Bear and bare

　　Bear and bare are often confused when used as verbs. While bare means ‘to uncover (a part of the body or other thing) and expose it to view’, the verb bear relates to carrying or supporting, both literally and figuratively. Bear can, of course, be a noun – denoting the furry animal. Bare, on the other hand, can also be used as an adjective, meaning ‘not clothed or covered’. So it does make quite a difference whether someone has bear feet or bare feet.

　　Bear和bare用作动词时常常容易混淆。Bare的意思是“裸露、身体的一部分或其他物体无覆盖物”, Bear作名词时表示“熊”。另一方面，bear也可以用作形容词，表示“没有穿衣服或无遮盖物的”。因此bear feet 和 bare feet并没有较大差别，均可表示“赤脚”。

　　stationary and stationery

　　Another very common mistake is to confuse stationary and stationery. The two have the same pronunciation and their spelling is very similar, but while stationary is an adjective meaning ‘not moving’, stationery is a noun referring to writing materials.

　　stationary 和stationery也是一组常见的易混词汇。这两个有相同的发音并且拼写很相似。但stationary是形容词，表示“静止的”，stationery则是名词，指“文具、信纸”。

　　Dessert and desert

　　While the prospect of stranding on a dessert island may sound quite appealing to some, you’d probably be more likely to end up on a desert island after having survived a shipwreck. Similarly to the stationary and stationery confusion, a single letter can make a big difference here. Desert can be used both as a noun and a verb, meaning ‘a waterless, empty area’ and ‘to abandon someone’, respectively. A dessert, on the other hand, is the sweet course of a meal.

　　停留在甜食小岛上听起来很吸引人，但实际上，你可能会在海难后最终在一个荒岛上后海难中幸存下来。类似于stationary 和 stationery，一个字母之差可能导致一个很大的区别。Desert(沙漠)可以作为名词和动词使用，意思分别为“n.沙漠/荒凉之地”和“v.遗弃某人”。Dessert，意为“一餐中的甜点”。

　　isle and aisle

　　The homophones isle and aisle are both nouns, with the former referring to an island, and the latter to a passage between rows of seats. Thus, you’d perhaps come across an aisle rather than an isle while doing your grocery shopping.

　　同音异形异义词isle和aisle都是名词，前者指的是一个岛屿，而后者的座位之间的过道。因此，当在你的杂货店购物时，你遇到的是一个aisle(通道)，而不是一个isle(岛)。

　　gorilla and guerrilla

　　Gorillas are not necessarily known for their combative, militant nature, but guerrillas certainly are. Although gorilla can be informally used to describe a person, or more specifically, ‘a heavily built aggressive-looking man’, in a military context, speaking of guerrilla soldiers makes more sense, as it refers to ‘a member of a small independent group taking part in irregular fighting’.

　　Gorillas(大猩猩)不一定以好斗，激进的本性著称，但guerrillas(游击队)肯定是以好斗，激进的本性著称。尽管gorilla(大猩猩)可以在非正式表达中用来描述一个人，更确切地描述“一个身强力壮的男人”。但在一个军事背景下，用到guerrilla(游击队士兵)则更有意义，guerrilla指的是“游击队员，参与不规则的战斗的小独立团体中的成员”。

（编辑：何莹莹）