Different pronunciation of the same word

read – /riːd/ (the same as “reed”) means to perceive information provided in a written form; /rɛd/ (the same as “red”) is the past tense of the verb “to read”.

live – to /lɪv/ (rhyming with “give”) is a verb meaning “to be alive” /əˈlaɪv/; /laɪv/ (rhyming with “dive”) is an adjective meaning “being alive”.

wind – /wɪnd/ (rhyming with “pinned”) is a movement of air (it can also be a verb meaning “to blow to a wind instrument”); to /waɪnd/ (rhyming with “kind”) is a verb meaning “to turn, especially something around something else”. For example, a river or a way can “wind” /waɪnd/, or you can wind /waɪnd/ a wire around a coil.

wound – a /wuːnd/ (rhyming with “spooned”) is an injury; /waʊnd/ (rhyming with “sound”) is the past tense of the verb “wind” (/waɪnd/, see above).

tear – to /tɛə/ (UK), /tɛr/ (US) (rhyming with “fair”) means “to rip a solid material” (a /tɛə/ (UK), /tɛr/ (US) is a hole caused by tearing /tɛrɪŋ/); a /tɪə/ (UK), /tɪr/ (US) (rhyming with “dear”) is a water drop coming from someone’s eyes.

bow – a /bəʊ/ (UK), /boʊ/ (US) (rhyming with “snow”) is a medieval weapon or a device used to play the violin and other bowed /bəʊd/ (UK), /boʊd/ (US) (like “boat”) instruments (it can also be a verb meaning “to become bent” or “to play a bowed instrument”); to /baʊ/ (rhyming with “cow”, pronounced the same as “bough”) is a verb meaning “to bend oneself in a gesture of showing respect”.

row – /rəʊ/ (UK), /roʊ/ (US) (rhyming with “low”) is a line of objects (or a verb meaning “to propel a boat in water a using oars”); a /raʊ/ (rhyming with “cow”) is a noisy argument (to /raʊ/ means “to argue noisily”). (Also, J. K. Rowling is pronounced /rəʊlɪŋ/)

sow – to /səʊ/ (UK), /soʊ/ (US) (the same as “so”) means “to scatter plant seeds” (you can sow a field, for example) and it is pronounced exactly the same as “to sew” (i.e. as “so”, not as “Sue”) meaning “to use thread and a needle to join two pieces of fabric”; a /saʊ/ (rhyming with “cow”) is a female pig.

sewer – a /ˈsuːə/ (UK), /ˈsuːər/ (US) (rhyming with “newer”) is a pipe used to remove liquid human waste; a /ˈsəʊə/ (UK), /ˈsoʊər/ (US) (rhyming with “lower”) is someone who sews (/səʊz/ (UK), /soʊz/ (US), see above).

close – to /kləʊz/ (UK), /kloʊz/ (US) (rhyming with “doze”) is the opposite of the verb “open”; /kləʊs/ (notice the “s” at the end) is an adjective meaning “near”.

excuse – to /ɪkˈskjuːz/ or /ɛksˈkjuːz/ (rhyming with “lose”) means to forgive somebody for something that they have done; an /ɪkˈskjuːs/ or /ɛksˈkjuːs/(rhyming with “juice”, notice the “s” at the end) is an explanation designed to avoid negative judgement.

Polish – to /ˈpɒlɪʃ/ (UK), /ˈpɑlɪʃ/ (US) (beginning like ”pot”) means “to make a surface smooth”; /ˈpəʊlɪʃ/ (UK), /ˈpoʊlɪʃ/ (beginning like “Poe” (Edgar Allan, the writer)) refers to the language or the nation based in Poland /ˈpəʊlənd/ (UK), /ˈpoʊlənd/ (US).

lead – to /liːd/ (rhyming with “seed”) means “to guide or conduct” (/liːd/ can also be a noun meaning “the act of leading”); /lɛd/ (rhyming with “red”) is a chemical element with the symbol “Pb” (“plumbum” in Latin).

graduate – a /ˈɡrædʒuət/ (with “oo-ət” at the end) is a person holding an academic degree; to /ˈɡrædʒueɪt/ (rhyming with “late”) means to obtain an academic degree. Notice that although the pronunciation is different, there is no difference in stress position.

does – /dʌz/ (rhyming with “fuzz”) is the third person of the verb “to do”; /dəʊz/ (UK), /doʊz/ (US) (the same as “doze”) is the plural form of the noun “doe” (a female deer).

