Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Ewe No ...

What if wii awl used the wrong word too right what wii wanted two say?

The English language is a complicated one. We speak the words and everyone knows -- for the most part -- what we're saying.

But, when we start to put those same words to paper, a mystical thing happens.

Whee sensor ourselves. Witch word due wii put too paper? Sew, threw trial and airer sometimes we make the write choice, sometimes knot.

I want to make a list of homophones -- u no witch wons eye am talking about.

Don't let the big word fool you -- it means: sounds the same, different spelling and meaning. A homonym, on the other hand, is spelled the same with different meanings, sometimes sounding alike, sometimes not. Ex: Sewer: drain Sewer: tailor OR Row: in a boat Row: to plant in.

I offer the following homophones; please add to the list. You might even know another sounding word to add to my list. I bet we can find over a 100 different same sounding words... I've already got the list over 20% of the way there.

one, won
two, to, two
for, four
which, witch
sensor, censor
ford, fjord
serial, cereal
threw, through
read, red
read, reed
new, knew
no, know
dew, due, do
sew, so
your, yore
or, oar
lie, lye
by, bye
some, sum
flour, flower
toed, toad, towed
passed, past

This is a great exercise for every writer. I know I've used the wrong word at times and I have even seen the wrong word in published books which made me stop and think or laugh, depending on the context.

4 comments:

  1. Tale/Tale, Pail/Pale, eye/I, there/they're/their, we/wee/oui, cede/seed, all/awl, pee/pea, tee/tea. Good article Bob, people also need to realize that spell check doesn't get everything in these cases, as the words are actually spelled correctly. It is why editing your work is so important.

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  2. Brazier/brassiere, depending on how you pronounce them. Or maybe they're homophones for the eyes. I heard this one in church - I think it was old testament. Brassieres were burning even in biblical times.

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  3. 70% of the spelling errors I catch in editing manuscripts are homophones: vile/vial was one I noticed recently, along with a number of the others already mentioned, especially there-they're-their.

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