GCSE English

Sort and sought

?
For Sale advert in Kettering newspaper. A sort after area, apparently!

This is a fairly rare confusion, but it's still one that made it into a Kettering newspaper!

Sort is a noun; the kind of thing something is.
e.g. "the animal in the bushes was a sort of gibbon."

Sort can also be a verb.
e.g. "Will you sort out your desk?" asked John's wife.

Sought is the past tense of the verb "to seek". So, if you were looking for something, you had "sought" it.
e.g. "Tony Blair had sought a solution to the problem of nuclear waste for years."

The advert should, of course, read "sought after area", but I suppose it's cheaper!


Advice and advise
Affect and effect
Bought and brought
Complement and compliment
Discreet and discrete
Hear and here
Its and it's
Lead and led
Less and fewer
Licence and license
Loose and lose
  Plane and plain
Poor, pore and pour
Practice and practise
Principal and principle
Sort and sought
Stationary and stationery - new!
There, their and they're
Threw, through and thorough
To and too
Warn and Worn
Whose and who's
Your and you're

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