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Last updated:
April 14, 2023
English pronunciation can be pretty weird.
Maybe you were surprised to discover that the number “two” was pronounced the same as the word “to.” Or perhaps you thought it was strange that “ate” was pronounced the same as the number “eight.”
Words like these, which sound the same but have different meanings, are called homophones.
In this post, we’ll teach you 25 pairs of English homophones with example sentences to compare their uses.
Contents
- What Is a Homophone?
- 25 Sets of English Homophones All English Learners Should Know
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- 1. ate , eight
- 2. bare , bear
- 3. buy , by , bye
- 4. cell , sell
- 5. dew , do , due
- 6. eye , I
- 7. fairy , ferry
- 8. flour , flower
- 9. for , four
- 10. hear , here
- 11. hour , our
- 12. know , no
- 13. knight , night
- 14. mail , male
- 15. marry , merry
- 16. meat , meet
- 17. pair , pear
- 18. right , write
- 19. sight , site
- 20. son , sun
- 21. their , there , they’re
- 22. to , too , two
- 23. one , won
- 24. wait , weight
- 25. wear , where
- Why Does English Have so Many Homophones?
- How Can You Learn English Homophones?
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- Vocabulary notebook
- Books with homophones
- Songs and sites online
Download:
This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you
can take anywhere.
Click here to get a copy. (Download)
What Is a Homophone?
As mentioned above, sets of words like “you’re” and “your” are called homophones. The root of that word, homo-, means “same,” and the root –phone means “sound.” Homophones are two words that sound the same, but have different meanings. So the words “two” and “to” are homophones, as are “ate” and “eight.”
There’s another word that begins with homo-, which native speakers often confuse with homophone: homonym. Again, the root homo- means “same,” but –nym means “name.” A homonym is a single word (with one spelling) that has more than one meaning.
An example of a homonym is the word “bear.” You probably know about the animal called a “bear,” but the word “bear” can also be a verb that means to tolerate. For example, “I’m so nervous about watching this game, I can’t bear to watch the last minute!” But today we’ll just focus on homophones.
25 Sets of English Homophones All English Learners Should Know
Depending on how long you’ve been learning English, you may know a lot of these already. But I created this list so that even high-level English learners can find some new or interesting words. So hopefully there will be at least a few words that you didn’t know before!
For each set of words, I’ll include a short definition and an example of the words in use. Then I’ll include an interesting note related to the words, like a similar word or a link to a video, comic or website.
Most of these are homophones in any dialect of English, but because of small pronunciation differences, there are some words that are homophones in American English but not in British English, and vice-versa.
Also, there are a few homophones that are more common in American English than in British English, and vice-versa. You can find a list of specifically British homophones here, but again, most of them are also homophones in American English. Phew! Don’t worry if that sounded complicated, we’ll only focus on clear homophones today.
1. ate , eight
ate (verb): This is the simple past tense of the verb “to eat.”
I ate an entire pizza and now I’m really full and tired.
eight (noun): The number after seven and before nine.
Charles will wake up at eight o’clock tomorrow morning.
Interesting note: There is a popular children’s joke that goes like this:
Q: Why was 6 afraid of 7?
A: Because 7 ate 9.
Yes, it’s pronounced “because 7 8 9,” and yes, it’s a pretty bad joke. But most kids’ jokes are bad.
2. bare , bear
bare (adjective): If something is bare, it means that it’s not covered or not decorated.
Tom likes to walk around his house in bare feet. He says it’s more comfortable than wearing shoes.
bear (noun): A large mammal.
When you go camping, you should be careful to not leave any food in your tent because it can attract bears.
Interesting note: Bears are often popular characters in stories and cartoons.
3. buy , by , bye
to buy (verb): A synonym of “to purchase.” It’s probably one of the first verbs you learned.
I forgot my money at home. Do you think you could buy me lunch and I’ll pay you back tomorrow?
by (preposition): This can be used in many different ways. It’s commonly used to mean “next to” or “near” when describing a location. It can also indicate who created something.
My favorite autobiography is “The Autobiography of Malcolm X,” written by Malcolm X and Alex Haley.
bye (exclamation): This is a shortening of “goodbye.”
I’ve got to go now, so bye! See you on Sunday!
Interesting note: This is a set of three homophones, but you could also possibly include the prefix “bi-.” It means “two,” as in “bipedal” (something that uses two legs), but it can also be an adjective as an abbreviation for “bisexual.” So if you include “bi,” then this can actually be a set of four homophones!
4. cell , sell
cell (noun): A cell is a small area or room, usually in a prison. A cell can also be one of the smallest divisions of a living organism.
The prisoner spent 10 years in his cell.
to sell (verb): To exchange a product or service for money. Like “buy,” it was probably one of the first verbs you learned.
We would like to sell our car, but we don’t think we’d get very much money for it.
Interesting note: Monks (men) and nuns (women) are two groups of religious people who live in monasteries or convents. Their rooms are also called “cells,” and they actually do look a bit similar to a prison cell!
5. dew , do , due
dew (noun): Dew is the name for small drops of water that accumulate (gather) on plants and other objects outside during the night.
When I went outside early in the morning, the dew on the grass made my shoes wet.
to do (verb): This common verb is used to indicate an action. It can also be an auxiliary verb.
What do you usually do on Friday nights?
due (adjective): This is used to indicate the deadline (final day) that something can happen. It’s also used to indicate when a baby will probably be born.
My friend is pregnant. Her baby is due in October.
Interesting note: The soft drink company Mountain Dew played with this homophone set with its motto “Do the Dew.“
6. eye , I
eye (noun): The part of your body that you use to see.
My eyes hurt when I read. I think I need a pair of glasses.
I (pronoun): A first person singular subject pronoun.
I really hope you know what this word means.
Interesting note: This can actually be a three-word homophone if you include the word “aye.” That’s an old-fashioned way of saying “yes.” You might hear people on boats show that they’re following an order by saying “Aye-aye, captain!” And there’s a strange-looking animal called an “aye-aye,” also. I learned that just a minute ago, so even native speakers learn new words every day!
7. fairy , ferry
fairy (noun): A mythical creature that can often do magic.
There is a fairy named Tinkerbell in the story “Peter Pan.”
ferry (noun): A ferry is a boat that moves passengers and vehicles across water. It’s used for long distances or places where there are no bridges.
The ferry in Costa Rica is really hot and incredibly badly organized. At least the trip only takes an hour.
Interesting note: There is a common mythical fairy in some parts of the world called the Tooth Fairy. She’s especially popular in the USA. The story is that when a child loses a tooth, he or she should put the tooth under their pillow. Then, while they sleep, the Tooth Fairy will replace the tooth with a coin.
8. flour , flower
flour (noun): This is the main ingredient in bread. It’s a powder made from ground grains.
Tony wanted to make a cake, but he didn’t have any flour, so he couldn’t.
flower (noun): The decorative, colorful part of a plant.
If you want to give flowers to somebody you love, avoid white roses. They are often given when someone dies.
Interesting note: In some languages, there is an element that has a name similar to “flour.” But in English, the element is called “fluoride,” and the “u” is silent.
9. for , four
for (preposition): This preposition is usually used to indicate a person who receives something, or to indicate a purpose.
We wanted to buy a chocolate cake for Cheryl’s birthday but the bakery didn’t have any for sale.
four (noun): The number after three and before five.
The Beatles, one of the most famous bands ever, had four members: George, John, Paul and Ringo.
Interesting note: This is another set of homophones that can also include a third: If you’re playing golf, you should yell “Fore!” right before you hit the ball. This warns other people to look out for your ball.
10. hear , here
to hear (verb): This is the action that you do with your ears. The sense is called “hearing.”
I can’t hear the TV. Can you please turn up the volume?
here (adverb): “Here” indicates the place where you are at any moment. It’s the opposite of “there,” basically.
Can you set the boxes down over here please? Yes, right here next to the door.
