homophone

«homophone» in Mova's school dictionary: a word that sounds the same as another word but has a… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a homophone, homophones)

meaning for a pupil

1) A homophone is a word that sounds the same as another word but has a different meaning and often a different spelling, like «there», «their» and «they're». tree →

2) Two or more such words are called homophones of each other. tree →

sense in the lessons

In English and spelling lessons, homophones cause many spelling mistakes, so pupils learn pairs and groups: to/too/two, hear/here, see/sea, knight/night, write/right, bear/bare, peace/piece, which/witch, flour/flower. The meaning of the sentence tells you which spelling to choose. Homophones are also used in jokes and puns. Phrases: «a pair of homophones», «homophone mistakes», «choose the right homophone».

examples

• «Sea» and «see» are homophones. tree →
• «Two», «too» and «to» are a group of homophones. tree →
• I wrote «their» instead of «there» — a homophone mistake. tree →
• The joke works because «knight» and «night» are homophones. tree →
• Circle the correct homophone: The (bare/bear) ate the honey. tree →
• Can you think of a homophone for «flour»? tree →
• Spell checkers often miss homophone mistakes. tree →

note

Do not mix up with «homograph» (same spelling, maybe different sound: a «bow» to tie, to «bow» your head) or «homonym» (a wider word for same-looking or same-sounding words). Homophones can depend on accent: «aunt/aren't» sound the same in much of England but not in the USA. Spell checkers do not catch them because each spelling is a real word.

In the corpora

• Some pairs only sound nearly the same: near-homophones.
• Homophones sound the same but have different spellings and meanings: see/sea, bear/bare, piece/peace.
• Homophones stick best when you learn them inside sentences, like «I see the sea».
• The sentence around a homophone, its context, tells you which spelling is needed.
• Because seven eight nine" works because "eight" and "ate" are homophones.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «homophone» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.