Yesterday I blogged about homographs which are “words with the same spelling but different meanings” and they can sometimes sound different (according to Bernard C Lamb in his book The Queen’s English) e.g. ‘row’ which can rhyme with ‘go’ and also ‘cow’. Homophones are words which have the same sound but different meanings, e.g. led/lead, so/sew, read/red and row/row (as in ‘lining things up in a row’ and ‘rowing with oars’). The key thing to remember with homophones is that they sound the same even though they might be spelt differently. Confused yet? Here are some examples:
I have red shoes
I read the morning paper
I led a team of people
It was a lead weight
They were sitting in a row
Do you need me to row the boat?
To echo Richard C Lamb’s words “homophones are words which sound alike“. To remember what a homophone is, a tip he gives is to break the word down into two parts: ‘homo’ meaning ‘alike’ and ‘phone’ which makes you imagine a ‘sound’ or a voice.
As a writer, you have to be clear which meaning you are using otherwise it could get very confusing to the reader.
This blog forms part of my writing challenge. My blogs stats tell me that I’ve had 1998 hits since this blog began. I hope to break through the 2000 barrier today! Thank you to all of you that are supporting me.
Don’t forget that you can subscribe to receive my daily blogs by email so that you don’t miss any. Just click ‘sign me up’ on the home page. Alternatively you can follow my blogs on Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/madeirasandra or my ‘Tips and Luxuries’ Facebook page. Requests for future blogs (punctuation/grammar/writing tips) are always welcome.
Until tomorrow…
Sandra
My writing challenge: http://wp.me/p1x6Ui-4
This blog: https://mywritingnotebook.wordpress.com
My other blog: http://sandramadeira.wordpress.com
My website: www.tipsandluxuries.com (includes the introduction to my upcoming book ‘A Gift for Stressed and Busy Parents’)
Twitter: @madeirasandra and @tipsandluxuries
Reference list:
Bernard C. Lamb The Queen’s English (2010), UK
My Writing Notebook 
Discussion
Trackbacks/Pingbacks
Pingback: Note 147 – What are heterophones? « My writing challenge - September 24, 2011
Pingback: Note 293 – The Double Meaning of Utopia « My writing challenge - February 17, 2012
Pingback: Note 331 – Cringing at the use of they’re, there and their… « My writing challenge - March 26, 2012
Pingback: Note 333 – The use of sited, cited and sighted « My writing challenge - March 28, 2012