WoRd CoNfUsIon!
• Many words in English sound the same but have different
meanings or spellings.
• Other words are spelled the same but have different
pronunciations and meanings.
• And there are words that have the same pronunciations and
spellings, but mean different things.
There are two types of homonyms:
Homophones: SOUND the same, different
SPELLING/MEANING
Homographs: SPELLED the same, different
SOUND/MEANING
It’s easy to confuse words that sound the same. Take a look at
these sentences featuring homophones:
• “You’re” going to eat “your” socks?
• I “ate” lunch at “eight” o’clock.
• I heard the “tale” about the cat’s “tail.”
• I broke the “board” because I was “bored.”
• “Whose” cat is crying? “Who’s” going to feed it?
Homographs are confusing because they are spelled the same.
Sometimes they sound the same; sometimes the accent or
intonation is different. Look at these examples (sound them
out in your head):
• I used the animal “hide”(noun) to “hide”(verb) from the
sheriff.
• We haven’t set a “date” for our scuba-diving “date.”
• He “read” the book I had asked him to “read.”
• She lost the farmer’s “pick”(noun) and had to
“pick”(verb) another from the shed.
No wonder people make mistakes! Here are
some real-life examples of word confusion.
Can you find
the mistakes?
Here is a list of some of the most popular words that
cause confusion (homonyms and near homonyms):
• there/ their/ they’re
• your/ you’re
• two/ too/ to
•right/ write
• buy/ by/ bye
• wait/ weight
• bare/ bear
• break/ brake
• scene/ seen
• board/ bored
• affect/ effect
• close/ clothes
• were/ where/ wear
• who’s/ whose
• then/ than
• are/ our
• it’s/ its
• lead/ led
• loose/ lose
• except/ accept
• forth/ fourth
• hole/ whole
• desert/ dessert
• hear/ here
Let’s work together as a class to find the “wrong words” in
the sentences below. Look up the words you are unsure of in
the dictionary.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Were is you’re family going on vacation?
Can we bring are cat too the beach?
Now the hole car smells like cat!
I couldn’t weight to eat my desert!
Where some light close so your not two hot!
Bye now, the too bares are far from hear.
You should have scene me brake that bored in two!
As soon as the door opened, the forth cat flew write out of the
car.
What words did you have the most trouble with? Throughout
the rest of the year we will be adding confusing words and
word pairs to our Grammar Journal.
Take a few minutes to fill in some confusing “Watch Out For”
words in your journal now (Don’t forget to add helpful hints!
Example: “bear”(animal) and “bare” (skin, feet).
Each week we will review another list of confusing words and
continue building our personal “Watch Out For” lists.
Working in teams, create seven sentences featuring homonyms.
Look up the words you are unsure of in the dictionary. If possible,
make a story or stick to one theme! Then we will read your
sentences to the class.
Here are some more homonyms examples. There are many
more---you can use any that you know!
• acts/ ax
• I’ll/ isle/ aisle
• bald/ balled
• hair/ hare
• days/ daze
• die/ dye
• flea/ flee
• pair/ pear
• great/ great
• hoarse/ horse
• groan/ grown
• knight/ night
• hall/ haul
• blew/ blue
• pale/ pail
• hey/ hay
• meet/ meat
• hi/ high
• guessed/ guest
• nose/ knows
• maid/ made
• heal/ he’ll
• one/ won
• flower/ flour
• paws/ pause
• wrap/ rap
Take a few minutes to update your “Watch
Out For” entry, then…
1. I will write some homonyms on the board. You will
choose what words to write into your bingo squares
from the list on the board.
2. Choose words that you struggle with the most.
(We’ll help each other!)
3. I will read a sentence that includes a homonym.
Mark your bingo card if you have that homonym—
but be careful! Listen carefully to the sentence
context to find the word’s meaning.
Keep searching for your “monsters”—don’t
let homonyms keep you confused!
Grammar Points:
http://www.cooper.com/alan/homonym_list.html
http://www.bifroest.demon.co.uk/misc/homophones-list.html
http://www.eslcafe.com/
http://wsuonline.weber.edu/wrh/words.htm
http://www.grammarbook.com/homonyms/confusing-words-letter-a.asp
Images:
http://teachersites.schoolworld.com/webpages/kquinn/writing.cfm?subpage=16
11078
http://mcnl70.blogspot.com/2012/02/monster-of-loch-ness-part-ii.html
http://yepyep.gibbs12.com/big-brother-fail.html
http://www.jinxiboo.com/storage/Grammar9.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSI
ON=1239986545115
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/qBMGYl6LiTo/TksfgmJbVlI/AAAAAAAAENQ/B5nBaXuHBTs/s300/Nessie-Sign-lochness-monster-2030916-323-403.jpg
http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/loch_ness_monster_clipart.jpg
Images:
http://www.dragoart.com/tuts/pics/8/14843/how-to-draw-the-loch-ness-monster,draw-nessie.gif
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_YGVLM2i9n6o/Sf5YN5N2xOI/AAAAAAAACbY/MyqK1SaA8Yg/s
400/nessie01.jpg
http://openclipart.org/people/StudioFibonacci/StudioFibonacci_Cartoon_Plesiosaur.svg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/DuZvchSHGcI/UKaUX5IQo1I/AAAAAAAAAFs/n39n3g69L0M/s1600/Sin-t%C3%ADtulo1.gif
http://mvsm.omnomzom.com/comics/2012-09-03.jpg