Commonly Confused

Words
8th Grade
 Capital/Capitol
 Capital: noun. a city that is the official center of
government , an uppercase letter, money or wealth.
-Example: The first word in a sentence begins with a
capital letter.
– Example: Salt Lake is the capital of Utah.
– Example: They needed a lot of capital to start a company.

 Capitol: noun the word usually refers to the main

government building of a state.
-Hint: think of the dome of the capitol building as the o in
the word
-Example: The dome on the capitol building was made of
copper.
 Choose/Chose
 Choose - verb. to select from a number of
possibilities; pick out, decide on (will do)
Example: The judges will choose the
winner.
 Chose - Verb – past tense. To have
decided upon and picked out past tense of
“choose” (have done)
Example: I chose the best player to be on
my team.
 Loose/Lose
 Loose – adjective. Too much space, not
tight fitting
Example: His pants were so loose they
fell down.
 Lose – verb. To fail to keep or find; be
deprived of.
Example: If you lose your lunch money,
you won’t get lunch.
 Quiet/Quit/Quite
 Quiet adjective. making little or no noise.
Example: The class was quiet while taking the
test.
 Quiet – noun. the state of being quiet.
Example: The quiet was not disturbed.
 Quit: verb. to stop doing something
Example: John quit teasing his brother.
 Quite -adverb means truly or considerably
Example: At a young age, Michael Jordan, was
quite tall.
 Weak/Week
 Weak - adjective. fragile, or not strong
Example: He was weak, after being ill.
 Hint: After being frightened by a mouse,
(eak) she felt weak and feinted.
 Week – noun. refers to seven days

Example: Tom was grounded for a week.

Hint: week and seven both have two e’s
 Cell/Sale/Sell
 Cell - noun - a small room or group
Example: The Criminal was Captured and
put in a jail Cell.
 $ale - noun - the exchange of goods for
an amount of money
Example: The store had a big clearance
sale.
 $ell – verb - to give something in
exchange for money
Example: We will sell our car.
 Emigrate/Immigrate
 Emigrate – verb -To leave or EXIT
one country to live elsewhere
Example: The war refugees
emigrated from Iraq.

 Immigrate -verb - to come INTO a

country
Example: People from many
countries immigrated to the U.S.
 Knew/New
 Knew - verb - the past tense for “know”
to understand something
Example: He knew the answer to the
math problem.

 New – adj. not old; fresh; recent; having

something for the first time.
Example: They bought a new car.
Hint: K for know and knew
N for never used before
 Passed/Past
 Passed – verb - having completed the act
of passing, going by something.
Example: Mary passed the test.
John passed her in the hall.

 Past – noun -a time that has gone by.

Example: The pioneers lived in the past.
 Past – adj. gone by; ended; over:

Example: Our childhood days are past.

 Their/There/They’re
 Their – adj. means relating to or belonging to
them
Example: That is their house.
Hint: Heir is in the word their, which means
possessing something left in a will.
 There – adverb. means at or in that place
Example: The river is over there.
Hint Here is a place and is in the word there
 They’re - contraction. A contraction of the
words they are.
Example: They’re going home.
 Farther/Further
 Farther – adj. – at or to a greater
distance; more distant
Example: I threw the ball farther
than John.
 Further – adj. additional; more
Example: I threw the ball farther
than John, but Tom threw it further
than both of us. There will be no
further discussion.