bass – a /beɪs/ (like “phase” but with “s” at the end, not “z”) is the lowest voice in a harmony (/beɪs/ is also an adjective meaning “low sounding”); a /bæs/ is a member of a certain species of fish.

number – /ˈnʌmbə/ (UK), /ˈnʌmbər/ (US) (rhyming with “lumber”) is a mathematical object, such as 1, 65536, 3.1415; /ˈnʌmə/ (UK), /ˈnʌmər/ (US) (rhyming with “summer”) means “more numb” (numb is pronounced /nʌm/).

dove – a /dʌv/ is a bird related to pigeons; /dəʊv/ (UK), /doʊv/ (US) is a non-standard form of the past tense of the verb “to dive” used in some dialects (the standard one is “dived”).

drawer – /ˈdrɔː/ (UK) (the same as “draw”), /ˈdrɔːr/ (US) (rhymes with “more”) is a piece of furniture. Note that there are British dialects in which the “er” is pronounced as /ə/ and American dialects in which the word is pronounced as “draw”. /ˈdrɔːə/ (UK) (like “draw-uh”), /ˈdrɔːər/ (US) (like “draw-uhrr”) is a person who draws.

house – a /haʊs/ (rhymes with “mouse”) is a building; to /haʊz/ (rhyming with “cows”) means “to provide a place for somebody to live”.

use – to /juːz/ (rhyming with “fuze”) means “to utilize”; a /juːs/ (rhyming with “goose”) is a way in which something is used.

My students often ask me the difference in pronunciation of words like son & sun, meet & meat, write & right, and which & which. And do you know what? Each of those pairs is pronounced exactly the same, even though they’re spelled differently. It’s important to not let your eyes fool you. English spelling can sometimes be unusual. While there are many rules to help you pronounce words based on their spelling, there are also exceptions to the rules. And those exceptions tend to occur in our most common words. Train your ears to tell you the pronunciation of words, not your eyes.

Prefer to see this as a video, rather than read it? Just click here: Homophones video.

Words that sound the same, but have different meanings and different spellings are called homophones. The prefix “homo” means same, and the root word “phone” means sound, so if you put them together in the word “homophone”, it means “same sound”. There are so many homophones in English, so I’ll give you a list of the ones I think you’re most likely to use. I’ve categorized them based on their vowel sounds. That way, if you’ve not yet mastered a particular vowel sound, you can watch one of my videos on how to pronounce that vowel. Click on the link to go to my American English Vowels playlist on Youtube: Vowels Videos.

Long Vowels:

Long A homophones: vowel pronounced like the alphabet letter A

• ate/eight
• brake/break
• male/mail
• sale/sail
• wait/weight
• way/weigh

Long E homophones: vowel pronounced like the alphabet letter E

• beet/beat
• genes/jeans
• meet/meat
• peace/piece
• see/sea
• sweet/suite
• week/weak

Long I homophones: vowel pronounced like the alphabet letter I

• buy/by/bye
• I/eye
• sight/site
• write/right

Long O homophones: vowel pronounced like the alphabet letter O

• close/clothes
• hole/whole
• no/know
• nose/knows
• so/sew
• toe/tow

Long OO homophones: vowel pronounced like the OO in “food”

• do/due/dew
• to/too/2
• chews/choose

Short Vowels:

Short A homophones: vowel pronounced like the A in “cat”

• ant/aunt

Short E homophones: vowel pronounced like the E in “bed”

• read*/red (*the past tense of read)
• weather/whether

Short I homophones: vowel pronounced like the I in “sit”
• which/witch

Short U homophones: vowel pronounced like the U in “fun”
• son/sun
• one/won

Short OO homophones: vowel pronounced like the OO in “book”
• would/wood

R Controlled Vowels:

“Ear” sound homophones: vowel sounds like “ear”

• deer/dear
• here/hear
• tear*/tier

*tear like in the tears you cry. There is another word with that same spelling with a different pronunciation: tear, which means to rip. This word rhymes with “hair”.)

“Air” sound homophones: vowel sounds like “air”

• fairy/ferry
• Mary/marry/merry
• there/their/they’re
• vary/very
• where/wear

“Or” sound homophones: vowel sounds like “or”

• for/4

“Hour” sound homophones: vowel sounds like “hour”

• hour/our

There are lots of English words that sound the same, but have different meanings and different spellings. Those were some of the more commonly used ones. Are there any homophones you use that are not listed here? Let me know in the comments. If there were any vowel sounds you were unfamiliar with in this article, take a look at my video on how to pronounce those sounds. Just scroll through the list of videos in this playlist until you find the ones you need: Vowels Videos.