Homophones are words that are pronounced the same, but are spelt differently and have different meanings.
From Greek homóphõnos (homo same – phõné sound)
Examples of homophones:
♦ band - My son plays the drums in a band.
♦ banned - She's been banned from driving for a year.
♦ coarse – My dog has very thick, coarse fur.
♦ course – My English course starts in September.
♦ genes – You have thousands of different genes in every cell in your body.
♦ jeans – I'm wearing my favourite jeans today.
♦ heal - It's only a small cut and it will heal quickly.
♦ heel - My new shoes have made a blister on my heel.
♦ he'll - He'll meet you at 7 o'clock.
♦ know – I don't know how to spell that.
♦ no – No thank you.
♦ meat – I don't eat meat.
♦ meet – We'll meet you after work.
♦ morning – Good morning!
♦ mourning - She is in mourning because her husband died last week.
♦ sauce – I love tomato sauce!
♦ source – The BBC is a popular news source.
♦ sea - I live by the sea.
♦ see – I can see the sea from my window.
♦ their – Their car is blue.
♦ there – It's parked over there.
♦ they're – They're going to buy a new car soon.
♦ threw – She threw the ball.
♦ through – She threw the ball through the window.
♦ to – We're going to the cinema.
♦ too – Do you want to come too?
♦ two – We have two spare tickets.
♦ your - Your breakfast is ready.
♦ you're – You're late for work.
It's important to remember that there are many varieties of English, and words may be homophones in one variety of English but not in another.
Examples:
♦ father / farther and for / four are homophones in Received Pronunciation (RP), but not in American English and Scottish English.
♦ whether / weather are homophones in England, but not in Scotland.
Can you think of any more homophones?
Recent comments