I was subbing today, and the writing class was working on defining homophones. If you don't remember, homophones are words that sound alike, but are spelled differently and have different meanings. The one the kids had the hardest time defining were "passed" and "past". Others are "right" and "write". They also had to do a worksheet on "two", "too" and "to". As a teacher it drives me nuts when kids don't know the difference between the two. What homophones do you know?
principal and principle they're, their, there here, hear read, red fare, fair steak, stake eight, ate
principle and principal (this one drives me nuts!) red and read allowed and aloud flower and flour weather and whether
This is one that drives me nuts. There is a financial company in the next town over called Capitol Investments...I think it should be Capital.
I know tons, but my favorites are: carrot, carat, caret, karat karat: measure of the purity of gold carrot: orange veggie carat: measure of gemstone weight caret: proofing mark used to insert new text
In the part of the country where I grew up tons of people have trouble with have and of. And in should have, would have, could have.
eight ate allowed aloud be bee beat beet blew blue board bored brake break by bye buy (baby bye bye :rotflmbo: ) cent scent cereal seriel (which reminds me of this shirt cereal killer) close clothes die dye fairy ferry flower flour
bread bred bear bare tear tare wear ware where pear pare --see a theme?? Just a few more that popped into my head
Capitol: 1 a : a building in which a state legislative body meets b : a group of buildings in which the functions of state government are carried out 2 capitalized : the building in which the United States Congress meets at Washington (From Merriam-Webster) Capital: 1 of a letter : of or conforming to the series A, B, C, etc. rather than a, b, c, etc. 2 a : punishable by death <a capital crime> b : involving execution <capital punishment> c : most serious <a capital error> 3 a : chief in importance or influence <capital ships> <the capital importance of criticism in the work of creation itself — T. S. Eliot> b : being the seat of government 4 : of or relating to capital; especially : relating to or being assets that add to the long-term net worth of a corporation <capital improvements>
Sharon, you are making my brain work too hard Not sure if this was mentioned or not: their and there...drives me :wacko: when I see them mixed up.
Herd and Heard Rain and Rein Know and No Hour and Our Plain and Plane Pain and Pane Vein, Vain, and Vane BTW, I now have the Veggie Tales Homophones silly song in my head....thanks
Flaw and Floor Pawn and Porn (not one you'd want the kids looking up :lol Meet and Meat This is not really a homophone (not for all of you anyway) but in Luke's reading book the other day the story was about a class going to a museum and the children said they would see some mummies. Well we are in England so they call their mother mummy. I asked him if he knew what mummies the children would see and he said "yes and daddies" :laughing: I had to explain that it ment Egyptian mummies.
Here's a riddle that I bet everyone can figure out if they read this thread: One is one Two is one Four is one Eight is one but 16 is not one. Ten can be one too.
I'm not sure if they're homophones but these seem to cause a lot of confusion: whose and who's its and it's
I only got a second, but here is an e-mail someone sent me that fits this post PERFECTLY! It's long, but it's GOOD: You think English is easy??? Read to the end . . . a new twist 1) The bandage was wound around the wound. 2) The farm was used to produce produce . 3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse. 4) We must polish the Polish furniture. 5) He could lead if he would get the lead out. 6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert. 7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present . 8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum. 9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes. 10) I did not object to the object. 11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid. 12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row . 13) They were too close to the door to close it. 14) The buck does funny things when the does are present. 15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line. 16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow. 17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail. 18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear. 19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests. 20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend? Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France . Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it? If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on. English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick' ? You lovers of the English language might enjoy this . There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is 'UP.' It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP ? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP ? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report ? We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special. A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP ! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP . When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP... When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP. When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP. One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP, so........it is time to shut UP!
Love it!! I'll have to remember this one for the kids. Had to look these up - couldn't remember what they were called...homonyms. Strange, isn't it? "Homo" should = same, and "nym" = meaning, but words with the same meaning are synonyms, right? So "homonym" is same spelling, different meaning - I don't get that. Homophone makes sense, since "Homo" = same, and "phone" = sound. Please, all you English experts, correct me if I am wrong.
Words that are spelled the same, with different pronunciation, and different meaning (like produce/produce) are homographs (or according to this heteronyms). Here is a great chart. And from wiki: homographs
Thank you - obviously I didn't research it hard enough. Wiki gave a great explanation. Thanks for the links!! Now all my little rant about "homo" doesn't apply!!
I did not know that! :blush: They are definately homophones here, they came to mind because we've had confusion in my house over both of them in the last couple of weeks (doing crossword clues) . I just looked up the heteronyms thing last night after reading this thread, :lol: I wanted to know what they were called. Here is the web page I found (it's not quite as clear as Kim's graph though).
What about lie and lye ? I will admit I sometimes do get these mixed up. I have worked hard though trying to remember the difference and before I post anything I always try to double check that I got them right.
