Homonyms can be subdivided into homographs and homophones. Homographs are words which are written in the same way but have different meanings. Compare bow in “He took a bow /bau/ at the end of the concert” and 'He was wearing a bow /bəu/ tie'. Homophones are words which are pronounced in the same way but are spelt differently, e.g. bow as in “He took a bow” and bough, “the bough of a tree”.
Here are some more examples of homographs:
I live in the north of England, /lıv/
Your favourite pop star is singing live on TV tonight. /laıv/
I read in bed each night. /ri:d/
I read War and Peace last year. /red/
The lead singer in the group is great. /li:d/
Lead pipes are dangerous. /led/
The wind blew the tree down. /wınd/
Don't forget to wind your watch. /waınd/
I wound my watch last night. /waund/
He suffered a terrible wound in the war. /wu:nd/
Some students at Oxford spend more time learning to row well than studying. /rəu/
They shared a flat for ages until they had a row over money and split up. /rau/
This book is called English Vocabulary in Use. /ju:s/
You must know how to use words as well as their meaning. /ju:z/
They lived in a large old house. /haus/
The buildings house a library and two concert halls as well as a theatre. /hauz/
The sow has five piglets. /sau/
The farmers sow the seeds in the spring. /səu/
I bathed the baby this morning. /ba:θt/
We bathed in the sea every day when we were on holiday. /beıðd/
Here are some of the many examples of homophones in English:
air/heir
faze/phase
groan/grown
might/mite
pane/pain
pray/prey
right/rite/write
sent/scent
steak/stake
tire/tyre
weather/whether
aloud/allowed
floe/flow
hoarse/horse
mown/moan
peal/peel
raise/rays
rough/ruff
sight/site
tea/tee
toe/tow
whine/wine
dough/doe
flu/flew
its/it's
our/hour
place/plaice
read/reed
sale/sail
sole/soul
there/their/they're
waist/waste
fare/fair
grate/great
lays/laze
pale/pail
practise/practice
rein/rain
scene/seen
sought/sort
through/threw
wait/weight
3.1 How would you pronounce each of the underlined words in the sentences below? Choose a word with a similar sound from the brackets.
The girl I live with knows a good pub with live music. (dive/give)
The main househouses a collection of rare stamps. (mouse/rouse)
They bathed the children after they had bathed in the sea. (lathe/path)
You sow the seeds while I feed the sow. (cow/glow)
The violinist in the bow tie took a bow. (allow/flow)
He's the lead singer in the group 'Lead piping'. (head/deed)
What a row from the last house in the row! (plough/though)
Does he still suffer from his war wound? (found/mooned)
I wound the rope around the tree to strengthen it against the gale. (round/tuned)
It's quite hard to wind in the sails in this wind. (find/tinned)