Words that sound the same

By -

Homophones are words that sound the same, even though they sometimes have different spellings. Both flower and flour are pronounced /flaʊər/. Sea and see both sound /si:/. I and eye don’t have a single letter in common, but we pronounce them in the same way exactly: /aɪ/. And the list is not short – one/won, no/know, our/hour, son/sun, and blue/blew are just some everyday examples.
 
It seems that English spelling doesn’t always help us predict pronunciation. This means we should listen to words when we look them up, to make sure we learn how to say them properly. Fortunately, online dictionaries now make this a lot easier.

It is also important to be careful when writing, as homophones may be the cause of spelling mistakes – there, their, and they’re might sound the same, but they have different meanings.

On the bright side, homophones allow us to play with language. We make plenty of puns and jokes based on wordplay: ‘Why is six afraid of seven? Because seven eight nine!’ Ha ha!


 
Seven ate nine!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Confused or confusing?

By -
Image
In English we often use adjectives like bored and interested to say how we feel. A story, a situation, or another person can make us feel intrigued , embarrassed, or disappointed . We are often tired or stressed after a working week, and relaxed at the weekend. Surprised, depressed, amused, annoyed, and puzzled are other examples of –ed adjectives that express how people feel. They all come from verbs, and each of them has a relative – another adjective ending in – ing. The words in pairs like shocked/shocking and bored/boring look so similar because they come from the same verbs – shock and bore . Both confused and confusing come from confuse , although they have different meanings – which is confusing for some people. In such pairs, the –ing adjective describes what makes you feel in a certain way, while the –ed adjective describes how you feel. So, when something is interesting (it interests you), you are interested (you feel interested).
Read more

Go home, walk home

By -
Image
Go is the most common verb of movement in English. Most of us spend the whole day going places – we go to school, we go to the cinema, and we go to other countries, for example. We can go home on foot , go to the shops by car , or go to work by bike . Instead of go , however, we often use other verbs that describe how the movement happens. So, I may walk home, drive to the shops, or cycle to work. Some of these verbs of movement can take an object – if I walk the children to school , I accompany them on foot. Similarly, I can walk my dog (when I take it out for a walk) or drive somebody to the airport (if I give them a lift to the airport in my car).
Read more