Top 10 British English Homophones

- Hello everyone, and welcome back to English with Lucy.

Today's lesson is going to be about homophones.

These are words that sound alike, but are spelt differently.

Learning more about these homophones

will help you improve your English listening skills.

And ultimately, it will help you understand

native speakers, like myself.

So, if you want to improve your listening comprehension,

keep watching.

The first homophones are affect and effect.

What is the difference?

I actually get questions about these words

quite frequently in the comments section.

Well, affect with an a is a verb.

The illness did not affect me.

And effect with an e is a noun.

The illness didn't have an effect on me.

The next homophone is which and witch.

Which is the pronoun that we all know and love.

I'm wearing a red top, which I bought in London.

And a witch is a scary or nasty woman, normally.

Number three, we have here and hear.

Well, they're both pronounced in exactly the same way.

But one, here, is a pronoun to indicate a location.

Whoops, I definitely meant to say adverb, sorry about that.

So we've got, can you come here?

And the other one, hear, again is a verb.

To hear something.

To indicate listening.

Can you come and hear this, for example.

Number four, are and our.

The first one is a form of the verb "to be".

These are my students.

And the other, a plural possessive form of "we".

This is our classroom.

Then we've got by and buy.

By with b-y is a preposition indicating location.

I am by the door.

Buy with b-u-y is a verb meaning, to purchase.

Are you going to buy this?

Number six, weather and whether.

This weather means the state of the atmosphere.

The weather is very nice today.

Whereas the other whether is a conjunction

to introduce choices.

Could you tell me whether you'd prefer to go out or stay in?

Number seven, there, their, and they're.

(laughs)

This there can act as many different parts of speech.

It can be a pronoun.

For example, there are a lot of people.

Then we have their, which is a pronoun.

My students forgot their books.

Finally we have they're, which is a contraction of they are.

They're very nice people.

They are very nice people.

Then we have two, too, and to.

Well firstly we've got two, the number two.

I have two pets, a dog and a cat.

Then we've got too, which can mean excessively, or also.

I am too tired to go out.

Or, I will come too.

The final to can be used to indicate an infinitive.

Do you want to go out?

It can also be a preposition.

I am going to the park.

Then we have your and you're.

The first one, your is a pronoun.

Don't forget your coat.

The second one is a contraction for you are.

You're going to get cold if you don't wear a coat.

And number ten, we have one and won.

The first one, o-n-e, refers to the number one.

A single unit.

For example, I have one nose.

Thankfully, it would be terrible if I had two.

The other word, w-o-n, won again

is the past tense for the verb "to win".

So, I recently won a competition.

Alright guys, that was my video on

the top ten British English homophones.

I hope you found it useful.

If you do want to take your listening to the next level,

make sure you watch my latest video,

which is all about listening skills.

The link is in the description box.

If you want to improve your pronunciation,

you can join in my free live pronunciation,

and vocabulary lesson,

which is every Sunday at 4:30 GMT, that's London time,

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and I will see you again soon for another lesson.

(blows kiss)