Commonly Confused English Verbs for French and Other Non-Native Speakers

Choose the correct answer. Click your choice. Red means incorrect. Green means correct.

1. Please ____ me of the meeting.
   • A. remember
   • B. remind
2. I still ____ my first day at work. I was so nervous.
   • A. remember
   • B. remind
3. I usually ____ my children to wash their hands before they eat. They always forget.
   • A. remember
   • B. remind
4. I often ____ myself not to be so serious all the time.
   • A. remember
   • B. remind
5. I will ____ the complaint.
   • A. treat
   • B. deal with, manage or handle
6. The doctor will ____ her illness and soon, she’ll feel better.
   • A. treat
   • B. deal with, manage or handle
7. Our teacher always ____ us badly. He is mean.
   • A. treats
   • B. deals with, manages or handles
8. I need to ____ these invoices.
   • A. treat
   • B. deal with, manage or handle
9. I ____ clients daily about money matters.
   • A. treat
   • B. deal with, manage or handle
10. I will ____ my friends to dinner tomorrow.
    • A. treat
    • B. deal with, manage or handle
11. I ____ my dog as my child. He is not just a pet.
    • A. treat
    • B. deal with, manage or handle
12. I ____ my daughter a cake as a birthday gift.
    • A. gave
    • B. offered
13. I ____ to help my colleague, but she said no.
    • A. gave
    • B. offered
14. My boss ____ me a job but I haven’t decided yet if I will accept it.
    • A. gave
    • B. offered
15. Families visit cemeteries and ____ chrysanthemums to their deceased relatives.
    • A. give
    • B. offer
16. I already ____ the report to my manager.
    • A. gave
    • B. offered
17. My parents sometimes ____ me to go out at night.
    • A. allow
    • B. authorize
    • C. enable
    • D. permit
18. The manager cannot ____ smoking according to the building policy.
    • A. allow
    • B. authorize
    • C. enable
    • D. permit
19. As a manager, the company ___ me to fire people.
    • A. allows
    • B. authorizes
    • C. enables
    • D. permits
20. This feature ___ users to edit photos easily.
    • A. allows
    • B. authorizes
    • C. enables
    • D. permits
21. She ____ the traffic.
    • A. avoided
    • B. prevented
22. Seatbelts ____ injuries.
    • A. avoid
    • B. prevent
23. Exercise can ____ heart disease.
    • A. avoid
    • B. prevent
24. I know we are understaffed but let’s try our best to ____ delays.
    • A. avoid
    • B. prevent
25. We can ____ accidents by being careful.
    • A. avoid
    • B. prevent
26. Favoritism was common in his previous company but he ____ showing favoritism.
    • A. avoided
    • B. prevented
27. Bad weather ____ us from leaving.
    • A. avoided
    • B. prevented
28. She ___ that she likes pizza.
    • A. says
    • B. tells
29. My teacher ___ us to study every day.
    • A. says
    • B. tells
30. Can you ___ me your name?
    • A. say
    • B. tell

For the complete explanations, click this.

1. Remind: rappeler (help someone remember)
2. Remember: se souvenir de, se rappeler (not forget something or to think about something from the past)

3. Treat (verb - give medical care): traiter
4. Treat (verb - behave toward someone): traiter
5. Treat (verb - pay for someone’s meal or activity): inviter, offrir
6. Treat (noun – snack or pleasure): snack, plaisir

Instead of “treat” use:

7. Deal with (to take action to solve a problem or situation): traiter, s’occuper de, faire face à
8. Handle (to manage or control something, especially a problem or difficult situation): gérer, traiter
9. Manage (to be in control of something or to organize and take care of it): gérer

10. GIVE: to give something and to give without waiting for an answer.
11. OFFER: to propose something and to wait for an answer.
12. We offer a job, an invitation, etc. We offer to do something for someone. We offer an object to pay tribute.

13. Patterns

14. Give + what + to who: I gave a car to my son.
15. Give + who + what: I gave my son a car.

16. Offer + what + to who: I offered a job to my friend.
17. Offer + who + what: I offered my friend a job.
18. Offer + to do what + (for) who: I offered to cook for my friend.

19. Allow (to say someone can do something or to give permission): laisser, permettre – usually the person, group or company’s choice
20. Enable (to make something possible, to give someone ability): permettre à quelqu’un de + infinitif
21. Authorize (to give official permission, usually in work, school, or legal situations): autoriser – official power or legal approval
22. Permit (to officially allow something, often in rules or laws): permettre – based on rules, laws, regulations

23. Avoid: éviter (to stay away from something, but it still exists)
24. Prevent: empêcher (the action does NOT happen at all because it is blocked)

25. Say (said) is not followed by WHO: say + who + that + what
26. Tell or inform (told, informed) is always followed by WHO: tell + who + what
27. Note: Native English speakers sometimes say “He says to me”, but this is informal and not common.