12.3 English Vocabulary, Idioms & Commonly Confused Words
Key Takeaways
- Vocabulary questions draw from SSLC-level word lists covering synonyms, antonyms, one-word substitution, idioms, phrasal verbs, and commonly confused pairs; a daily ten-word habit with usage sentences is the fastest route to mastery
- Commonly confused pairs (affect/effect, advice/advise, principal/principle, stationary/stationery) are distinguished by part of speech as much as meaning — learn the noun vs verb role for each
- Reading comprehension is best approached by reading the questions first, skimming for the main idea, then scanning for keywords matching each question type (main idea, detail, vocabulary-in-context, inference)
- Error spotting hinges on four checks: subject-verb agreement, tense consistency, article correctness, and parallelism across list items
- Jumbled-sentence reordering relies on finding the topic sentence, following pronoun and transition-word links (however, therefore, moreover), and placing the concluding summary sentence last
Vocabulary: Synonyms, Antonyms, and One-Word Substitution
VAO Paper 2 often includes 5–10 vocabulary questions drawn from SSLC-level word lists. Build a daily habit of learning ten new words with their synonyms, antonyms, and a usage sentence.
- Synonym — a word close in meaning: abundant ≈ plentiful, brave ≈ courageous, benevolent ≈ kind.
- Antonym — a word opposite in meaning: generous ↔ stingy, ancient ↔ modern, victory ↔ defeat.
- One-word substitution — replace a phrase with a single precise word:
- "one who loves books" → bibliophile
- "a person who cannot read or write" → illiterate
- "the custom of having more than one spouse" → polygamy
- "a speech made without preparation" → extempore
- "a government by the people" → democracy
- "the science of crop production" → agronomy
- "a place where bees are kept" → apiary
- "one who eats everything" → omnivore
Commonly Confused Words
These pairs appear almost every year. Learn the part of speech and one example sentence for each.
| Pair | Meaning A | Meaning B |
|---|---|---|
| affect / effect | verb — to influence: "Rain affects the harvest." | noun — result: "The effect of the rain was visible." |
| advice / advise | noun — guidance: "She gave good advice." | verb — to guide: "I advise you to revise daily." |
| principal / principle | noun — head of a school; a leading sum (loan principal) | noun — a rule or belief: "Honesty is a principle." |
| stationary / stationery | adj — not moving: "The car was stationary." | noun — writing materials: "Buy stationery for the exam." |
| accept / except | verb — to receive: "I accept the offer." | prep — excluding: "All except Ravi came." |
| complement / compliment | noun/verb — to complete: "Curry complements rice." | noun/verb — praise: "She paid me a compliment." |
Idioms and Phrasal Verbs
An idiom is a phrase whose meaning cannot be guessed from the individual words; a phrasal verb combines a verb with a particle (up, out, off, on) to form a new meaning.
| Idiom / Phrasal verb | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| a piece of cake | very easy | "The grammar section was a piece of cake." |
| once in a blue moon | very rarely | "He visits the village once in a blue moon." |
| to turn a blind eye | to ignore deliberately | "The officer turned a blind eye to the error." |
| break down | stop working / collapse | "The tractor broke down near the field." |
| give up | stop trying / quit | "Never give up on your preparation." |
| put off | postpone | "They put off the meeting to next week." |
| look into | investigate | "The Tahsildar will look into the complaint." |
| carry on | continue | "Carry on with your work." |
Prefixes, Suffixes and Roots — How to Guess an Unknown Word
Vocabulary questions often use a word you have not met. Word parts let you make an informed guess rather than a blind one.
| Prefix | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| anti- | against | antiseptic, anticlimax |
| bene- | good | benevolent, beneficial |
| circum- | around | circumference, circumvent |
| mal- | bad | malpractice, malnutrition |
| mis- | wrongly | misinterpret, misappropriate |
| pre- / post- | before / after | precede, postpone |
| sub- / super- | under / above | subordinate, supervise |
| trans- | across | transfer, transparent |
| un- / in- / im- / il- / ir- | not | unauthorised, invalid, impartial, illegal, irregular |
| Root | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| aud | hear | audit, audience |
| dict | say | verdict, dictate |
| script / scrib | write | inscription, subscribe |
| spec / spect | look | inspect, spectator |
| terr | land | territory, terrain |
| vid / vis | see | evidence, visible |
| jur / jus | law, right | jurisdiction, justice |
| cede / cess | go, yield | precede, accession |
Notice how many of these appear in revenue vocabulary: inscription, jurisdiction, territory, evidence, audit, accession. Learning the root gives you a family of words rather than a single one.
