Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Those Darn Homophones

'A word pronounced the same but differing in meaning.'
dictionary.com

Don't ya just love 'em? Ah, there's nothing like the English language to keep you on your toes(homophone).

My personal favorite bear/bare. Does this one confuse you? It does me.
I was writing an email and started to say bear with me. Then decided nope that didn't look right (there's another one) so I typed bare with me. No that didn't look right, so I plugged it into google. A good thing I did. If I'd left it bare with me, I would have basically been saying get naked with me. Hmm....wouldn't have been appropriate in this particular e mail.

The English language is sprinkled with them. I've listed a few below.

Brake/break
Eye/I
Fare/fair
For/four
Heir/air
Idol/idle
One/won
Piece/peace
Prey/pray
Right/write
site/sight
Sole/soul
Suite/sweet
Tail/tale
Toe/tow
Where/wear
added to the list by commenters:
read/read/reed
their/there
shudder/shutter


Which homophones give you grief?

8 comments:

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Julia Rachel Barrett said...

Read/read - same word for present tense and past tense.

Unknown said...

English - weird arsed language...that's why I make up my own words every so often

Shelley Munro said...

English is such a confusing language.
effect/affect always confuses me

Sandra Cox said...

Yup, I have problems with that one too. The other one that gives me fits is set/sit.

anny cook said...

One I see a LOT in books is shudder/shutter. I've yet to figure out how someone shutters with desire...

Jay said...

There/Their Haunted me in Jr High,

Sandra Cox said...

Good ones, ladies. I added them to the list.