Tricky Words

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  1. The bandage was wound around the wound.

  2. The farm was used to produce produce.

  3. The dump was so full that it had to refuse refuse.

  4. We must polish the Polish furniture.

  5. He could lead if he would get the lead out.

  6. The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

  7. Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

  8. A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

  9. When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

  10. I did not object to the object.

  11. The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

  12. There was a row among the oarsman about how to row.

  13. They were too close tot he door to close it.

  14. The buck does funny things when the does are present.

  15. A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

  16. To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

  17. The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

  18. After a number of injections, my jaw got number.

  19. Upon seeing the tear in the painting, I shed a tear.

  20. How can I intimidate this to my most intimate friend?

Mrs. Edwards got the sentences above from e-mail that is circulating through regularly.  We could write our own sentences using the confusing words.  We could also write sentences using these other words that are sometimes confused:

  • to/too/two

  • ant/aunt

  • when/win/wind/went

  • ate/eight

  • bare/bear

  • blew/blue

  • dear/deer

  • eye/I

  • for/four

  • hear/here

  • knew/new

  • know/no

  • made/maid

 

  • meat/meet

  • one/won

  • read/red

  • road/rode

  • sea/see

  • sew/so

  • son/sun

  • tail/tale

  • their/there/they're

  • wear/where

  • wood/would

  • your/you're

 

It's always fun to play with possessives.  It's even more fun to draw what you think the phrase means.  Give these sets a try.  Each phrase means something different! 

Hint: Put your thumbnail right on the apostrophe.  Look in front of your thumb.  Is the word plural or singular?  That tells you how many to draw of the first word. 

 

 

This page was added September 8, 2004.