The 1996 Act the sale of such devices to anyone under eighteen.
Chain 3
Your draft reads: a number of operators were openly ______ the licensing rules. You are fairly confident which of the two you want, but not certain, and you are three minutes from the end of the test.
Candidates: flouting / flaunting / ignoring
Step 1 — What does an uncertain choice here risk, and what does a rewrite cost?
Step 2 — Therefore the expert writes: a number of operators were openly the licensing rules.