HOMONYMS

HOMONYMS

Quite a lot of my EFL students had trouble distinguishing sounds and spellings of English words that are pronounced the same. Even native speakers of English often get confused among the words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings.

Will you try to choose the correct word among the given two homonyms (in parentheses) to make sense of each sentence?

E.g., That (bare, bear) animal in the picture is a grizzly (bare, bear) without fur. => answer: bare, bear

 

     1.   The fields of the (barren, baron) were always (barren, baron), so he built houses on the land.

 

     2.   Even though this pet canary is (cheap, cheep), its (cheap, cheep) is loud.

 

     3.   In the (capitol, capital) city, we must visit the (capital, capitol).

 

     4.   The athlete was (bold, bowled) when he (bold, bowled) against the world champion.

 

5.   She will (ail, ale) if she drinks all that (ail, ale).

 

     6.   Walk down the (isle, aisle, I’ll) on the small (aisle, isle, I’ll) with me, and (isle, aisle, I’ll) marry you.

 

     7.   My sister’s (beau, bow) gave her a beautiful (beau, bow) for her hair.

 

     8.   That large (Cyprus, cypress) comes from (Cyprus, cypress) in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

 

     9.   A (course, coarse) person doesn’t make many friends in the (course, coarse) of life.

 

     10. Even in sleet and (hale, hail), my grandfather is a (hale, hail) and hearty soul.

 

 

Answer Keys

    1.  baron, barren

    2.  cheap, cheep

    3.  capital, capitol

    4.  bold, bowled

    5.  ail, ale

    6.  aisle, isle, I’ll

    7.  beau, bow

    8.  cypress, Cyprus

    9.  coarse, course

    10. hail, hale   

*   *** Source from Scholastic Guides: Building Your Vocabulary

*