In today’s class, Teacher Robin is talking about homophones. Learn what they are and practice your pronunciation. You can participate by writing in the comments. Enjoy!
Exercise
Tap all the highlighted words in the transcript below to see their definitions.⇩See Transcript
Hello, I’m teacher Robin. Welcome to another livestreaming class. If this is your first time to join us, let me welcome you into my living room and explain how the classes work. So today, I’m going to be talking about homophones. So these are words that have the same pronunciation, but different meanings and spellings and I’m going to show you 10 examples of the most commonly used homophones. So if you have any questions as we go along, feel free to write them in the comments.
Okay, my first homophone is “accept”. So accept with an A is to agree to take something and “except” with an E is not including. For example, I accept all of the conditions of the contract, except the last one.
The next homophone is “I”, so we have I, the personal pronoun, and we have “eye” the part of the body that we use to see. For example, I think I have something in my eye.
The next one is “to”, so to, t-o, is a preposition of movement and “too” t-o-o means also, for example, I am going to the concert too.
The next one is actually three different spellings and definitions we have “there”. So there t-h-e-r-e is referring to a location or position. “Their” t-h-e-i-r is the possessive of they and “their” t-h-e-y apostrophe r-e is the contraction of they are. For example, They’re eating their lunch over there.
The next one is “hear”. So h-e-a-r is “hear”, to receive sound in your ear. And “here” h-e-r-e means in this location. For example, I can’t hear you come here.
Next we have “you’re” so we have the contraction of you are, “you’re” and we have the possessive of you, “your”. For example, You’re spilling your coffee on the table.
Next we have “for” so for f-o-r is a preposition which means that something is intended to be given to someone and “four” f-o-u-r is the number four. For example, Can I book a table for four people?
Next we have “flour”, so flour f-l-o-u-r is a kind of powder made from grain that we use for cooking or baking and “flower” f-l-o-w-e-r is the beautiful part of a plant, the beautiful colorful part of a plant. So for example, I am making flower shaped cookies with cake flour.
Okay, next we have “hour” so h-o-u-r in this case the H is silent. So, the pronunciation is the same. There are many cases in English of words starting with h that have a silent h pronunciation. So with this “hour” h-o-u-r it refers to time, so 60 minutes one hour, and “our” o-u-r is the possessive of we. So for example, Our flight is leaving in one hour.
And finally the last one is “son” so s-o-n, son we’re talking about a male child when referring to the parents and “sun” s-u-n is the star that the Earth revolves around. So for example, My son loves to play in the sun.
Okay, so I’ve given you 10 examples of homophones. I hope this has been useful for you to clear up some pronunciation questions and spelling differences. I hope you’ll remember them now and recognize which one is which. So now I want you to practice by writing in the comments, some examples of these homophones that you have just learned. So I look forward to reading your examples. And I hope everyone is doing well as we’re starting to come out of the confinement. I hope everyone is taking it, handling it, as well as possible. So I hope you’re all doing well. And I’ll see you back here, same time next week for another class. So thanks again for watching. Bye!
Exercise
Fill in the correct homophone: flour – their – for – Our – except – to – I – your – sun – here. ⇩
For more practice with Homophones, press Play to listen to a podcast.
My example is : piece and peace
My example is:wear and where (British pronounce).