Fix your spelling mistakes: 10 confusing words that sound the same

Hi. I'm Gill at www.engvid.com, and today's lesson is about what are called homonyms.

And don't worry about the change word. All it means is words which have the same sound,

the same pronunciation, but there are different spellings of them, and the different spelling

has a different meaning. Okay. So, I think there's sometimes a bit of confusion about

whether these words are actually pronounced differently, as well as being spelt differently.

But the point about homonyms is they are pronounced exactly the same, and it's only the spelling

that's different. Okay, so we have 10 little quizzes for you, here.

So, the first one. I've put in a gap to give you a chance to think of the word and the

spelling yourself. So, for this sentence, it should read:

"There was a __________ in the road, and it took a __________ group of workmen to fix it."

Okay, so for the word hole/whole, there are

two different spellings. So, can you think what kind of hole/whole this is, the hole/whole

in the road; and what kind of hole/whole this is, a hole/whole group of people? Okay. I'll

just give you a few seconds to think, and you might like to write it down if you have

a pencil and paper handy. Okay,

so a "hole" in the road, meaning something that needs

to be repaired is spelt like that, h-o-l-e. Okay? But a

"whole", meaning a total group

of workmen is like this, only with a "w" at the beginning, so: "whole", and the pronunciation

is exactly the same. Hole in the road, whole group of workmen. There's no difference in

how you say it. Okay, good.

Right, second one: "Do you __________ where my phone is?" And

then somebody else replies: "I'm sorry, __________ I don't."

So: "Do you no/know?" and "no/know I don't", so I'll just give you a couple of seconds

to think about the two different spellings of that. Okay.

So: "Do you know where my phone is?" Okay.

K-n-o-w. Okay. That's one of our famous silent letters, the "k" at the beginning.

So, k-n-o-w to "know" something: -"Do you know where my phone is?"

-"I'm sorry, no", just the negative "no",

n-o. So, you can see n-o is in the middle of k-n-o-w, and the negative

there, no. Okay.

Right, the third one:

"Yesterday I __________ where I had put my __________ coat. Today I have forgotten."

So, you can see I'm forgetting things, I'm

losing things. I don't usually. It's just for the quiz, really. I try not to forget

things, I try not to lose things, but it happens sometimes. Okay. So:

"Yesterday I new/knew where I had put my new/knew coat. Today I have forgotten." Where is it? Oh, dear. So:

"Yesterday I knew", okay, so another one. It's the past tense of "know", "knew", another

silent "k". "I knew where I put my new coat." The new coat, which I only bought a few days

ago. Okay? So, again, those are the spellings, but the sound is exactly the same. Right.

Next one: "I don't know __________ I'm going to __________ this hat."

So this word is wear/where in two different spellings.

"I don't know wear/where I'm going to wear/where this hat." Okay? So,

that's "where", in what place, like the question word: Where? Where shall I wear...? Okay?

"I don't know where I'm going to..."

Okay, so that's a slightly different... W-e-a-r.

To "wear", to put something on. "Where" and "wear".

Okay, and then finally from this first five:

"Can you wait __________ me, please? I shouldn't be more than __________ minutes."

"For/four" and "for/four". Okay? So,

f-o-r: "...wait for me", and then the number of minutes, we don't just put the figure because that's

cheating, we put the word. Okay?

"Four" minutes, so f-o-u-r for the word. Okay, so I hope you've

enjoyed that so far, and we will now move on to another five.

Okay, our next five. So, the first one:

"The boy __________ the ball __________ the window."

Okay? So he must have broken the window doing

that. "The boy threw/through the ball threw/through the window." Same pronunciation, different

spelling. Can you think what the two are? Okay, so,

"threw", that's the past tense of

"to throw", an irregular verb. So, to throw, he threw in the past.

"The boy threw the ball threw/through the window."

Oops. Quite a difficult spelling, that one. T-h-r-o-u-g-h. Okay.

"...through the window." Right.

Next one: "Our __________", that's the post.

"Our mail is usually delivered by a __________ postal worker,"

-I couldn't put "postman" there, because

what we usually call them is postman, but that's saying the same thing twice, a mail/male

postal worker-"but today it was a woman." Ha. Okay? So, mail/male is usually delivered

by a mail/male postal worker. Can you think what the two spellings are? Okay, so,

m-a-i-l and

m-a-l-e. And, of course, the female... Well, "male", "female", so woman is the word

"male" with "fe" on the front: "female". Okay. Right. Okay.

Next one:

"Don't leave your baby __________ out in the __________, he will get burnt!"

This is especially in very hot countries.

In the UK, you don't have to say this kind of thing very much, because we don't get a

lot of sunshine. Okay, but in other countries, yes, you might need to say this quite a lot.

So: "Don't leave your baby sun/son out in the sun/son, he will get burnt!" Okay, can

you think of the two spellings for that? Right, so your baby, if your baby is a boy, then

he's your "son", s-o-n. But then the "sun" that shines is-oops-s-u-n. Okay? Right.

Next one. Now, this is about someone, perhaps a little girl who's not very happy, and she's

being a nuisance. So, somebody says:

"Please give her a __________ of chocolate, and then we might have some __________."

Meaning peace and quiet, she won't bother

us now if we give her some chocolate, a piece/peace of chocolate, then we will have some piece/peace.

Peaceful. Okay? So, can you think of the two spellings, there? Piece/peace of chocolate,

have some piece/peace and quiet. Okay, so...

So, p-i-e-c-e for the little "piece" of chocolate,

or maybe a big piece of chocolate, hopefully. We like big pieces of chocolate, yeah. Okay,

and then to have some "peace" and quiet,

p-e-a-c-e. Okay, but the pronunciation, exactly the same.

Different spelling. Right.

And then finally, this is in a sports race:

"The race between the two men has just finished - I wonder which __________ __________?"

Which one/won one/won. Okay. Can you think

what they are? One/won. Which one/won of the men one/won the race? Okay? Right, so: "Which

one" is the number "one" spelt o-n-e, but the verb "to win" in the past tense:

he "won"

the race. Okay? So that's w-o-n. So: "...which one won?" Right.

So, I hope you found that helpful and interesting. And if you'd like to test yourself further, you can

go to the website, www.engvid.com, where there is a quiz to test you further

on this. And if you enjoyed this lesson, perhaps you'd like to subscribe to my channel on YouTube.

So, okay, well, thanks for watching and hope to see you again soon.

Bye for now.