One-Word Substitution — A Working List
| Phrase | Word |
|---|---|
| One who studies handwriting | graphologist |
| A government by officials | bureaucracy |
| A government by the few | oligarchy |
| One who is present everywhere | omnipresent |
| A word opposite in meaning | antonym |
| A speech made without preparation | extempore |
| A place where money is coined | mint |
| One who abstains from alcohol | teetotaller |
| Something that cannot be avoided | inevitable |
| A person who leaves their country to settle in another | emigrant |
| A person who comes into a country to settle | immigrant |
| A list of items to be discussed | agenda |
| Written statement made on oath | affidavit |
| Money paid to a landlord for the use of land | rent |
| A tax on land | land revenue |
| One who inherits property | heir |
| A person appointed to settle a dispute | arbitrator |
| Handing over an accused to another jurisdiction | extradition |
| Cancellation of a law | repeal |
| An official inspection of accounts | audit |
More Confusable Pairs
Beyond the table above, these appear repeatedly:
| Pair | Distinction |
|---|---|
| assent / ascent / accent | agreement / climb / manner of pronunciation |
| council / counsel | an assembly / advice, or a lawyer |
| eminent / imminent | distinguished / about to happen |
| elicit / illicit | to draw out / unlawful |
| precede / proceed | to come before / to go forward |
| prescribe / proscribe | to recommend / to forbid |
| canvas / canvass | cloth / to solicit votes |
| cite / site / sight | to quote / a location / vision |
| lose / loose | to misplace / not tight |
| respectfully / respectively | with respect / in the order given |
| historic / historical | momentous / relating to history |
| credible / creditable / credulous | believable / praiseworthy / too ready to believe |
| continual / continuous | repeated with breaks / unbroken |
| imply / infer | the speaker suggests / the listener concludes |
| beside / besides | next to / in addition to |
| farther / further | greater physical distance / additional in degree |
More Idioms and Phrasal Verbs
| Expression | Meaning |
|---|---|
| at the eleventh hour | at the last possible moment |
| a bolt from the blue | a complete surprise |
| to smell a rat | to suspect something wrong |
| to burn the midnight oil | to work late into the night |
| to leave no stone unturned | to make every possible effort |
| to be in hot water | to be in trouble |
| to make both ends meet | to manage on limited income |
| to beat about the bush | to avoid the main point |
| to call a spade a spade | to speak plainly |
| hand in glove with | in close, usually improper, collusion |
| carry out | to execute (an order) |
| draw up | to prepare (a document) |
| look after / look into / look for | to care for / to investigate / to search for |
| take up / take over / take after | to begin / to assume charge of / to resemble |
| put up with | to tolerate |
| give in / give up / give away | to yield / to abandon / to distribute or reveal |
| stand by / stand for / stand up to | to support / to represent / to resist |
The trap with phrasal verbs is that changing the particle changes the meaning completely: look after is not look into, and give up is not give away. Learn the verb-plus-particle as a single unit with one example sentence each.
Spelling and Confusable Plurals
Spelling Watch-List
Double-check these in cloze and editing questions: accommodation (double c, double m), committee (double m, double t, double e), privilege (no d), separate (par, not per), definitely (not "definately"), embarrass (double r, double s), liaison, necessary (one c, two s), occurrence (double c, double r, ending -ence), maintenance (not "maintainance"), acknowledgement, questionnaire, bureaucracy, surveillance, jurisdiction, beneficiary, receipt, grievance, tenant (not "tenent"), hereditary.
Irregular plurals that appear in error-spotting: criterion → criteria, phenomenon → phenomena, analysis → analyses, index → indices, appendix → appendices, sheep → sheep, deer → deer, mother-in-law → mothers-in-law, passer-by → passers-by, court martial → courts martial. Note the nouns that look plural but take a singular verb — news, mathematics, physics, politics, innings — and those that look singular but take a plural verb: cattle, police, people, poultry.
Exam Angle for Section 12.3
Vocabulary is the one part of the paper where a daily habit converts directly into marks. Ten words a day, each with a synonym, an antonym and a sentence, gives you roughly six hundred words over a preparation cycle — far more than the paper needs. Prioritise the confusable pairs and the one-word substitutions, because they are closed lists that recur, and treat idioms as a slower accumulation. When you meet an unknown word in the exam, use the prefix and root before you guess.
Choose the correctly spelt word.
Select the sentence with the correct word.
A cloze passage reads: "She is concerned ___ her missing ration card." Which preposition correctly fills the blank?
Choose the sentence that uses the confusable pair correctly.