If you’ve already dedicated hundreds of hours to learning English as a second language, you know how tricky it can be.  Once you’re comfortable with the basic sentence structure, you’re confronted with a dozen different exceptions and variations – and you’re expected to know when and when not to use each one!  If you’re feeling frustrated with this sometimes unfriendly language, consider the following article to be a cheat sheet to some of the most confusing English language issues you’ll face.

Accept vs. Except

The words affect and effect sound so similar, and yet each word carries a different meaning and should be used in different situations.  Accept means to receive, so you’d use it in a situation where you’re being given anything from a gift to praise for a job well done.  For example, “I accept the promotion, Mr. Smith,” is the correct way to use this word.  Except, on the other hand, means to leave out or to exclude – for example, “I’ll take all the shirts, except the blue one,” is a correct sentence.

Good vs. Well

This is another tricky word choice, and don’t be ashamed if you make a few mistakes with it – many Americans get this wrong everyday!  The key to determining which word to use lies in recognizing that good is an adjective (it describes nouns or pronouns), while well is an adverb (describing verbs) in almost all cases.  Suppose, for example, that you’re describing a cup of coffee, which is a noun.  A correct sentence would read, “The coffee tasted good this morning.”  On the other hand, if you’re describing Melissa’s skill as a writer, you might say, “Melissa writes well”, using the word well to describe the verb writes.

Its vs. It’s

When determining whether or not to use its or it’s in a sentence, try to remember that it’s is actually the contraction of the phrase “it is”.  Therefore, it would make no sense to say, “The dog went back to its home,” which would be read as “The dog went back to it is home.”  Even in cases where the word its becomes possessive – for example, “The book fell from its shelf,” – it’s still incorrect to use the hyphenated contraction.

Lay vs. Lie

The difference between the words lay and lie is very subtle – technically, the word lay is a transitive verb, while the word lie is an intransitive verb.  However, to make things easier, try to remember that the word lay means to place something down and that you are the one exerting action on something else in this case.  For example, the sentence, “I will lay the pan in the sink” is correct, as you are performing an action on the pan.  On the other hand, the word lie means to recline or be placed – nothing else is exerting force on the object.  In this case, the sentence, “I will lie down on the bed” is correct, since there’s nothing else exerting force on me.

Who vs. Whom

Who and whom are two pronouns that can be very difficult to keep straight, since determining which one to use requires you to identify the proper case of the noun being replaced.  When you replace a noun with a nominative pronoun (I, you, we, he, she, they, etc.), you should use the word who, as in the sentence, “Who did that?”  In this case, you can replace the word who with any of the nominative pronouns and it would still make sense.  On the other hand, if you replaced the word who with an objective pronoun (me, him, her, it, them, etc.), the sentence could read, “Him did that”, which clearly makes no sense.  Use the word whom whenever the sentence could be correctly modified using an objective pronoun.