Examples of Homophones

A man once said ‘English spelling and pronunciation is CRAZY’. He was right! English homophones explore how variable English spelling and pronunciation are. These variations make pronunciation hard for non-native speakers.

homophones examples

For example, ‘one’ and ‘won’ have similar pronunciations (/wʌn/ in the IPA) but they have different spellings and they mean different things.

Muscles’ and ‘mussels’ are pronounced exactly the same. ‘Crews’ and ‘cruise’ has the same pronunciation.

How can words that look so different have the same pronunciation?

These are some of the many homophones in English that get ESL speakers confused. However, we will discuss them here today.

20 Common Homophone Pairs

  1. their, there
  2. two, too
  3. to, two, too
  4. your, you’re
  5. hear, here
  6. its, it’s
  7. whose, who’s
  8. allowed, aloud
  9. bye, buy, by
  10. peace, piece
  11. meet, meat
  12. right, write
  13. sight, site
  14. threw, through
  15. waist, waste
  16. weak, week
  17. weather, whether
  18. pedal, peddle
  19. plain, plane
  20. role, roll

Consider having the above pairs in sentences and see how they sound:

  1. Their cat is sitting over there.
  2. I have two dogs and my neighbor has two dogs too.
  3. I want to go to the store to buy two apples.
  4. Your jacket is on the chair, and you’re wearing a sweater.
  5. Can you hear the birds singing here in the park?
  6. The cat licked its paw, and it’s purring.
  7. Whose book is this? Who’s the author?
  8. You are not allowed to shout aloud in the library.
  9. I said bye to my friend, I need to buy some groceries, and I’ll go by bus.
  10. I wish you peace, and can you give me a piece of cake?
  11. Let’s meet at the restaurant and have some meat.
  12. You are right, and I need to write this down.
  13. The construction site is in sight from my house.
  14. She threw the ball through the window.
  15. I need a belt to fit around my waist, and we need to stop wasting time.
  16. I feel weak today, and I have an important meeting next week.
  17. I’m wondering about the weather, whether it will rain or not.
  18. He pedals his bike every day to work, and he wants to peddle his paintings on the street.
  19. The grass in the plain is so green, and I booked a plane ticket for my vacation.
  20. She played the role of the queen and ate a roll during the break.

Frequently Confused Homophones

Here are some frequently confused homophones:

  1. Accept and Except
  2. Affect and Effect
  3. Allusion and Illusion
  4. Capital and Capitol
  5. Complement and Compliment
  6. Council and Counsel
  7. Emigrate and Immigrate
  8. Farther and Further
  9. Its and It’s
  10. Lose and Loose
  11. Passed and Past
  12. Principal and Principle
  13. Stationary and Stationery
  14. Than and Then
  15. Their, They’re and There
  16. To, Two and Too
  17. Who’s and Whose
  18. Your and You’re
  19. Lie and Lay
  20. Peek, Peak and Pique

Homophones Examples with Short Vowels with IPA

Here are more homophone examples with short vowels along with their IPA transcriptions:

  1. Bat (bæt) and bat (bæt)
  2. Pat (pæt) and pet (pɛt)
  3. Man (mæn) and mannequin (ˈmænəkɪn)
  4. Jam (dʒæm) and jam (dʒæm)
  5. Hut (hʌt) and but (bʌt)
  6. Cut (kʌt) and kut (kʌt)
  7. Sun (sʌn) and son (sʌn)
  8. Fun (fʌn) and pun (pʌn)
  9. Gut (ɡʌt) and gat (ɡæt)
  10. Nut (nʌt) and not (nɑt)
  11. Hop (hɑp) and hawp (hɑp)
  12. Rut (rʌt) and what (wʌt)
  13. Hug (hʌɡ) and hag (hæɡ)
  14. Luck (lʌk) and lock (lɑk)
  15. Nun (nʌn) and none (nʌn)
  16. Bud (bʌd) and budge (bʌdʒ)
  17. Hum (hʌm) and hum (hʌm)
  18. Mud (mʌd) and mud (mʌd)
  19. Tug (tʌɡ) and tag (tæɡ)
  20. Cub (kʌb) and cab (kæb)

Homophone Examples with Long Vowels with IPA

Here are some homophone examples with long vowels, along with their IPA transcriptions:

  1. Meat (mit) and meet (mit)
  2. Break (breɪk) and brake (breɪk)
  3. Mail (meɪl) and male (meɪl)
  4. Sale (seɪl) and sail (seɪl)
  5. Peak (pik) and peek (pik)
  6. Bleed (blid) and bled (blɛd)
  7. Suite (swit) and sweet (swit)
  8. Bean (bin) and been (bin)
  9. Read (rid) and reed (rid)
  10. Rain (reɪn) and reign (reɪn)
  11. Peace (pis) and piece (pis)
  12. Boar (bɔr) and bore (bɔr)
  13. Flour (ˈflaʊər) and flower (ˈflaʊər)
  14. Kite (kaɪt) and sight (saɪt)
  15. Road (roʊd) and rode (roʊd)
  16. Steel (stil) and steal (stil)
  17. Wait (weɪt) and weight (weɪt)
  18. Right (raɪt) and write (raɪt)
  19. Maid (meɪd) and made (meɪd)
  20. Loan (loʊn) and lone (loʊn)

Activities for Teachers on Homophones

Here are some activities for teachers to help students learn about homophones:

  1. Homophone Bingo: Create bingo cards with homophone pairs on them (e.g. “to”, “too”, “two” or “hear”, “here”). Call out the words randomly and have students mark off the corresponding homophone on their cards. The first student to get a line or a full card wins.
  2. Homophone Match-up: Give students a list of homophone pairs and have them match the correct pair. You can create a game out of this by putting the words on index cards and having students race to match them up.
  3. Homophone Scavenger Hunt: Hide homophone pairs around the classroom or school, and have students find and match them up. You could also have them write sentences using each homophone pair they find.
  4. Homophone Charades: Write homophone pairs on index cards and have students act out one of the words while their classmates guess the homophone pair.
  5. Homophone Relay Race: Divide students into two teams and have them race to find the correct homophone pair for a given word. The first student runs to the board or a designated spot writes the word and runs back to tag the next student in line.
  6. Homophone Jeopardy: Create a Jeopardy-style game with categories such as “Common Homophones”, “Tricky Homophones”, and “Homophone Puns”. Students can work in teams to answer the questions and earn points.
  7. Homophone Rap: Have students create a rap or song using homophone pairs. Encourage them to be creative with their lyrics and rhymes.
  8. Homophone Story: Give students a list of homophone pairs and have them create a short story using as many of the pairs as possible. This can be a fun way to practice writing and storytelling while reinforcing homophone knowledge.

In conclusion, homophones are words that have the same pronunciation but different meanings and spellings. They can be a source of confusion for English learners and even native speakers.

Some examples of homophones include “there”, “their”, and “they’re”; “to”, “too”, and “two”; “piece” and “peace”; “blew” and “blue”; and “flower” and “flour”. It’s important for students to learn and understand homophones in order to improve their listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills.

Teachers can use a variety of fun and engaging activities to help students master homophones and avoid common errors.

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