Lesson: Homophones and Homonyms

LESSON: HOMOPHONES AND HOMONYMS HOMOPHONES A homophone is a word that sounds the same as another word but has a different meaning and/or spelling e.g. rise/rice, sun/son, meet/meat, eyes/ice, to/too/two, by/buy. Since homophones consist of pairs (in most cases) that sound the same, it is the context of discussion that will suggest the correct word to be used especially in written English. Consider the following statement; *All I wanna hear/here is good news It becomes obvious from context that the right word to use is “hear” and not “here”, given that the speaker is expecting to listen to an outcome. Contrarily, “here” will refer to geographical location, hence, the wrong word to imagine. Examples of Homophones Word Homophone Weak week Reign rain See sea Plane plain Blue blew Die dye Waste waist Whole hole Been bin Sheep ship Dear Deer Grate Great Some sum Exercise: which is the correct word? I didn't ________________________ what she said. (hear/here) They forgot to take __________ printouts. (there /their/ they're) Venison is the meat from a ___________________(dear/deer) _________________ is used for baking (flower/flour) I hope the __________________ is fine(weather/whether) He was a medieval ______________(knight/night) The building ______________ is huge(sight/side/site) She gave him a ________________ of her mind (peace/piece) The policeman _____________________the documents (ceased/sized/seized) It’s a _______________________ of time (waste/waist) HOMONYMS Homonyms are words that have the same spelling and pronunciation but different meaning. Sometimes, the word “homograph” is used as a synonym for homonym though some dictionaries have a different definition for it (as words that have the same spelling but differ in pronunciation and spelling) and even “homophones”. The use of homonyms will only be determined by the context as was the case with homophones previously discussed. Common Examples of Homonyms Bow (knot tied with two loops / weapon to shoot arrows / bend at the hips / front end of a ship) Ring (a circle / a circular piece of jewelry / a sound) Nail (a small metal spike / a hard covering at the end of a finger) Rose (a type of flower / a pink color) Park (a public green area / putting a vehicle in a position where the wheels no longer move) Orange (a colour /a fruit) Cell (a mini prison/smallest part of a living organism) Bear (an animal/being able to accept and deal with something) Exercise: construct two different sentences with each of the following words to imply their different meanings. Right Tear Match Ring kind BRIEF EXAMS Choose the correct word to complete each sentence.(20mks) Example: The bread (bred/bread) was on sale. 1. Keep walking ___________________ (strait/straight) until you reach the roundabout. 2. All the leaders claimed that they wanted ___________________ (peace/piece). 3. Don't iron your clothes on the table; use an ironing ___________________ (board/bored)! 4. Lord Williams hardly ever left his ___________________ (manor/manner). 5. That lion has a beautiful ___________________ (main/mane). 6. You're not allowed to ___________________ (alter/altar) anything on the worksheet. 7. That is the ___________________ (main/mane) reason that I can't go tonight. 8. Most of the audience members were ___________________ (board/bored) with the performance. 9. By hiring two new employees, Jim hoped to ___________________ (lesson/lessen) our workload. 10. I love this ___________________ (summary/summery) weather. 11. He lived on the top floor of a six___________________ (storey/story) building. 12. All the ___________________ (current/currant) ministers are from the same party. 13. The ___________________ (ascent/assent) was very steep. 14. I don't believe his ___________________ (story/storey). 15. Does your computer have a ___________________ (cereal/serial) number? 16. He didn't expect that this would ___________________ (affect/effect) his performance. 17. I didn't read the whole report; I just read the ___________________(summary/summery). 18. That was not the desired ___________________ (effect/affect). 19. My brother eats___________________ (cereal/serial) in the morning. 20. John was praying at the ___________________ (alter/altar). Circle the homophone that best fits the blanks. (10mks) 1. My parents (allowed/aloud) me to watch a move with my friend. 2. I had (eight/ate) dollars left to play video games. 3. I kept getting a (not/knot) in my shoe after my basketball game. 4. My favorite team had (one/won) the world series. 5. We stayed at the (in/inn) overnight. 6. My mom waited for the (sale/sail) at the store going out. 7. My friend Amina has (red/read) hair. 8. Get up my (sun / son). 9. You (ought / aught) to have said it long ago. 10. (Buoys / Boys) float on the sea to warn ships of danger.