9 Homophones -- Commonly confused words in English

315,874 views ・ 2010-11-16

English with Ronnie


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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Hello there. Today, I'm going to teach you about something that's kind of really fun
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and easy and entertaining, all in one in English. My name is Ronnie, and I'm going to teach
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you about homophones. I always like to sing this word. I don't know why. Homophones are
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words in English that sound exactly the same, but their meaning is completely different.
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It's fun because this is the way that people play with words. If you read an advertisement
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in English, maybe you're going to look at it and go, "That's spelt wrong." But maybe
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your English-speaking friend is laughing at something because the way that it is spelt
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has a completely different meaning. This will help you get a lot of inside jokes or a lot
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of things that people who are native English speakers will laugh at. You just won't understand,
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but now you're going to get it. You're going to get more jokes. Your life is going to be
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a lot funner and funnier, and it's going to be great. Let's check these out.
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The first one is this word, "bite," and exactly the same pronunciation, "bite." When you're
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eating something, you take a bite. This is B-I-T-E. A lot of you people that are using
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a computer, maybe right now, we always measure a computer's memory by their bites. Same exact
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pronunciation, completely different meaning. So, "bite" is computer memory, and "bite"
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means to eat something. Homophones.
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Next one, "hear," "hear." The first one means to listen or to receive information through
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the ears, and the second one is the state of where you are. "Hi, I'm here," "here," "here."
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Once again, pronunciation, dead easy, exactly the same.
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This one has three, so you're learning three pronunciation words and three different definitions
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in one lesson. Isn't that amazing? Multitasking. The first word is "sense." The second word
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is "sense." The third one is "sense." Did I say that correctly? Yes, "sense," "sense,"
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"sense." The first one means how something smells, or a lot of people use the word "odor"
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or "aroma," if you will. So, "sense" is how something smells.
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The second one has to do with money, pennies, quarters, nickels, dimes, not dollar bills,
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not paper money, but coins are called "cents." And the other one is "sense." If you sense
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something, it means that you think you know what's happening. I can sense that you are
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enjoying this lesson. You didn't tell me, but I think you are. "Sense," "sense," "sense."
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Next one, "ate" is the past of what verb? Does anyone know? It has to do with "bite."
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The past of "eat" is the same as the number "ate," "ate," "ate." To be funny, you can
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say, "I ate eight pizzas." It's hilarious. Party jokes. The next one is people from a
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beautiful country of the Czech Republic. These people are called "Czechs." In the singular,
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it would be "Czech." Same as a Czech mark would be a "Czech." And in Canada, the thing
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that you want to give me, all of your money, in a written form of paper, is called a "Czech."
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This is the Canadian English word. We have two meanings for it. One is a paper, hmm,
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I guess, money. Paper money is a Czech. You write it to me, and you give me money from
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your bank account. Or if you're at a restaurant, you can say to the waiter or the waitress,
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"Czech, please," and they will give you your bill, and then you have to give them money.
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In America, they do not use this spelling, but it's the exact same meaning. So a Czech
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in America is a bill in a restaurant or the thing that you write to give money. So let
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me just write that for you. So "Czech" is a very Canadian word, and it's actually derived
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from French roots. That's why it's Canadian. And "Czech" in this spelling is American,
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and they mean bill that you would get at a restaurant or paper money. Yay, paper money.
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So American, Canadian, Czech, Czech, Czech, Czech.
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Next one is a cell and, ooh, a cell. This word means to buy, opposite, sell or vend.
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Vending machine is a selling machine. And this word "sell" has many meanings. First
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of all, in a jail, you're in a cell. You can't get out. The other one is in science. I can
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draw a cell. There's the center of the cell. I forget what that's called. Who cares? A
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cell is an organism. You're very small. An organism is science.
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So it's also the British word for battery. In Canada, we say a battery. In America, they
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say "battery" as well. In England and in the UK, they would say "cell" or "dry cell" even.
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Ooh, crazy. Look at this. American, Canadian, British. You're learning everything.
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The next one is one of my favorite because everyone says this wrong. We don't actually
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say "clotheses." It looks like it should be "clotheses." It's not. Does anyone know how
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to say this word? Opposite of "open" is "clothes." "Clothes," "clothes." Everyone, most people,
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I hope, wear clothes, and you close the door. So you can remember this. "Clothes," "clothes."
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When you're putting on clothes, close the door.
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Next one. The thing that a lot of people in North America eat for breakfast -- it's yummy
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-- is cereal. This word is the exact same because it's a homophone. "Homophone," "homophone"
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is "cereal." "Cereal" means a sequence, or you might also know it as a "cereal number,"
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which you get on many products. We'll have a "cereal number," and it means a sequence
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number. Again, "cereal," "cereal." This one you eat. Nah, don't eat this one. It tastes
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crunchy.
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And the last one. This is really, really good because it teaches you some more grammar.
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Oh, no. "Chews." If you have a piece of gum, maybe people chew their gum, or you can say
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"He chews his gum very loudly."
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And then, this one is a verb. "Chews." This is the present tense to select or to pick
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something. So this, as a verb, means to select. "Chews," "chews." I spelt this right. Not
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"sleet." Crazy. To select or to pick something. So this has the same pronunciation, "chews"
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and "chews."
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The past tense of this word, there's only one "o." So the pronunciation changes to "chose."
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So we have "chews," "chews" in the present tense, and we have "chose." This is the pronunciation.
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This is the past tense of this verb.
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I hope you enjoyed the lesson on homophones. They're also known as homonyms. So if you
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hear someone say "homonyms" or "homophones," you're going to know it's the same thing.
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The meanings are completely different, but the pronunciation is exactly the same. I hope
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you enjoyed. Ta-ta for now.
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