Homophony : how can you distinguish these words ?

High ! Wooops, it is not this word, I meant 'hi !' Why did I make such a terrible mistake ? Well, it is clear. 'High' and 'hi' are pronounced in the same way, although they are written differently and have different meanings. How is that possible ? They are homophones, of course ! Homophony is an English quirk that I had anticipated in a previous post. There are hundreds and hundreds of homophones in the English language and homophony more often than not leads to confusion, especially for Spanish speakers. There are some homophones in Spanish like 'vaca' and 'baca', but just few of them.

Here you have some example of the most famous homophones :
a) son - sun
b) hear - here
c) write - right
d) one - won
e) eight - ate
f) hi- high
g) buy - by - bye
h) sent - cent- scent
i) blew - blue
j) steal - steel
k) sea - see

Let's continue with some more quirks about homophones. Native speakers find confusing some homophones that non-native speakers usually distinguish (since they study this grammar at school over and over again) :
- Whose vs. who's (who is)
- their vs. there vs. they're (they are) 
- would have vs. would of (the latter is obviously grammatically incorrect but it sounds the same).

There are some surprisingly incredible homophones like 'island' - 'Ireland' where you can make funny sentences like 'Ireland is an island'. In fact, these homophones are only homophones is British English, given that in America the 'r' is 'Ireland' would be pronounced.

- There is a pair of homophones which means the same thing. This pair is 'gaol' (British) and 'jail' (American), both pronounced [ʤeɪl].

- Homophones can form funny ambiguous sentences like 'I love this [flaʊə]'. This sentence can mean : a) I love this flower; b) I love this flour.

From : http://www.clipartpanda.com/categories/flower-clipart

From : http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-graham-flour.htm

Another example of this is : 'I like the dog's [teɪl]. This sentence can mean : a) 'I like the dog's tail'  or  b) 'I like the dog's tale.' 

To conclude this post, I would like to propose you an exercise about homophones. I am warning you, some of them are really daunting and challenging and will drive you crazy, so think carefully before answering. You can find the answers down below.

1. The words in bold are incorrect. Correct them for their appropriate homophone.

a) My sun is playing football outside.

b) “The Big Bang Theory” is my favourite TV cereal.

c) If some animal crosses the road abruptly while you are driving, do not press the break, simply loose the accelerator.

d) I live in island. I love its music, animals and symbols!

e) He is working for the marine core.

f) I like the fable of the turtle and the hair.

g) I told her a very good complement to flirt with her but it didn’t work.

h) Look write before you cross the road.

i) I had a Grecian earn on my chimney. It’s beautiful there!

j) Before getting on the bus, you need to pay the fair.

k) Your marks will be posted on the bored.

l) She is my favourite actress. I want to meat  her.

m) This racket is not made of wood. It’s made of steal.

n) In this factory, they used to make flower.

o) I like the tail of Little Red Riding Hood.

p) How much does it way? Ten pounds.

q) Weight for me at the airport.

Answers : a) son b) serial c) brake d) Ireland e) corps f) hare g) compliment h) right i) urn j) fare k) board l) meet m) steel n) flour o) tale p) weigh q) wait.

Did you enjoy my selection of homophones. I hope 'sew' (ups, rather, 'so'). As usual, you can contribute to my blog with your comments ! Please do.

Buy ! Sea ewe !