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A lone pair of electrons takes up space despite being very small. Lone pairs have a greater repulsive effect than bonding pairs. This is because there are already other forces needing to be taken into consideration with bond pairs.

So to summarize: Lone pair-lone pair repulsion > lone pair-bond pair repulsion > bond pair-bond pair repulsion. This makes the molecular geometry different.

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Q: How does a lone pair distort the molecular shape?
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