Weekly English Words with Alisha - Heteronyms

Hi, I’m Alisha. Welcome back to Weekly Words. This week I'm told, uh, might be something

that's going to be scary for me. What is... What? Heteronyms? This is gonna be bad. The

word “heteronyms” means “two separate words with the same spelling but with different

pronunciation and meaning.” Really? Okay, now that I understand, it's not so scary.

Let's start.

Okay, the first word is “bass,” as in a type of fish or “base (bayse),” which

refers to someone's voice. It’s also a type instrument. It kind of looks like a guitar.

There's also a string bass that's usually a really tall instrument, um, that

you play standing up. So in a sentence, when you're fishing, you might say, “Oh, hey,

I hope I catch a bass today.” If you're a musically inclined person, you might say,

“My favorite instrument is the “bass (bayse).” Great. Those are pretty good.

Uh, next is “wind,” as in the air, uh, “blowing, blowing air,” and “wind (waind),”

as in like “to wrap something around something else.” “Wind, you might say, “The wind

is really strong today. I should've brought my kite to the park.” Okay, I don’t know.

Every once in a while, these oddly specific sentences. “Wind?” Like, maybe you have

a ball of string at your house, and it’s gotten all tangled up. It's really,

really messy, and, uh, you find it one day, and you think to yourself, “Oh, I really

need to wind this ball of string into a clean, like, tidy ball.”

Next, uh, “tear (tayr).” “A rip in something.” Um, like you might “tear (tayr)” a piece

of paper in half. The same spelling, um, can also make, uh, the word “tear,” which

is that drop of water that comes out of a person's eye when they're sad or sometimes

when they're very happy. Use them both in one sentence? “Whenever I tear (tayr) a

piece of paper, a tear comes from my eye because I feel bad for ruining trees.” Or, “My,

my friend made me tear (tayr) up my favorite love letter, and I shed many tears as a result.”

That one was slightly better. Alright.

Next is “dove (duv).” “Dove (duv)” can be a bird, it's a white bird, often represents

peace, and it can also, uh, be pronounced “dove (dohv),” which is the past tense

of the verb “to dive.” So you might say, “The dove dove (dohv) into…” What does

a dove dive into? “The dove (duv) dove (dohv) into oncoming traffic.” “The dove (duv)

dove (dohv) into the pond to take a bath.”

Next is “close,” meaning “to be near,” and the other pronunciation is “close (clohz),”

meaning “to shut,” or it can also mean “to end.” So in a sentence, let's see

if we can use them both in the same sentence. Um, “Please close (clohz) the door that

is close to you, um, because the show is coming to a close (clohz).” Oh, yeah!

End! That was all of ‘em. That was an interesting lesson. I hope that you guys learned something.

If nothing else, I think it's a good reminder that pronunciation is important. When you

put emphasis on one part of the word, it might actually change the meaning of the word

entirely, so please be careful, especially with some of the words that we talked about

here today. Okay, thanks for joining us, and I will see you again next week. Bye-bye!