[This is part of an ongoing ChurchMag series, A Dutch-Girl’s Guide to Becoming a Better Writer.]
English is a horrible language.
There, I’ve said it.
The reason it’s such a difficult language to learn is because words that are spelled the same, are pronounced differently. Or words sound similar, but look nothing alike in spelling. Or the worst: they are spelled exactly the same, but are pronounced in various ways depending on their meaning.
Three examples:
- The list is endless: beard and heard, lord and word, fury and bury. Surely you’d expect these to be pronounced in a similar way, but they’re not.
- How about chair and mayor. You pronounce them the same, but the spelling is completely different. No wonder my 6-year old son has such a hard time learning how to spell!
- The last category is even more baffling. Compare a tear in your eye and a tear in your dress. They’re the same words, spelled the same, but pronounced differently according to their meaning.
It’s no wonder even native English speakers have a hard time spelling everything correctly. There are some notorious homonyms though (words that sound alike, but have a different spelling and meaning) that you can practice to get right. Let’s look at some homonyms everyone keeps mixing up.
By the way: I won’t explain when to use which spelling, since there are tons of blog posts explaining this into excruciating detail. A little knowledge of grammar is an essential tool here. My goal is to simply make you aware of these notorious homonyms, so that every time you use one of these, you triple check if you’ve spelled it correctly. If necessary, hang this little list somewhere where you can see it so you know to check these words when you use them. And remember: you may not even realize you’re misspelling them!
Notorious Homonyms
Here’s a quick list:
To/too/two
There/they’re/their
Its/it’s
Then/than
Accept/except
Affect/effect
Your/you’re
‘ve/of
The last one may need a little explaining. When you say ‘He would’ve done it differently’, the ‘ve sounds like ‘of’. And I’ve seen people write it often like ‘He would of done it…’ Not a logical one, but still one you come across regularly.
Bonus
Just for fun’s sake, I’ll throw in a little bonus. Lie and lay are not homonyms: they’re spelled differently, don’t sound the same and mean something else entirely. Yet people keep confusing the two. Just remember this: a chicken lays eggs. You lie down.
By the way, I came across this old post on ChurchMag on how spelling errors may get you more comments than you’d ever hoped (feared?). Interesting strategy, though not necessarily one I’d recommend if you want to be taken seriously!
Pamela Wilson says
I had a heck of a time with homonyms when I was a child. It still get a little confused about it’s and its! You right, English is a terrible language. It’s amazing how I learned to read at all!
Rachel Blom says
My son is learning how to spell and sometimes how he writes stuff makes way more sense than how it’s supposed to be spelled!
Eric Dye says
This is one of those things you don’t think about much until you are around other people who are learning another language. I’ve gotten questions about English—like homonyms—that just leave my own head scratching to explain it.
Rachel Blom says
I don’t think you can explain most of this. It’s just what it is, even if it doesn’t make sense…
Kenneth Rosentrater says
I’ve never heard anyone pronounce “mayor” like “chair”! That must be a regional thing.
Thanks for the article.
Rachel Blom says
Interesting! How would you pronounce it? And where are you from if I may ask?