Interesting note: The expression “Hear, hear!” is used to indicate that you agree with something. But it’s usually used in formal situations, and it’s not very common in modern English.
11. hour , our
hour (noun): A period of time that lasts 60 minutes.
It takes about six hours to drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
our (pronoun): This is the possessive pronoun form of “we.”
We should study for our exams.
Interesting note: Depending on a speaker’s accent and the way they’re using the word, these two might not always sound like homophones. Also, to make things more confusing, the word “our” is sometimes pronounced as a homophone to “are.”
12. know , no
to know (verb): To have knowledge or understanding about something.
Reggie knows how to speak French.
no (determiner): This indicates a negation or something that’s not true.
There is no good reason to listen to Justin Bieber.
Interesting note: This pair of words made me think of some interesting songs. Radiohead has a song called “A Punchup at a Wedding (No no no no no no no no),” Beirut has one called “No No No” and Destiny’s Child has two songs called “No, No, No” (part 1 and part 2. Personally, I like part 2 better).
Also, I discovered that there is a Swedish band (that sings in English) called NONONO. See, you learn something new every day!
13. knight , night
knight (noun): A man given a special honor (or rank) by a king or queen. Their title is usually “Sir.”
One popular English legend talks about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
night (noun): The period of time when it’s dark and most people sleep.
I prefer to work at night, since it’s quieter and not as hot. I can concentrate better.
Interesting note: There was a popular TV show in the 1980s called “Knight Rider,” but many people thought it was “Night Rider.” It was actually called “Knight Rider” because the main character, played by David Hasselhoff, was named Michael Knight.
Also, an additional fun note: I live in Costa Rica, and here “Knight Rider” was called “El Auto Fantástico,” or “The Fantastic Car”!
14. mail , male
(to) mail (verb or noun): As a noun, this is a collective noun for letters and packages. As a verb, this means to send something to somebody. Email also comes from this word.
I haven’t gotten the mail yet today, but I was expecting a letter from grandma. Can you please check the mailbox?
male (adjective or noun): An adjective (or noun) indicating that something is masculine or has masculine reproductive organs.
People always ask if our cat is pregnant. I tell them he can’t be, since he’s a male. He’s just fat.
Interesting note: In British English, they usually use the word “post” as a verb or a noun, instead of “mail.”
15. marry , merry
to marry (verb): The action when two people have a wedding; also called “to get married.”
My grandpa told me to be sure to marry a good woman.
merry (adjective): A synonym for “happy,” but less common in modern English. Mostly used in phrases like “Merry Christmas!”
In December the song “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” always gets stuck in my head.
Interesting note: This is another example of a three-word homophone set, if you include the name “Mary.”
16. meat , meet
meat (noun): Edible flesh from an animal.
Vegetarians don’t eat meat.
to meet (verb): When you are introduced to a person for the first time. It can also refer to later meetings.
I’m excited to travel to England so I can meet some new people!
Interesting note: In English, you can generally only meet people, but not places. If you want to talk about seeing a place for the first time, you could say something like “I want to see Paris,” “I want to go to Paris,” or “I want to visit Paris.” But we generally don’t use the words “meet” or “know” with places.
17. pair , pear
pair (noun): A set of two things that go together.
Most of these examples of homophone sets are pairs of words, but some are groups of three or four words.
pear (noun): A delicious fruit.
I wanted to buy pears for my fruit salad, but they only had winter pears, so I decided to get peaches instead.
Interesting note: This can also be a set of three words if you include the less-common verb to pare. It means to cut something to make it smaller.
18. right , write
right (adjective): This can mean either a synonym of “correct” or the opposite of “left.”
I should turn right when I get to 10th Street, right?
to write (verb): The action of making words or marks to represent ideas.
Jerry’s dream is to write a novel, but he hasn’t decided what the book should be about.
Interesting note: This can be yet another homophone set of three words if you include “rite,” which is a ceremony or ritual. There is also a common last name “Wright,” which is pronounced the same as “right,” “write” and “rite.”
19. sight , site
sight (noun): This is the sense that you use when you see or look.
Blind people can’t see. They have no sight.
site (noun): This is a synonym for “place.” The most common modern use is in the word “website.”
There’s an awesome site for language learners.
Interesting note: You guessed it: This can be another three-word set if you include the word “to cite,” which means “to reference.” For example, it’s commonly used in academic papers that have citations of other books.
20. son , sun
son (noun): A male child.
Grandma and grandpa had four sons and three daughters.
sun (noun): The star at the center of our solar system. It’s that big yellow thing in the sky during the day.
Don’t look directly at the sun, or you’ll damage your eyes. You may even lose your eyesight!
Interesting note: Don’t forget that the word “sons” only indicates males, and “daughters” is just females. If you want to indicate “sons and daughters” with only one word, you can say “children” (even if you’re talking about adults).
21. their , there , they’re
their (pronoun): The possessive pronoun for the subject “they.”
We should study for our English exam, and they should study for their German exam.
there (adverb): Remember the word “here” above? This is basically the opposite of that. “There” can refer to any place where you are not at.
Who is that over there? Is that Jane? If so, I hope she comes over here, since I want to talk to her.
they’re (contraction): This is a contraction of the phrase “they are.”
The children all passed their exams, so they’re very happy!
Interesting note: This is a bit funny, because this set of homophones actually seems to cause more trouble for native speakers than it does for English learners. There are even some great videos that are designed for native speakers, but people still get confused.
22. to , too , two
to (preposition): This usually indicates a direction that something is moving.
Every day Paul and Judy drive together to school.
too (adverb): “Too” can usually either mean “also,” or it can indicate that there is more of something than necessary (and it’s usually a problem).
I’m too full to finish this plate of food.
I’ll ask the waiter if we can have a container to take it home. And I’ll ask for the bill, too.
two (noun): The number after one and before three.
Most homophone sets have two words, but some have three or four.
Interesting note: This is another set of homophones that confuse native speakers, too. But of course there are some fun videos available to help you!
23. one , won
one (noun): The number after zero and before two.
The musical group Three Dog Night said that one was the loneliest number.
won (verb): “Won” is the simple past and past participle form of the verb “to win.”
Grandpa won $500 in his poker game!
Interesting note: When you use a form of the verb “to win,” you can either indicate the event or the prize, but not the opponent. If you want to indicate the opponent, use the verb “to beat.” So in the example above, you could say “grandpa won $500″ or “grandpa won the poker game,” but you would say “grandpa beat all of his poker friends.”
24. wait , weight
to wait (verb): This means to stay in one place or to anticipate something.
It was snowing a lot, so the bus came late. I had to wait in the cold for 20 minutes.
weight (noun): This word indicates how heavy something is.
Every year around Christmas, many people gain a lot of weight because they eat lots of food but don’t exercise.
Interesting note: If you want to determine a person or an object’s weight, then the verb is “to weigh.” The machine you use to weigh something is called a scale.
25. wear , where
to wear (verb): To have clothing or accessories on your body.
I hate wearing ties. They’re uncomfortable, hot, and hard to tie. Do you wear ties?
where (interrogative): A question word used to ask for a location.
Where should we meet for dinner? Personally, I’d like to meet at the new Chinese restaurant in town.
Interesting note: Since this is our last set for this article, of course I’ll include another word for this homophone set: “ware.” It’s a suffix that indicates objects that are related. For example, stores often have housewares and kitchenware departments that sell things to use in your home or kitchen.
Why Does English Have so Many Homophones?
A word’s pronunciation in English may not always be the same as its spelling. French is also similar in this way, because there can be multiple words with one pronunciation.
Chinese homophones are also really interesting. There’s even a famous Chinese story where every single word is some variation of the word “shi”!
Other languages, like Spanish or German, for example, are more consistent with spelling and pronunciation. In those languages, words usually sound like they’re spelled. Still, even those languages have some homophones at least. The point is that basically every language has homophones, so try not to get frustrated when you’re learning them.
However, English does have many vowel sounds, many silent letters, and lots of words that come from many other different languages. As a result, there are many homophones in English, as you have been able to see above.
How Can You Learn English Homophones?
Now that you have learned 25 pairs of English homophones, how can you learn more?
There’s a popular saying in English: “Practice makes perfect.” That means that if you want to become an expert at something (like learning homophones or even English in general), you have to practice a lot. Fortunately, if you want to practice homophones, there are many ways to do so.
Vocabulary notebook
This is probably the easiest way to practice, and if you already have a piece of paper and a pen/pencil, it’s free!
If my students ask for ways to improve their vocabulary, I often suggest that they should always keep a small vocabulary notebook with them. I did this when I was learning German and Spanish, and you can do the same.
Every time you hear a new word or phrase, write it down in your notebook. You can also write down a definition, a synonym or an example sentence. All of those pieces will help you remember the word.
Naturally, you can use this same notebook for homophones. It might help to make a separate list or a separate section for homophones, but you can use whatever system works best for you.
Especially if you’re a visual learner or a person who learns things by writing them down (like I do), then this technique is a great way to add words to your English vocabulary.
Books with homophones
There are some books that specifically focus on homophones in a fun way. Two popular ones are “A Chocolate Moose for Dinner” and “The King Who Rained,” both by Fred Gwynne. Another is “Dear Deer” by Gene Barretta. You can find these books at bookstores or online, but it may be hard to find digital copies, since they’re a bit old.
There are also videos of people reading the books (here are the videos for “A Chocolate Moose for Dinner,” “The King Who Rained” and “Dear Deer”). You can use these videos to follow the stories and see some examples of fun wordplay using homophones.
Songs and sites online
As with so many things, the Internet can be a wonderful resource for learning English! You can find more information about the books I mentioned above, and there are also other sites and videos that people have made to help you learn homophones.
There are funny (and weird) videos like this homophone song video and this ballad between a man and a lion. Or, if you have 46 minutes, you’re welcome to watch this great but really long video that combines tons of English homophones, including their pronunciation! I’ll also include some links to videos and websites that can help with specific homophone sets in our list of homophones below.
Finally, there are other sites that can help you learn homophones. One that I recommend is called Grammarist.com. It includes other topics in addition to homophones, but it often features homophone sets. Plus, the other vocabulary is usually relevant to news events, so it’s a great general site if you want to build up your vocabulary.
Immersing yourself in native English content is important as it will help you learn to listen out for and identify any new homophones.
That’s it for today’s list! I hope that you learned some new words—I know I did! Happy learning!
Download:
This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you
can take anywhere.
Click here to get a copy. (Download)
Here are 150 examples of homophones that are the most common homophone pairs and groups in the English language.
And by ‘most common’, we mean most common as per our own arbitrary decision making. There are thousands of homophones in total, so we went through the list and picked out examples of homophones that we felt are used most often on a day-to-day basis.
To make it on to this particular list, there had to be at least two homophones that are in everyday usage. This means that even though ‘the’ is a homophone (it’s pair is ‘thee’), it didn’t make it on to this list seeing as very few people use the word ‘thee’ anymore.
We’ve also left out a few words from homophone groups for a similar reason. For example, ‘air’ and ‘heir’ are on the list, but we didn’t include their additional homophones like ‘are’ and ‘ere’ as examples, as they’re rarely used in modern language.
Examples Of Homophones
| 1 | eye | I | ||
| 2 | air | heir | ||
| 3 | aisle | I’ll | isle | |
| 4 | ate | eight | ||
| 5 | allowed | aloud | ||
| 6 | awe | oar | or | ore |
| 7 | band | banned | ||
| 8 | bare | bear | ||
| 9 | base | bass | ||
| 10 | be | bee | ||
| 11 | bean | been | ||
| 12 | berry | bury | ||
| 13 | bi | buy | by | bye |
| 14 | billed | build | ||
| 15 | blew | blue | ||
| 16 | board | bored | ||
| 17 | bold | bowled | ||
| 18 | brake | break | ||
| 19 | bread | bred | ||
| 20 | brews | bruise | ||
| 21 | brows | browse | ||
| 22 | carat | carrot | karat | |
| 23 | caught | court | ||
| 24 | cell | sell | ||
| 25 | cent | scent | sent | |
| 26 | cereal | serial | ||
| 27 | chews | choose | ||
| 28 | chili | chilly | ||
| 29 | chord | cord | cored | |
| 30 | chute | shoot | ||
| 31 | cite | sight | site | |
| 32 | coarse | course | ||
| 33 | colonel | kernel | ||
| 34 | cymbal | symbol | ||
| 35 | dear | deer | ||
| 36 | dew | do | due | |
| 37 | discussed | disgust | ||
| 38 | ewe | you | ||
| 39 | feat | feet | ||
| 40 | find | fined | ||
| 41 | fir | fur | ||
| 42 | flaw | floor | ||
| 43 | flea | flee | ||
| 44 | flew | flu | ||
| 45 | flour | flower | ||
| 46 | for | fore | four | |
| 47 | foul | fowl | ||
| 48 | genes | jeans | ||
| 49 | grate | great | ||
| 50 | groan | grown | ||
| 51 | guessed | guest | ||
| 52 | heal | heel | he’ll | |
| 53 | hear | here | ||
| 54 | higher | hire | ||
| 55 | him | hymn | ||
| 56 | hoarse | horse | ||
| 57 | hole | whole | ||
| 58 | hour | our | ||
| 59 | it’s | its | ||
| 60 | knead | kneed | need | |
| 61 | knew | new | ||
| 62 | knight | night | ||
| 63 | knot | not | ||
| 64 | know | no | ||
| 65 | laps | lapse | ||
| 66 | lead | led | ||
| 67 | leased | least | ||
| 68 | loan | lone | ||
| 69 | made | maid | ||
| 70 | male | |||
| 71 | maize | maze | ||
| 72 | meat | meet | ||
| 73 | mind | mined | ||
| 74 | missed | mist | ||
| 75 | moan | mown | ||
| 76 | morning | mourning | ||
| 77 | none | nun | ||
| 78 | one | won | ||
| 79 | overseas | oversees | ||
| 80 | paced | paste | ||
| 81 | pain | pane | ||
| 82 | pair | pear | ||
| 83 | passed | past | ||
| 84 | patience | patients | ||
| 85 | pause | paws | pores | pours |
| 86 | paw | poor | pore | pour |
| 87 | peace | piece | ||
| 88 | peak | peek | ||
| 89 | pi | pie | ||
| 90 | plain | plane | ||
| 91 | pole | poll | ||
| 92 | pray | prey | ||
| 93 | presence | presents | ||
| 94 | profit | prophet | ||
| 95 | rain | reign | rein | |
| 96 | raise | rays | ||
| 97 | rap | wrap | ||
| 98 | raw | roar | ||
| 99 | read | red | ||
| 100 | real | reel | ||
| 101 | rose | rows | ||
| 102 | right | rite | write | |
| 103 | road | rode | rowed | |
| 104 | role | roll | ||
| 105 | sail | sale | ||
| 106 | sauce | source | ||
| 107 | saw | soar | sore | |
| 108 | scene | seen | ||
| 109 | sea | see | ||
| 110 | seam | seem | ||
| 111 | seas | sees | seize | |
| 112 | sew | so | sow | |
| 113 | side | sighed | ||
| 114 | sighs | size | ||
| 115 | soared | sword | ||
| 116 | some | sum | ||
| 117 | sort | sought | ||
| 118 | stair | stare | ||
| 119 | stake | steak | ||
| 120 | stationary | stationery | ||
| 121 | steal | steel | ||
| 122 | suite | sweet | ||
| 123 | sundae | Sunday | ||
| 124 | tea | tee | ||
| 125 | tense | tents | ||
| 126 | their | there | they’re | |
| 127 | threw | through | ||
| 128 | throne | thrown | ||
| 129 | thyme | time | ||
| 130 | tide | tied | ||
| 131 | to | too | two | |
| 132 | toe | tow | ||
| 133 | wade | weighed | ||
| 134 | waist | waste | ||
| 135 | wait | weight | ||
| 136 | waive | wave | ||
| 137 | war | wore | ||
| 138 | wear | where | ||
| 139 | warn | worn | ||
| 140 | way | weigh | ||
| 141 | weak | week | ||
| 142 | we’ll | wheel | ||
| 143 | weather | whether | ||
| 144 | weave | we’ve | ||
| 145 | we’d | weed | ||
| 146 | which | witch | ||
| 147 | whine | wine | ||
| 148 | who’s | whose | ||
| 149 | wood | would | ||
| 150 | your | you’re |
Make sure you check out our complete homophones list.
In English, the word “Homophones” is used to describe a word that sounds the same as another word but has a different meaning. In this article we will provide you information about Homophones examples.
This word comes from the Greek ” Homo “, which means “equal”, and ” phones “, which means “voice“.
Now, just to confuse you a bit more (it will be the last time, there are different words that we use to define different types of homophones:
- Homograph : Words that sound and spell the same but have different meanings
- Homonym : Words that have the same spelling and pronunciation but have a different meaning
- Heterograph : Words that sound the same, but are written differently and have different meanings
- Multinym (multinimo) : words that sound the same but have more than two meanings and different spellings
As I mentioned earlier, words like “you’re” and “your” are homophones . The root of the word, “homo”, means “the same”, while the particle “phono” means “sound”. Homophone words are those that have the same sound, but have different meanings. Therefore, words like “two” and “to”, and “ate” and “eight” are homophones.
It is common for native English speakers to confuse homophone words with homonyms . Although they have the same root (homo), they are not the same. A homonymous word is one that has more than one meaning.
A homonymous word is “bear”. You may know what “bear” means, although in certain contexts it is the verb “tolerate”. For example: I’m so nervous about watching this game, I can’t bear to watch the last minute! ” (I’m so nervous to watch the game, I can’t bear to watch the last minute.) But today we will talk about homophones!
20 pairs of homophones in English you need to know
Depending on how long you have been studying English, you may already know several pairs of homophone words. Nonetheless, I created this list for you to find some new and interesting words, even if you are an advanced student. I hope you know at least a few words that you’ve never seen before!
In each pair of words I included a short definition and an example. Then I added an interesting note related to the words, such as a similar term or a link to a video, a comic, or a website.
Something else and I promise I’ll let you go to the list later. Most of these homophones apply to all dialects of English. However, due to slight differences in pronunciation, some words may be homophones in American English, but not in British , and vice versa.
Similarly, there are some homophones that are more common in American English than in British English, and vice versa. Here you can find a list of British homophones. However, almost all of these words also apply to American English. Phew! Don’t worry if it sounds complicated. Today we will focus only on clear homophones
1. ate, eight
Ate (verb): this is the past tense of the verb “to eat” (eat).
I ate an entire pizza and now I’m really full and tired.
Eight (noun): is the number after 7 and before 9.
Charles will wake up at eight o’clock tomorrow morning.
Interesting note: there is a very popular word game among children that says:
– Why was 6 afraid of 7?
– Because 7 ate 9.
The joke is that “eight” is pronounced the same as “ate.” It’s a very bad joke, but kids like it.
2. bare, bear
Bare (adjective): This word means bare, bare or undecorated.
Tom likes to walk around his house in bare feet. He says it’s more comfortable than wearing shoes (Tom likes to walk around his house barefoot. He says it’s more comfortable than wearing shoes).
Bear (noun): a bear.
When you go camping, You should be to careful not leave any food or anything with a scent in your tent Because They Can Attract Bears (When you go camping, you must be careful not to leave your tent food or anything that has aroma, as it can attract bears).
Interesting note: Bears are popular characters in stories and cartoons .
3. buy, by, bye
To buy (verb): means “to buy”. This is perhaps one of the first verbs you learned.
I forgot my money at home. Do you think you could buy me lunch and I’ll pay you back tomorrow? (I forgot my money at home. Do you think you can buy me a lunch and I’ll pay you tomorrow?
By (preposition): this word has several uses. For example, it can mean “next to” or “near” when talking about a location. You can also indicate the author of a work.
My favorite autobiography is “The Autobiography of Malcolm X.” It’s written by Malcolm X and Alex Haley (My favorite autobiography is The Autobiography of Malcolm X. It’s written by Malcolm X and Alex Haley).
Bye (exclamation): is an abbreviation of the word “good bye” (goodbye).
I’ve got to go now, so bye ! See you on Sunday! (I have to go now, so, bye! See you on Sunday!).
Interesting note: this is a set of 3 homophones, although we could also include the prefix “bi”. This word can mean “two” (for example, bipedal: with two legs) or be an adjective when it is the abbreviation of the word “bisexual” . That means, if you include “bi,” it would be a set of four homophones!
4. cell, sell
Cell (noun): means cell (like those in prison), or refer to the basic units that make up living beings (cells).
The prisoner spent 10 years in his cell .
To sell (verb): it means to sell, that is, to exchange products or services for money. Like “buy”, this may be one of the first verbs you learned.
We would like to sell our car, but we don’t think we’d get very much money for it.
Interesting note: The monks and nuns are religious people living in monasteries and convents, respectively. These people’s rooms are also called “cells ,” because they actually look like one!
5. dew, do, due
Dew (noun): means dew. These are the tiny drops of water that collect on plants or other objects overnight.
When I went outside early in the morning, the dew on the grass made my shoes wet.
To do (verb): means “to do” and is the most common verb to indicate an action. This can also be an auxiliary verb.
What do you usually do on Friday nights? (What do you usually do on Friday nights?).
Due (adjective): it is a word that indicates the term in which an event will take place. You can also mark the date a baby will be born.
My friend is pregnant. Her baby is due in October.
Interesting note: Soda company Mountain Dew has these words in its slogan: “Do the Dew . “
6. eye, I
Eye (noun): This word means eye.
My eyes hurt when I read. I think I need a pair of glasses.
I (pronoun): is a first person singular pronoun.
I really hope you know what this word means. (I actually hope you know what this word means.)
Interesting note: This can be a group of three homophones if you include the word “aye.” This is an old way of saying “yes”. You will most likely hear this term on a ship, when sailors follow their captain’s orders ( Aye, aye, captain! ). There is also a strange looking animal called aye aye . I just learned that a minute ago. As you can see, we learn new things every day!
7. fairy, ferry
Fairy (noun): this word means “fairy”, that is, those little mythical creatures that often perform magic tricks.
There is a fairy named Tinkerbell in the story Peter Pan.
Ferry (noun): A ferry is a ship that carries passengers and vehicles across the water. This boat is generally used for long distances or in places without bridges. Homophone words in English with examples
The ferry in Costa Rica is really hot and incredibly badly organized. At least the trip only takes an hour (The ferry in Costa Rica is very hot and incredibly poorly organized. At least the trip takes only an hour).
Interesting note: In many parts of the world, people believe in a mythical being called the Tooth Fairy: The Tooth Fairy . This fairy is especially popular in the United States and the story is that when a child falls out of a tooth, she takes it away and leaves a coin in its place.
8. flour, flower
Flour (noun): means flour; a powder made from ground grains that is used to prepare bread.
Tony wanted to make a cake, but he didn’t have any flour , so he couldn’t.
Flower (noun): means flower, the colorful part of a plant.
If you want to give flowers to somebody you love, avoid white roses. They are often given when someone dies.
Interesting note: there is an element in Spanish called “fluorine”. However, in English it is called “ fluoride ” and the “u” is not pronounced.
9. for, four
For (preposition): it is a word that usually serves to refer to a person who receives something, or to indicate a purpose.
We wanted to buy a chocolate cake for Cheryl’s birthday. The bakery didn’t have any chocolate cakes for sale, though, so we got vanilla instead. ).
Four (noun): is the number after 3 and before 5.
The Beatles, one of the most famous bands ever, had four members: George, John, Paul and Ringo (The Beatles, one of the most famous bands of all time, had four members: George, John, Paul and Ringo).
Interesting note: This is another group of homophones to which a third word can be added: ” Fore “. When playing golf, this is an interjection that you should yell before hitting the ball. This is how you warn everyone to watch out for the ball.
10. hear, here
To hear (verb): is the act of hearing sounds. Hearing is the word for the sense of hearing.
I can’t hear the TV. Can you please turn up the volume? (I can’t listen to TV. Can you turn up the volume please?).
Here (adverb): “Here” refers to the place where you are. Basically, it is the opposite of “there” (there).
Can you set the boxes down over here please? Yes, right here next to the door.
Interesting note: The expression “Hear, hear!” It is used to indicate that you agree with something. However, it is generally used in formal situations and is not very common in modern English.
11. hour, our
Hour (noun): is an hour; a period of 60 minutes.
It takes about six hours to drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
Our (pronoun): It means “our”. It is the possessive form of the pronoun “we” (we).
We should study for our exams.
Interesting note: Depending on the accent and the way the word is used, these two terms are not always pronounced the same way . And, as if things weren’t confusing enough, “our” sometimes sounds like the word ” are .”
12. know, no
To know (verb): It means to know or understand something.
Reggie knows how to speak French.
No (determiner): Indicates a negation or that something is not true.
There is no good reason to listen to Justin Bieber.
Interesting note: This couple of words reminds me of some interesting songs. Radiohead has a song called A Punchup at a Wedding (No no no no no no no no) , Beirut has a song called No No No and Destiny’s Child has two songs called No, No, No ( part 1 and 2 . I think it is better).
Also, I found out that there is a Swedish band (singing in English) called NONONO . You see? You learn something new every day!
13. knight, night
Knight (noun ): a man who receives a special honor or rank from a king or queen. They are usually given the title “Sir.”
One popular English legend talks about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table .
Night (noun): is the night, the time of day when the sun goes down and most people sleep.
I prefer to work at night , since it’s quieter and not as hot. I can concentrate better (I prefer to work at night, since it is quieter and it is not so hot. I can concentrate better).
Interesting note: There is a fairly famous 80s TV show called Knight Rider , although many think it is actually titled Night Rider . The real name is Knight Rider , because the main character played by David Hasselhoff is called Michael Knight.
And another note: In Spanish, Knight Rider is called El Auto Fantástico !
14. mail, male
To mail (verb or noun): As a noun, it means “mail”. In other words, they are the letters and packages that you send by mail. On the other hand, as a verb it means to send something by mail. The word “E-mail” comes from this term.
I haven’t gotten the mail yet today, but I was expecting a letter from grandma. Can you please check the mailbox? (I didn’t get the mail today, but I was expecting a letter from my grandmother. Could you please check the mailbox?).
Male (adjective or noun): an adjective (or noun) that indicates that something is male or has male reproductive organs.
People always ask if our cat is pregnant. I tell them he can’t be, since he’s a male . He’s just fat (People always ask if our cat is pregnant. I tell them that is not possible, because it is a male. It is simply fat).
Interesting note: In British English, the word for mail is not “mail” but “post”.
15. marry, merry
To marry (verb): is when two people love each other very much and get married. This action is also expressed with the phrase “to get married”.
My grandpa told me to be sure to marry a good woman.
Merry (adjective): a synonym for “happy” (happy), although rare in modern English. This term is commonly used in phrases like “Merry Christmas!” (Merry Christmas!).
I don’t like to go shopping in December because the song “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” always gets stuck in my head. my head).
Interesting note: If you include the name Mary, this would be a set of three homophone words.
16. meat, meet
Meat (noun): is the edible meat of animals.
Vegetarians don’t eat meat .
To meet (verb): means to meet or meet with a person.
I’m excited to travel to England so I can meet some new people! (I’m excited to travel to England so I can meet some people!).
Interesting note: In English, you can only meet people, not places. If you want to talk about a place you want to know, you can say: “I want to see Paris” (I want to see Paris), “I want to go to Paris” (I want to visit Paris) or “I want to visit Paris.” (I want to visit Paris).
17. pair, pear
Pair (noun): it is a set of two things.
Most of these examples of homophone sets are pairs of words, but some are groups of three or four words.
Pear (noun): means pear; a delicious fruit .
I wanted to buy pears for my fruit salad, but they only had winter pears. I don’t like winter pears very much because they’re hard, so I got peaches instead. I got peaches better).
Interesting note: This can also be a set of three words if you include the verb “Stop” (peel). This is a rare word that refers to the action of cutting the edges of something to make it smaller.
18. right, write
Right (adjective): can mean “correct” or “right”.
I should turn right when I get to 10th Street, right ? (You should turn right when you get to 10th Street, right?).
To write (verb): the act of writing words.
Jerry’s dream is to write a novel, but he hasn’t decided what the book should be about.
Interesting note: This can be another group of three-word homophones if you include the term “rite” . There is also a common last name which is Wright , which is pronounced in the same way as “right”, “write” and “rite”.
19. sight, site
Sight (noun): is the sense of sight.
Blind people can’t see. They have no sight .
Site (noun): it is a synonym for “place” (place). This word is commonly used as part of the term “website”.
There’s an awesome site for language learners. It’s https://www.fluentu.com/ (There is an amazing website for language learners. It’s www.fluentu.com).
Interesting note: You guessed it. We can add the word “to cite” to this group. This is a term that is commonly used to talk about bibliographic citations in academic writing.
20. are, sun
They are (noun): a male child.
Grandma and grandpa had four sons and three daughters.
Sun (noun): is the star at the center of our solar system. You may have seen that huge yellow ball in the sky during the day.
Don’t look directly at the sun , or you’ll damage your eyes. You may even lose your eyesight! (Do not look directly at the sun or you will hurt your eyes. You may even lose your eyesight!).
Interesting note: Don’t forget that the word “sons” only indicates male children, while “daughters” refers only to girls. If you want to talk about sons and daughters alike, you can say “children”. This term also applies to adults.
Download English Homophones pdf
Would you like a English Homophones Word List pdf download? Here is the full English homphones list of over 100 English homophones. This list includes the most commonly mispronounced English homophones with the International Phonetic Alphabet IPA in a printable .pdf that you can download.
This is the one of the most comprehensive English homphones lists available and it includes the IPA International Phonetic Alphabet for each homophone example. This homophones list includes all the homophones mentioned on this page and is split into sections for short vowels, long vowels, dipthong vowels and longer words.
This English homophones printable list is a great tool for ESL speakers.
You should remember to pay attention to vowels and word stress as you go through the list.
For homophone practice with long vowels (you’ll see /:/ in the IPA), you should check you are making a long vowel and not a short vowel.
For homophones practice that have diphthong vowels, make sure you get two vowels in each diphthong vowel.
And importantly, for the homophones practice for multi-syllable words, pay attention to making good word stress in each homophone pair.
Click the button below to download the English homophones pdf with IPA symbols. This is your full English homophones printable list for revising and improving homophones for clearer spoken English.
Homophones and Your English Speaking Confidence
When people lack confidence with their spoken English it can really hold them back. It’s tiring and exhausting!
Revising areas such as how to pronounce English homophones can really help. The English pronunciation homophones exercises on this page can help people improve their speaking confidence through improved pronunciation skills.
For many ESL students, covering homophones is an eye opener. We say something is an ‘eye-opener’ when it’s surprising. Many of them say to me ‘All these years and I’ve been trying to say those two words differently, and now I know that they are actually pronounced the same way!’
For example, many of my overseas students from non-English speaking backgrounds mispronounce words like ‘pause’ – they use the incorrect vowel sounds. It helps so much when they understand that ‘pause’ is exactly the same as ‘paws’.
It gives people confidence to know that they are pronouncing homophones correctly.
Correcting your pronunciation of homophones with this English homphones list can make your English clearer and build your speaking confidence. You can be confident that you are pronouncing these words clearly and correctly.
Here are answers to questions we’re often asked about English homophones examples:
How to pronounce the word ‘homophone’?
The word ‘homophone’ is pronounced as /ˈhɒ.mə.foʊn/. The word stress is on the first syllable, the vowel in the 2nd syllable is the weak vowel schwa and the last vowel is the diphthong vowel /oʊ/.
Why is English pronunciation and spelling more difficult than other languages?
Spelling and pronunciation is more difficult in English than many other languages because English is not a phonetic language. This means that the way a word is spelled does not tell us exactly how to pronounce it. This makes English pronunciation a challenging area for many learners of English. The spelling and pronunciation are very variable. Words can look very different (eg suite and sweet) and be pronounced the same way! And similarly, words that look similar can be pronounced quite differently, for example, ‘cost’ and ‘post’.
Why are there so many homophones in English?
English has more homophones than many other languages. This is mainly because over many, many year English has borrowed many words from other languages. Another reason is that the pronunciation of English words has changed quite a lot over time, while its spelling has changed very little.
What is the difference between a homophone and a homograph?
Like many ESL speakers, you may have heard of homophones and homographs. Are you wondering what’s the difference between a homophone and a homograph? Here is a clear explanation with some examples.
A homophone is a word that has the same pronunciation as another word but is spelled differently and has a different meaning. For example ‘toe’ and ‘tow’, ‘rows’ and ‘rose’, ‘there’ and ‘their’ and they’re’.
A homograph is a word that has the same spelling as another word but has a different meaning. Homographs may be pronouced the same way or differently.
For example, homographs that are pronounced differently are: the verb ‘to wind’ and the noun ‘the wind’. The ‘i’ letter is pronounced differently in these two words. Homographs that are pronounced the same way are: the verb ‘to contact’ and the noun ‘a contact’. ‘Contact’ is pronounced the same way for both.
Improve your pronunciation of homographs and homophones in sentences and conversations with a full Speech Active Course.
Why is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) helpful for learning homophones?
The IPA is set of symbols where each symbol represents a speech sound or tells us where the word stress is. The IPA for English has 44 symbols. The dash /ˈ/ indicates that the next syllable is stressed.
The IPA tells us the correct pronunciation of a word so it is very helpful when learning homophones. Look at homophones: crews & cruise – they look very different but if we look at the IPA – /kruːz/ – it tells us that the pronunciation is exactly the same for these homophones.
Here is another example of how the IPA looks for the words ‘moose’ and ‘mousse’. See how this homograph looks in the IPA in the dictionary below.
Do I need to learn all the IPA symbols?
No, I suggest you just learn the IPA symbols for the sounds that you have difficulty with. Try and identify which sounds are difficult for you and learn the IPA symbols for them. Also you remember that the two dots /:/ are a long vowel, when you see two vowel symbols it means it’s a double or diphthong, when you see this dash /’/ it means the next syllable is stressed.
If you want to revise the IPA symbols for all the sounds in English, and also revise the pronunciation of all English vowels and consonants, you can do it here:
English Vowel Sounds with IPA Symbols.
English Consonant Sounds with IPA Symbols.
How can I find out the IPA symbols in words?
The best way to look up the IPA for an English word is using a good online dictionary. So next time you’re looking up how to pronounce a homophone I recommend the Cambridge Online Dictionary, it’s very reliable and easy to use. The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) in the Cambridge online dictionary is excellent, you can see each IPA symbol and the word stress marked in. You can also click to hear the word pronounced in British and American style English.
Thank you for visiting our homophones practice page. I hope it has helped you correct the English homophones that you use regularly.
Here are some other helpful English Pronunciation resources that might help you:
English Word Stress Exercises: videos, audio and voice recorder exercises to help you improve your word stress and emphasis in English.
Pronounce words like ‘comfortable’ & ‘restaurant’ like a native speaker. Pronouncing words with omitted syllables.
Improve English Schwa Sound.
Improve Consonant Clusters. Speakers of Thai, Vietnamese, Burmese, Cantonese and other south east Asian languages will find this page helpful.
Checklist For Choosing Accent Reduction Training.
Would you like more help with your English Pronunciation? Contact us to find out more about our English Pronunciation Courses. Our training is tailored specifically for speakers of your language background. See more about our course for speakers of your first language here – Speech Active Course List
See our course tour video below.
Keep up the great work on improving your spoken English.
Please contact us at Speech Active to talk more about how we can help you improve : )
Remember, a little bit here and there every day helps.
All the best
Georgie Harding
Venn diagram showing the relationships between homophones (blue circle) and related linguistic concepts
A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same (to varying extent) as another word but differs in meaning. A homophone may also differ in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example rose (flower) and rose (past tense of «rise»), or spelled differently, as in rain, reign, and rein. The term homophone may also apply to units longer or shorter than words, for example a phrase, letter, or groups of letters which are pronounced the same as another phrase, letter, or group of letters. Any unit with this property is said to be homophonous ().
Homophones that are spelled the same are also both homographs and homonyms, e.g. the word read, as in «He is well read» (he is very learned) vs. the sentence «I read that book» (I have finished reading that book).[a]
Homophones that are spelled differently are also called heterographs, e.g. to, too, and two.
Etymology[edit]
«Homophone» derives from Greek homo- (ὁμο‑), «same», and phōnḗ (φωνή), «voice, utterance».
Wordplay and games[edit]
Homophones are often used to create puns and to deceive the reader (as in crossword puzzles) or to suggest multiple meanings. The last usage is common in poetry and creative literature. An example of this is seen in Dylan Thomas’s radio play Under Milk Wood: «The shops in mourning» where mourning can be heard as mourning or morning. Another vivid example is Thomas Hood’s use of birth and berth as well as told and toll’d (tolled) in his poem «Faithless Sally Brown»:
- His death, which happen’d in his berth,
- At forty-odd befell:
- They went and told the sexton, and
- The sexton toll’d the bell.
In some accents, various sounds have merged in that they are no longer distinctive, and thus words that differ only by those sounds in an accent that maintains the distinction (a minimal pair) are homophonous in the accent with the merger. Some examples from English are:
- pin and pen in many southern American accents
- by and buy
- merry, marry, and Mary in most American accents
- The pairs do and due as well as forward and foreword are homophonous in most American accents but not in most English accents
- The pairs talk and torque as well as court and caught are distinguished in rhotic accents, such as Scottish English, and most dialects of American English, but are homophones in some non-rhotic accents, such as British Received Pronunciation
Wordplay is particularly common in English because the multiplicity of linguistic influences offers considerable complication in spelling and meaning and pronunciation compared with other languages.
Malapropisms, which often create a similar comic effect, are usually near-homophones. See also Eggcorn.
Same-sounding phrases[edit]
Same-sounding (homophonous, or homophonic) phrases are often used in various word games. Examples of same-sounding phrases (which may only be true homophones in certain dialects of English) include:
- ice cream vs. I scream (as in the meme I scream. You scream. We all scream for ice cream.)
- euthanasia vs. Youth in Asia
- depend vs. deep end
- Gemini vs. gem in eye vs. Jim and I (vs. Jem in eye)
- the sky vs. this guy (most notably as a mondegreen in «Purple Haze» by Jimi Hendrix)
- four candles vs. fork handles
- sand which is there vs. sandwiches there
- philanderers vs. Flanders
- example vs. egg sample
- some others vs. some mothers vs. smothers
American comedian Jeff Foxworthy frequently uses same-sounding phrases in his Appalachian comedy routine, which play on exaggerated «country» accents. Notable examples include:
- Initiate vs. and then she ate: «My wife ate two sandwiches, initiate a bag o’ tater chips.»
- Mayonnaise vs. Man, there is: «Mayonnaise a lot of people here tonight.»
- Innuendo vs. in your window: «Hey dude I saw a bird fly innuendo.»
- Moustache vs. must ask: «I Moustache you a question.»
During the 1980s, an attempt was made to promote a distinctive term for same-sounding multiple words or phrases, by referring to them as «oronyms»,[b]
but the term oronym was already well established in linguistics as an onomastic designation for a class of toponymic features (names of mountains, hills, etc.),[2] the alternative use of the same term was not well accepted in scholarly literature.[3]
Number[edit]
English[edit]
There are sources[4] which maintain lists of homophones (words with identical pronunciations but different spellings) and even ‘multinyms.’ There is disagreement among such lists due to dialectical variations in pronunciation and archaic uses. In English, concerning groups of homophones (excluding proper nouns), there are approximately 88 triplets, 24 quadruplets, 2 quintuplets, 1 sextet, 1 septet, and 1 questionable octet (possibly a second septet). The questionable octet is:
- raise, rays, rase, raze, rehs, res, reais, [race]
Other than the common words raise, rays, and race this octet includes
- raze – a verb meaning «to demolish, level to the ground» or «to scrape as if with a razor»
- rase – an archaic verb meaning «to erase»
- rehs – the plural of reh, a mixture of sodium salts found as an efflorescence in India
- res – the plural of re, a name for one step of the musical scale; obsolete legal term for «the matter» or «incident»
- reais – the plural of real, the currency unit of Brazil
The inclusion of «race» in the octet above is questionable, since its pronunciation differs from the other words on the list (ending with /s/ instead of /z/).
If proper names are included, then a possible nonet would be:
- Ayr – a town in Scotland
- Aire – a river in Yorkshire
- Eyre – legal term and various geographic locations
- heir – one who inherits
- air – the ubiquitous atmospheric gas that people breathe; a type of musical tune
- err – to make an error
- ere – poetic / archaic «before»
- e’er – poetic «ever» (some speakers)
- are – a defunct, small, metric unit of area
German[edit]
There are many homophones in present-day standard German. As in other languages, however, there exists regional and/or individual variation in certain groups of words or in single words, so that the number of homophones varies accordingly. Regional variation is especially common in words that exhibit the long vowels ä and e. According to the well-known dictionary Duden, these vowels should be distinguished as /ɛ:/ and /e:/, but this is not always the case, so that words like Ähre (ear of corn) and Ehre (honor) may or may not be homophones.
Individual variation is shown by a pair like Gäste (guests) – Geste (gesture), the latter of which varies between /ˈɡe:stə/ and /ˈɡɛstə/ and by a pair like Stiel (handle, stalk) – Stil (style), the latter of which varies between /ʃtiːl/ and /stiːl/.
Besides websites that offer extensive lists of German homophones,[5] there are others which provide numerous sentences with various types of homophones.[6] In the German language homophones occur in more than 200 instances. Of these, a few are triples like
- Waagen (weighing scales) – Wagen (cart) – wagen (to dare)
- Waise (orphan) – Weise (way, manner) – weise (wise)
Most are couples like lehren (to teach) – leeren (to empty).
Spanish[edit]
Although Spanish has far fewer homophones than in English, they are far from being non-existent. Some are homonyms, such as basta, which can either mean ‘enough’ or ‘coarse’, but most exist because of homophonous letters. For example, the letters b and v are pronounced exactly alike, so the words basta (coarse) and vasta (vast) are pronounced identically.[7]
Other homonyms are etymologically related, but have different genders, and in some cases the different genders producing different lexical items. In the case of persona, el persona (the male or ungendered/unidentified person) and la persona (the female person) are the masculine and feminine forms of the noun persona (person) respectively. However, el capital and la capital have drastically different meanings, in which the masculine noun means ‘money’ and the feminine noun means ‘capital city’ or ‘capital letter’.[8]
Japanese[edit]
There are many homophones in Japanese, due to the use of Sino-Japanese vocabulary, where borrowed words and morphemes from Chinese are widely used in Japanese, but many sound differences, such as the original words’ tones, are lost.[citation needed] These are to some extent disambiguated via Japanese pitch accent (i.e. 日本 vs. 二本, both pronounced nihon, but with different pitches), or from context, but many of these words are primarily or almost exclusively used in writing, where they are easily distinguished as they are written with different kanji; others are used for puns, which are frequent in Japanese.
An extreme example is kikō (hiragana: きこう), which is the pronunciation of at least 22 words (some quite rare or specialized, others common; all these examples are two-character compounds), including:
- 機構 (organization / mechanism)
- 紀行 (travelogue)
- 稀覯 (rare)
- 騎行 (horseback riding)
- 貴校 (school (respectful))
- 奇功 (outstanding achievement)
- 貴公 (word for «you» used by men addressing male equals or inferiors)
- 起稿 (draft)
- 奇行 (eccentricity)
- 機巧 (contrivance)
- 寄港 (stopping at port)
- 帰校 (returning to school)
- 気功 (breathing exercise, qigong)
- 寄稿 (contribute an article / a written piece)
- 機甲 (armor, e.g. of a tank)
- 帰航 (homeward voyage)
- 奇効 (remarkable effect)
- 季候 (season / climate)
- 気孔 (stoma)
- 起工 (setting to work)
- 気候 (climate)
- 帰港 (returning to port)
Even some native Japanese words are homophones. For example, kami (かみ) is the pronunciation of the words
- 紙 (paper)
- 髪 (hair)
- 神 (god/spirit)
- 上 (up)
The former two words are disambiguated from the latter two by pitch accent.
Korean[edit]
The Korean language contains a combination of words that strictly belong to Korean and words that are loanwords from Chinese. Due to Chinese being pronounced with varying tones and Korean’s removal of those tones, and because the modern Korean writing system, Hangeul, has a more finite number of phonemes than, for example, Latin-derived alphabets such as that of English, there are many homonyms with both the same spelling and pronunciation.
For example
- ‘화장(化粧)하다‘: ‘to put on makeup’ vs. ‘화장(火葬)하다‘: ‘to cremate’
- ‘유산(遺産)‘: ‘inheritance’ vs. ‘유산(流産)‘: ‘miscarriage’
- ‘방구‘: ‘fart’ vs. ‘방구(防具)‘: ‘guard’
- ‘밤[밤ː]’: ‘chestnut’ vs. ‘밤’: ‘night’
There are heterographs, but far fewer, contrary to the tendency in English. For example,
- ‘학문(學問)’: ‘learning’ vs. ‘항문(肛門)’: ‘anus’.
Using hanja (한자; 漢字), which are Chinese characters, such words are written differently.
As in other languages, Korean homonyms can be used to make puns. The context in which the word is used indicates which meaning is intended by the speaker or writer.
Mandarin Chinese[edit]
Due to phonological constraints in Mandarin syllables (as Mandarin only allows for an initial consonant, a vowel, and a nasal or retroflex consonant in respective order), there are only a little over 400 possible unique syllables that can be produced,[9] compared to over 15,831 in the English language.[10]
Chinese has an entire genre of poems taking advantage of the large amount of homophones called one-syllable articles, or poems where every single word in the poem is pronounced as the same syllable if tones are disregarded. An example is the Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den.
Like all Chinese languages, Mandarin uses phonemic tones to distinguish homophonic syllables; Mandarin has five tones. A famous example,
- mā (妈) means «mother»
- má (麻) means «hemp»
- mă (马) means «horse»
- mà (骂) means «scold»
- ma (吗) is a yes / no question particle
Although all these words consist of the same string of consonants and vowels, the only way to distinguish each of these words audibly is by listening to which tone the word has, and as shown above, saying a consonant-vowel string using a different tone can produce an entirely different word altogether. If tones are included, the number of unique syllables in Mandarin increases to at least 1,522.[11]
However, even with tones, Mandarin retains a very large amount of homophones. Yì, for example, has at least 125 homophones,[12] and it is the pronunciation used for Chinese characters such as 义, 意, 易, 亿, 议, 一, and 已.
There are even place names in China that have identical pronunciations, aside for the difference in tone. For example, there are two neighboring provinces with nearly identical names, Shanxi (山西) and Shaanxi (陕西) Province. The only difference in pronunciation between the two names are the tone in the first syllable (Shanxi is pronounced Shānxī whereas Shaanxi is pronounced Shǎnxī). As most languages exclude the tone diacritics when transcribing Chinese place names into their own languages, the only way to visually distinguish the two names is to write Shaanxi in Gwoyeu Romatzyh romanization. Otherwise, nearly all other spellings of placenames in mainland China are spelled using Hanyu Pinyin romanization.
Many scholars believe that the Chinese language did not always have such a large number of homophones and that the phonological structure of Chinese syllables was once more complex, which allowed for a larger amount of possible syllables so that words sounded more distinct from each other.
Scholars also believe that Old Chinese had no phonemic tones, but tones emerged in Middle Chinese to replace sounds that were lost from Old Chinese. Since words in Old Chinese sounded more distinct from each other at this time, it explains why many words in Classical Chinese consisted of only one syllable. For example, the Standard Mandarin word 狮子(shīzi, meaning «lion») was simply 狮 (shī) in Classical Chinese, and the Standard Mandarin word 教育 (jiàoyù, «education») was simply 教 (jiào) in Classical Chinese.
Since many Chinese words became homophonic over the centuries, it became difficult to distinguish words when listening to documents written in Classical Chinese being read aloud. One-syllable articles like those mentioned above are evidence for this. For this reason, many one-syllable words from Classical Chinese became two-syllable words, like the words mentioned in the previous paragraph.
Even with the existence of two- or two-syllable words, however, there are even multisyllabic homophones. Such homophones even play a major role in daily life throughout China, including Spring Festival traditions, which gifts to give (and not give), political criticism, texting, and many other aspects of people’s lives.[13]
Another complication that arises within the Chinese language is that in non-rap songs, tones are disregarded in favor of maintaining melody in the song.[14] While in most cases, the lack of phonemic tones in music does not cause confusion among native speakers, there are instances where puns may arise.
Subtitles in Chinese characters are usually displayed on music videos and in songs sung on movies and TV shows to disambiguate the song’s lyrics.
Vietnamese[edit]
It is estimated that there are approximately 4,500 to 4,800 possible syllables in Vietnamese, depending on the dialect.[15] The exact number is difficult to calculate because there are significant differences in pronunciation among the dialects. For example, the graphemes and digraphs «d», «gi», and «r» are all pronounced /z/ in the Hanoi dialect, so the words dao (knife), giao (delivery), and rao (advertise) are all pronounced /zaw˧/. In Saigon dialect, however, the graphemes and digraphs «d», «gi», and «v» are all pronounced /j/, so the words dao (knife), giao (delivery), and vao (enter) are all pronounced /jaw˧/.
Pairs of words that are homophones in one dialect may not be homophones in the other. For example, the words sắc (sharp) and xắc (dice) are both pronounced /săk˧˥/ in Hanoi dialect, but pronounced /ʂăk˧˥/ and /săk˧˥/ in Saigon dialect respectively.
Psychological research[edit]
Pseudo-homophones[edit]
Pseudo-homophones are pseudowords that are phonetically identical to a word. For example, groan/grone and crane/crain are pseudo-homophone pairs, whereas plane/plain is a homophone pair since both letter strings are recognised words. Both types of pairs are used in lexical decision tasks to investigate word recognition.[16]
Use as ambiguous information[edit]
Homophones, specifically heterographs, where one spelling is of a threatening nature and one is not (e.g. slay/sleigh, war/wore) have been used in studies of anxiety as a test of cognitive models that those with high anxiety tend to interpret ambiguous information in a threatening manner.[17]
See also[edit]
- Homograph
- Homonym
- Synonym
- Dajare, a type of wordplay involving similar-sounding phrases
- Perfect rhyme
- Wiktionary
- List of dialect-independent homophones
- List of dialect-dependent homophones
Footnotes[edit]
- ^
According to the strict sense of homonyms as words with the same spelling and pronunciation; however, homonyms according to the loose sense common in nontechnical contexts are words with the same spelling or pronunciation, in which case all homophones are also homonyms.[1] - ^
The name oronym was first proposed and advocated by Gyles Brandreth in his book The Joy of Lex (1980), and such use was also accepted in the BBC programme Never Mind the Full Stops, which featured Brandreth as a guest.
References[edit]
- ^ «Homonym». Random House Unabridged Dictionary. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016 – via Dictionary.com.
- ^ Room 1996, p. 75.
- ^ Stewart 2015, p. 91, 237.
- ^ Burkardt, J. «Multinyms». Department of Scientific Computing. Fun / wordplay. Florida State University. Archived from the original on 25 August 2016.
- ^ See, e.g. «Homophone und homonyme im deutschen Homophone». yumpu.com (in German). Archived from the original on 8 March 2021. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
- ^ See Fausto Cercignani, «Beispielsätze mit deutschen Homophonen» [Example sentences with German homophones] (in German). Archived from the original on 29 May 2020.
- ^ «51 Spanish Words That Sound Exactly Like Other Spanish Words». ThoughtCo. Retrieved 27 August 2022.
- ^ «37 Spanish Nouns Whose Meanings Change With Gender». ThoughtCo. Retrieved 27 August 2022.
- ^ «Is there any similarity between Chinese and English?». Learn Mandarin Chinese Online. Study Online Mandarin Chinese Courses. 7 July 2017. Archived from the original on 25 January 2021. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
- ^ Barker (22 August 2016). «Syllables». Linguistics. New York University. Archived from the original on 22 August 2016. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
- ^ «Compare that with 413 syllables for Chinese if you ignore tones, 1,522 syllables». news.ycombinator.com. Hacker News. Archived from the original on 14 April 2021. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
- ^ Chang, Chao-Huang. «Corpus-based adaptation mechanisms for Chinese Homophone disambiguation» (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 April 2021. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
- ^ «Chinese Homophones and Chinese Customs». yoyochinese.com (blog). Archived from the original on 9 April 2021. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
- ^ «How do people sing in a tonal language?». Diplomatic Language Services. 8 September 2016. Archived from the original on 28 November 2020. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
- ^ «vietnamese tone marks pronunciation». pronunciator.com. Archived from the original on 18 May 2022. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
- ^ Martin, R.C. (1982). «The pseudohomophone effect: The role of visual similarity in non-word decisions». Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. 34A (Pt 3): 395–409. doi:10.1080/14640748208400851. PMID 6890218. S2CID 41699283.
- ^ Mogg, K.; Bradley, B.P.; Miller, T.; Potts, H.; Glenwright, J.; Kentish, J. (1994). «Interpretation of homophones related to threat: Anxiety or response bias effects?». Cognitive Therapy and Research. 18 (5): 461–477. doi:10.1007/BF02357754. S2CID 36150769.
Sources[edit]
- Franklyn, Julian (1966). Which Witch? (1st ed.). New York, NY: Dorset Press. ISBN 0-88029-164-8.
- Room, Adrian (1996). An Alphabetical Guide to the Language of Name Studies. Lanham and London, UK: The Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-081083169-8. Archived from the original on 14 April 2021. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
- Stewart, Garrett (2015). The Deed of Reading: Literature, writing, language, philosophy. Ithaca, NY and London, UK: Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-150170170-2. Archived from the original on 14 April 2021. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
External links[edit]
Look up homophone in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
- Homophone.com – a list of American homophones with a searchable database.
- Reed’s homophones – a book of sound-alike words published in 2012
- Homophones.ml – a collection of homophones and their definitions
- Homophone Machine – swaps homophones in any sentence
- Useful tips … English homophones – homophones list, activities and worksheets