Price vs. prize

The words price [praɪs] (listen here) and prize [praɪz] (listen here) sound and look quite similar, but have very different meanings. Therefore, make sure that you do not confuse them when writing about any prestigious prizes you won, for example, in a cover letter for a job application. Since both words exist in the English language, your spell checker will most likely not flag the mistake.

A prize is an award given to someone in recognition of an achievement. In contrast, a price is an amount of money (or some other currency) that you pay to obtain ownership of something. Once again, this mistake is quite common among German native speakers because in German, the word Preis encompasses both meanings.

It is also important to get the pronunciation right, in order to make it clear to your listeners whether you mean price or prize.