Confusing Pairs of Words in English

Today’s English
June 3rd, 2017

1. Disinterested or uninterested?

Disinterested means impartial, fair in judgement because you don’t involve in something personally.  But uninterested is the opposite of interested (Not interested).

A. I’m uninterested in cricket. (=I’m not interested in cricket.)
B. He was disinterested in his suggestion. (=He was unbiased, right)

2. Unlike or dislike?

Both unlike and dislike are the opposite of like but dislike is the opposite of the verb like whereas unlike is the opposite of the preposition like.

A. I like this job. I dislike this job. (Not I unlike this job.)
B. She is like her sister. She is unlike her sister. (Not she is dislike her sister)

3. Abuse, misuse or disuse?

Misuse means using something for wrong purpose, in a dishonest way. Abuse is the unfair or cruel treatment of somebody. Disuse refers to something no longer in use.

A. She misused her power and was suspended on the retirement date.
B. He was accused of sexual abuse.
C. Most of the machines here are in disuse.

4. Disk or disc?
The word is spelled disk in American English and disc in British English though the words refer to different things in Computer field. Disk refers to a magnetic device such as floppy disk or hard disk whereas disc stands for optical media such as CD (compact disc) and DVD (digital versatile disc).

A. I stored all the important files on Compact Disc (CD).
B. Nowadays we prefer the hard disk to be 1 TB.

5. Learnt or learned ?
The verb learn has two past forms and past participle forms - learned and learnt. But unlike learnt,  learned is used as an adjective meaning “having a lot of knowledge.”  Learned is common both in American English and British English but learnt is used only in British English. Similar pairs with the same difference are dreamed/dreamt, spelled/spelt, burned/ burnt, spoiled/spoilt and kneeled /knelt.

A. I learned this from Kumar. / I learnt this from Kumar.
B. He is a learned professor. (= a professor with a lot of knowledge)

“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.”
- Audre Lorde, Our Dead Behind Us: Poems