Different Spelling but Same Pronunciation? 🤔 Homophones in English

Hey, it's Hadar.

Welcome to my channel.

Today we are going to tackle confusions around 'spelling versus pronunciation'.

Sometimes you may look at a word and it looks exactly like another word that is

spelled the same, but they sound completely different to you.

Or sometimes you see two words that are completely different, yet they sound

exactly the same.

And then you think to yourself, "How is that even possible?"

Well, it's possible.

Because you know why?

It's English, and anything happens in English, especially when it's related to

spelling and pronunciation.

So, English is not a phonetic language, therefore the spelling does not represent

the pronunciation of a sound or a word.

So what we're gonna do today is we're going to tackle the places where it

clashes in your brain, like where you get confused.

And that happens usually either when it comes to homophones or heterographs.

And that is when words are spelled differently, but pronounced the same: like

"flower" versus "flour".

And in the next lesson, because it's the two-part video series, we're going to talk

about homographs.

That means the words are spelled the same but pronounced differently.

Like "tear" [tee-r] versus "tear" [teh-r].

Right?

So, what's going to happen is that we're going to cover a bunch of pairs that are

very commonly used, and we want to make sure that we clear all confusion around

them.

So let's begin with part one words that are spelled differently but pronounced the same.

The first one is "flower | flour".

Both are pronounced exactly the same.

'fla-w'r'.

You move from the W to the R - 'w'r'.

'fla-w'r'.

It's both for "Oh, what a beautiful flower", or "This cake doesn't have any

flour in it".

"flower | flour".

Then we have "hear | here".

It's an H sound, then a high E - 'hee' and then you shift to the R - 'hee-r'.

Make sure that E is long enough, 'hee-r'.

It's both for "I can hear you pretty well" and "I'm right here".

"hear | here".

Then we have "son | sun".

It's an S sound, a cup - uh, uh, it's like a stressed schwa - and an N sound:

'suh-n'.

Make sure you lift the tip of the tongue to touch the upper palate for the N:

'suh-n', 'suh-n'.

And it's both for "The sun in the sky",

or "My son doesn't like to wake up in the morning".

Next up, "there | their | they're".

These three words are homophones, pronounced exactly the same.

A TH sound - /th/, then an /e/, so drop your jaw a little bit - 'the'.

And then, at the end, you bring the tongue up for the R - 'ther', 'ther'.

All three words are pronounced the same.

"It's over there".

"It's their house".

"They're pretty satisfied about it",

"they're pretty satisfied about it":

'ther' - "they are".

"They're pretty satisfied about it".

This is a contraction, and by the way, I have a full video about contractions that

you can watch.

I'm going to put a link in the show notes for it.

"there | their | they're".

"write", and "right".

I actually get a lot of questions about this pair, and people ask me how to

pronounce the "write", right?

"I need to write a book", in comparison to "My right arm", "right".

So, here they're pronounced exactly the same.

It's an R sound, you don't really hear the W when it's before an R,

it doesn't really exist: 'rait'.

So round your lips for the R, change it to an 'ai' as in "my" - 'rai', and bring the

tongue up for a T sound at the end - 'rait'.

You can release the T - 'rai-t', very lightly, or hold it - 'rait', for a held T.

Just stop the breath abruptly or stop the sound - 'rait', and that's the T, 'rait'.

"I need to write a book" or "write an article", and "It's on your right".

"road" versus "rode".

As you can see, they're pronounced the same, another R word: round your lips,

then it's the O as in "go" - 'rowd', and finish it up with a D.

"I'm on the road" and "I rode my bike yesterday".

'rowd'.

Then we have this one: "horse | hoarse".

So here we start with an H sound, then the 'or' as in "for" - 'hors'.

Make sure you pronounce the H, 'hors'.

I'm sure you know the meaning of the first one - "horse", like "I rode my horse

yesterday in the farm".

So I don't just ride my bike, I also ride horses - "horse".

The other one means that I strained my voice.

My voice gets all raspy and tired.

Uh, it's when you have a cold and your voice gets hoarse.

"hoarse".

Okay.

"So I spoke all day yesterday in a meeting, and now my voice is hoarse".

They're pronounced exactly the same.

It's kind of funny.

"sole | soul".

"I'm the sole owner of the company" - "sole".

Or "You have a beautiful soul" - "soul".

Here we start with an S sound, then it's the O as in "go" - 'sow', an a dark L at

the end - 'sowl', L.

So you have that back dark deep voice quality, sound quality to it.

'sowl'.

The next one: "war | wore".

These two words are also pronounced the same: 'wor'.

Here you start with a W sound, then again, we have the 'or' as in "for" - 'wor'.

Make sure you drop the tongue after the W, so it doesn't sound like 'wer', 'wer',

right.

'wor', 'wor'.

So the first meaning is war as in "Make love, not war".

And the second one is the past form of the word "wear", the verb, "wear",

to wear something.

So, "I wore this sweater last night as well", or "I wore it out completely".

'wor'.

"see | sea".

"I see the sea".

"see" as in the verb, and "sea" is where you go to get in the water.

'see': it's an S sound and high E, make sure it's long.

So it's not 'see', 'see' [short] - 'see', 'see' [long].

And the last one for today is "two", "too" and "to".

So we have the number - two - "I need two people to help me".

'tuw': it's a T sound, then the long 'u' sound, and you want to imagine as if

you're adding a W at the end.

'tuw'.

Also, the word "too", as in "as well".

"I need two people, too".

'tuw' - pronounced exactly the same.

Then we have "to" as in "to go".

But you already know because you've been following my videos that the word "to" is

usually it reduced to 'tuh', 'tuh', "to go".

However, when it's at the end of the word or when the word is stressed, it is

pronounced like the number two - 'tuw'.

"I don't know where I need to go to" - 'tuw', 'tuw', right?

"I don't know where I need to go to".

If the "to" is at the end, it is not going to be reduced.

Listen: "I don't know where I need to go to".

I mean...

no.

Okay.

So you want to pronounce it fully like the number two.

That's when it's a homophone.

That's when it's pronounced the same, but other than that, it can be dropped to

'tuh', and then it doesn't sound the same.

Okay.

Okay. That's it.

Now, let me know what other homophones are you familiar with?

Again, homophones are words that are written differently or spelled

differently, but pronounced exactly the same.

Put them in the comments below, and let's all practice together

and see if you've got them right.

Don't forget to tune in next week because next week I'm going to talk about words

that are spelled the same, but pronounced differently.

And this might be even more challenging because you might not even know that

they're pronounced differently.

So we want to tackle that confusion as well.

So make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel or to my newsletter to get this

lesson into your inbox, and other fun stuff every single week.

So, that's it.

So I'm waiting to hear from you in the comments, and like this video and share it

if you liked it.

And I will see you in the second part next week.

Bye.