Tests & Exercises

Clothes is the general word for the things that you wear such as shirts, dresses, trousers, etc.
Wear is used to describe the clothes that are suitable for a particular activity.
You need to mention the activity:

• Nightwear
  (Clothes you wear to sleep in.)
• Evening wear
  (Clothes you wear to go to a party.)
• Children’s wear
  (Clothes children wear.)
• Sportswear
  (Clothes you wear to play sport.)


• There is a pile of dirty clothes on the floor.
• I’m going to put on some clean clothes.
• I didn’t bring any evening wear.
• I need to buy some new nightwear.

More help with confused words.

Drown is when a person or animal dies because they were under water too long.
Sink is when a thing disappears under water and doesn’t come back.

• He fell into the water and drowned.
• Boys are 12 times more likely to drown than girls.
• The ship sank off the coast of Ireland during a storm.
• He threw a stone into the water and watched it quickly sink.

Do you know the difference between during and while?

In the north of means in the place you are talking about but in the north part of it.
North of means outside the place you are talking about in the direction of north.

• I live in the north of England, near the border with Scotland.
• I don’t live in Southport. I live 60 kilometres north of Southport in a town called Preston.

Do you know the difference between been and gone?

These three sound the same, but they are different.
Some time talks about a long period of time.
Sometime talks about an unknown period or an unspecified period of time.
Sometimes talks about how often something happens.

• For some time now I have been trying to buy a new house.
• We must meet for lunch sometime.
• He was a sometime journalist at a newspaper.
• Sometimes we meet for a beer or two.

More help with confused words.