Homophones are words in English that sound the same but are spelt different. These words also have a different meaning.
Confused? Let me give you some examples then you can read the full list.
- One – a number – pronounced ‘wun’
- Won – past tense of ‘win’ – pronounced ‘wun’
- Buy – to purchase something – pronounced ‘bi’
- By – past/near – pronounced ‘bi’
- Bye – short for ‘goodbye’ – pronounced ‘bi’
As you can see, the two (or three) words are pronounced the same. However, they have a different meaning and different spelling. That my friends, is what we call a ‘homophone‘ in English.
homophones examples
Let’s see some common examples of homophones.
I think you get the idea from the examples above. For those of you who really want to nail your pronunciation; homographs, homonyms and homophones are for you!
homonyms list with examples
Homonyms are very tricky for non-natives to learn and distinguish between. Have a crack at learning some of the most common ones. I’ve given you the two (or more) homophones, the meaning and some tips for pronunciation.
Here’s a few but there are lots more. Good luck!
homophones worksheets
So, you’ve learnt the list and are now a homophone pro. Have a go at completing these exercises, the answers are at the bottom.
For the first exercises, fill in the blanks with the correct homophone.
For this next set of exercises, fill in the blanks using the correct homophone from the title.
homophones activity
Now it’s time to practice what you’ve learnt. See if you can read these sentences with the correct pronunciation and word stress. Go on, I believe in you.
