“Especially” or “Specially”? That’s easy!

“Especially” or “specially”? That’s easy! Here you are two sentences where you could clearly see the difference between these two forms:

Everybody likes this book, especially the children.

This mouse is specially designed for left-handed people

Especially is used to say that something applies more to one thing than to others. Most of the times, you can substitute it by “particularly”, and comes before nouns or adjectives. It cannot be used at the beginning of a sentence.

Ex: My brother loves cooking, especially on Sundays, when we have visitors.

Specially is used to say that something is done for a particular purpose. Most of the times it goes before verb past participles

Ex: These shoes were specially made for me.

Now let’s practice a little bit. Fill in the blanks with especially or specially in their correct form.

1. Mary is really good at English, ________________ the grammar.
2. Everyone was really angry, ________________ Yuki.
3. My sister is allergic to nuts, so her food is always ________________ prepared.
4. You shouldn’t smoke, ________________ if you are pregnant.

Answer key:

Would you like to know when to use “have been to/in” or “have gone to”? Or when to use “afraid”, “frightened”, or “scared”? What is the difference between “lie” and “lay”? Also boost your fluency with these 25 work collocations! Just remember, practice makes perfect!