Everyone has their bugbears when it comes to language and spelling. But of all the English language’s possible sources of difficulty, easily confused and muddled word pairs—from there and their to e.g. and i.e.—surely rank among the most troublesome. Now, a new analysis by language learning website Preply has uncovered exactly which word pairs have Americans the most perplexed.
The analysis’s authors started by compiling a list of 140 frequently mixed-up English word pairs, identifying words whose confusion stems from issues of grammar, spelling, and English usage. The authors then used search data from Google to find the total number of times people all across the United States resorted to checking each word pair online per month to unearth the words that Americans found the trickiest overall.
And the Top 20 Trickiest Word Pairs Are …
Far and away the most confusing word pair in America was the perennially befuddling affect and effect. Incredibly, there are more than 1 million searches asking to clarify the difference between these two words alone every month in the United States—more than six times the total of the second most confusing word pair, breath and breathe, which scored an average of 157,000 searches.
Ensure and insure came in third (with 105,200 monthly searches), followed by the Latin abbreviations e.g. and i.e. in fourth (100,600 searches), and principal and principle in fifth (82,900 searches). The rest of the top 10 was comprised of a mix of grammatical challenges and tricky homophones, including it’s and its in sixth place, followed by who’s and whose, lose and loose, than and then, and to and too.
Several homophones proved difficult, in fact. Elsewhere on the list, you’re and your ranked 16th overall, alongside past and passed (18th) and cue and queue (20th). The irregular Latin singular/plural pairing of criterion and criteria landed them 11th place, while woman and women came in 15th. And the trickily subtle difference between lay and lie earned them 13th place. See the full breakdown below.
- Affect and Effect: 1,026,100 monthly Google searches
- Breath and Breathe: 157,000 monthly Google searches
- Ensure and Insure: 105,200 monthly Google searches
- e.g. and i.e.: 100,600 monthly Google searches
- Principal and Principle: 82,900 monthly Google searches
- It’s and Its: 72,680 monthly Google searches
- Who’s and Whose: 72,540 monthly Google searches
- Lose and Loose: 68,380 monthly Google searches
- Than and Then: 61,100 monthly Google searches
- To and Too: 57,800 monthly Google searches
- Criteria and Criterion: 54,670 monthly Google searches
- Desert and Dessert: 36,720 monthly Google searches
- Lay and Lie: 35,770 monthly Google searches
- Emigration and Immigration: 35,000 monthly Google searches
- Woman and Women: 32,390 monthly Google searches
- You’re and Your: 31,400 monthly Google searches
- Their and There: 28,100 monthly Google searches
- Past and Passed: 27,030 monthly Google searches
- Either and Neither: 21,010 monthly Google searches
- Cue and Queue: 20,020 monthly Google searches
You Might Also Like ...
- 11 Words That Started Out as Spelling Mistakes
- 10 Common Words You’re Probably Mispronouncing
- 12 Surprising Word Pairs That Sound Related—But Aren’t
The States That Search for Confusing Words the Most

The study’s authors also broke down the data state by state to discover the states that googled the differences between troublesome words more than any others. Overall, it was Texas that came out on top, with an average total of 218,000 searches of the 140 words identified by the survey every month. The Texan data mirrored that of the national figures, too, with affect and effect coming out on top, followed by principal and principle in second, and ensure and insure in third. State by state, New York was ranked in second place, with just under 160,000 searches per month, followed by Florida in third, Illinois in fourth, and Georgia in fifth.
Rank | State | Monthly Google Searches |
---|---|---|
1 | Texas | 218,670 |
2 | New York | 159,920 |
3 | Florida | 155,350 |
4 | Illinois | 103,260 |
5 | Georgia | 89,210 |
Learn More About Words: