Confusing English Words: Homophones

Have you ever realized that a lot of English words sound very similar, maybe even like the same word??

Don’t worry you are not going crazy and your listening is fine, this is what we call homophones. The English language is filled with words that have the same pronunciation but different spelling and a different meaning.

Feeling confused? Watch this episode of RealLife TV to discover  more. Remember, you can read along with the trascript below.

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Transcript

Hello ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of RealLife TV. Today I’m going to teach you guys how to not make a fool of yourself by understanding homophones.

Common Homophones

So homophones are words that sound exactly the same but they are written differently and they have a different meaning. The most common homophones you guys are probably already familiar with, we all have problems with there, you know, there as in here and there, or their as in the possessive pronoun, their county, their class, their school, and also they’re with the verb to be which is they are.

I said here and there. So here like here, right here and also hear to hear a noise.

Our, like our team is going to win the championship, or hour like in one hour I’m going to go there, I’m going to go there in an hour.

But now let’s talk about the really confusing ones, the ones that you guys probably don’t know. So the first on is really common, I’d like to compliment you guys on your English, to compliment someone. To compliment some is to say nice things about a person. He complimented her on her good looks.

Compliment – Complement

Or complement spelled with an E can mean when something matches. I can say your T-shirt really complements your pants, it means they go well together.

Whole – Hole

Whole, is another common homophone. Whole with a w which means like the entire thing, the whole day this whole lesson. Or, with no W, hole can mean you know like an empty space, like a hole in the ground. When you play golf your objective is to get the ball in the hole.

Cent – Scent – Sent

Cent, cent has three different words, three different meanings. Cent like something costs twenty cents, currency. Scent like the smell the aroma, the scent of a woman. Or sent can also be the past of send, I sent a letter to my friend.

Toe – Tow

Toe, toe can be like your big toe, it’s like your fingers for your feet, your toes. Another way to use tow can be, if you park your car illegally somewhere you should be careful because someone might tow your car. To tow your car is to take your car away, or if your car was to breakdown you would have to call a tow truck.

Fined – Find

If your car gets towed, you might get finned, which comes from to fine which is to penalize someone, you have to pay a fine if you do something illegal you have to pay a fine. But you can also find some money on the ground, I found some money.  So, to find something or I was fined for parking my car illegally.

Bear – Bare

Bear, we all know the animal, like a grizzly bear, but bear can also mean to support something. For example, I can’t bear that noise, I can’t support the noise, I can’t bear it. Bare spelled with an “A” can mean naked, to be bare, to be empty. The bare table means that there was nothing on the table. Maybe you like to walk around barefooted which means no shoes. Barefoot is when you are not wearing any shoes because your feet are bare.

Close – Clothes

Close, clothes. Many people might argue with me on this one but 99% of the time, people pronounce this one the same. Close like to close the door, and clothes with the TH, my clothes.

Stare – Stair

Stare, to stare at someone is to look at them intensively. He’s really staring at that person. Or, be careful, the stair is broken. Stair as in the stairs in your house or in a building, something like that, the stairs.

Patience – Patients

Patience, everyone knows that learning a language does require some patience. Everyone also knows that good doctor has many patients.

Bye – Buy -By

And lastly bye. To say goodbye, I can say I am going to buy some new clothes, or I can say that this video was made by me.

Thanks a lot for watching guys, I hope you learned a thing or two about homophones.  There are hundreds and thousands of other homophones, I suggest you do a google search, look it up. And if you find any really cool ones I’d really love it if you guys wrote them down in the comments below and share them with the rest of the viewers.

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So thanks a lot for watching today guys, I hope you learnt a lot and I’ll see you on the next episode of RealLife TV.

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  • Luciano Bicalho says:

    Very good and useful article.

  • Dinesh Poudel says:

    Did you forget to mention beer ;-). Anyway, useful article.

  • Alevtina says:

    It is killing my brain)))

    It was a good lesson today. Thank