Language Arts What are homophones? Read this article for a definition of homophone as well as a homophone list to help you understand homophones better. Also, learn the difference between homophones, homographs, and homonyms and why they are easily confused.

People often have trouble keeping clear in their minds the difference between homophones, homographs, and homonyms, so let's take a moment to distinguish them, as we introduce the subject of homophones:

• The word homophones comes from a Greek word that means “having the same sounds.” Homophones, therefore, are words that sound the same.
• The word homographs comes from a Greek word that means “are written alike.” Homographs, therefore, are words that are spelled identically.
• The word homonyms comes from a Greek word that means “has the same name.” It is most clearly distinguishable when it is used to refer to words that are at the same time both homophones and homographs, but have separate meanings and etymologies.

To understand more about homophones, continue reading this article.

My Homophones, Your Homophones

An important thing to recognize about homophones straightaway is that they are influenced by our pronunciation. Speakers of different dialects of the same language, speakers with different accents, and native speakers and non-native speakers all pronounce words a bit differently. As a result of these varied pronunciations, not everyone shares the same homophones.

For example, for some people, the Hebrew word shofar meaning the ceremonial ram's horn trumpet blown to introduce religious services and celebrations and in battle and the French word chauffeur meaning a person employed as a driver are homophones. For others, they are not.

Mispronunciation can also make words seem to be homophones that actually, when pronounced carefully, are distinguishable in how they sound. This fact doesn't help the person who unwittingly has learned to say these words the same and therefore finds them confusing.

For example, dictionaries tell us the affect and effect are pronounced differently. Affect begins with a schwa sound /uh FEKT/ while effect begins with a short i sound /ih FEKT/. But if someone wasn't taught to make this distinction, through no fault of his or her own, he or she may find this set of words confusing. (The mnemonic I use to keep them straight is that the action (affect), which comes first alphabetically leads to the result (effect) which comes second alphabetically. If you confuse these two words, maybe this will help you . . .)

Homophones and Spelling

Homophones are one of the main causes of spelling mistakes in written documents. A large number of the most commonly misspelled words are homophones. Here is a list of some of the most frequently confused homophones:

all ready, already

altogether, all together

ascent, assent

bear, bare

capital, capitol

cite, sight, site

council, counsel

elicit, illicit

here, hear

it's, its

lead, led

passed, past

principal, principle

read, red

stationary, stationery

their, there, they're

there's, theirs

through, threw

too, two, to

waist, waste

which, witch

who's, whose

your, you're

It's important to recognize that a spell checker will not help you catch homophones because you're substituting one word for another. In some cases a grammar checker, such as the one available in Microsoft Word, can help you, because often homophones are different parts of speech, and the grammar checker may identify that the homophone you chose doesn't fit the context.

The grammar check cannot be considered a reliable way to find homophones, however. So another thing you can do is keep a little list of the homophones you tend to confuse (if any) and when you're proofreading a document, do a find on each of those words to check how you used it. This will give you an opportunity to review and see if your usage was correct, or if you chose the wrong homophone by mistake.

Homophones and Humor

Homophones can certainly be a problem for spelling, but they're a real plus when it comes to humor. Riddles, knock-knock jokes, and puns depend for their effect on words that sound either identical or at least very much alike - enough so that saying one will bring the other to mind.

For example, the answer to the riddle, “What's black and white and /rehd/ all over?”- a newspaper - takes advantage of the fact that after hearing two colors named, most people will interpret /rehd/ as a color, red, rather than a verb, read.