Homophone

A **homophone** is a word which is pronounced exactly like another word, as in the case of *to*, *too*, and *two*. Another typical example is *see* and *sea* (and the letter *C*). If the spelling is also the same, it is called a homonym. An example of homonym is *file* which can mean an object or device where data is stored and also a tool.

English is especially rich in homophones, and there are hundreds of monosyllabic homophones, especially. However, whether they are "true" homophones may depend on the speaker's accent. For example "moose" and "mouse" are homophones in Scottish English and "tree" and "three" in Irish English but neither would be homophones in Received Pronunciation (RP). Other regional differences include the "r" pronouncing areas that differentiate words that are homophones in RP, such as *sought* and *sort*.

One group of homophones which never ceases to amuse foreign students is that of the contractions:

* *I'd, eyed*; *I'll, aisle, isle*; *he'll, heal, heel*; *there's, theirs*; *we'd, weed*; *we’ll, wheel*; *who’s, whose*
* These are the all-time classics which cause severe problems even among native English speakers: *it’s, its*; *they're, there, their*; and *you're, your*.
* Only in non-rhotic accents: *aren't, aunt*

Likewise, native English speakers may make mistakes with poly-syllabic homophones such as *complement/compliment* and *principal/principle*.

## Some other common examples

As stated above, not all these words will be homophones in all accents. However (and thanks to John Wells for his idea of lexical sets) when grouping words by stressed vowel, we can have dialect independent homophones.

### Monosyllables

We group by stressed vowel, so that all homophones presented here will be valid both in Received Pronunciation and in General American (except when noted).

* **/æ/**: band, banned; sac, sack; packed, pact;

General American: ant, aunt
* **/ɑː/** (Am /æ/): draft, draught; passed, past;

Non-rhotic only: aren't, aunt;
* **/aɪ/**: buy, by; cite, sight, site; die, dye; dyed, died; eye, I; find, fined; hi, high; higher, hire; I'll, aisle, isle; size, sighs; sighed, side; style, stile;, tied, tide; wine, whine; time, thyme; write, right, rite;
* **/aʊ/**: flour, flower; hour, our
* **/e/**: bread, bred; cell, sell; cent, scent, sent; lead *(metal)*, led; leant, lent; read, red; set, sett *(hole in the ground)*
* **/eə/**: air, heir; bare, bear; fair, fare; hair, hare; pair, pear; stairs, stares; they're, there, their; there's, theirs; wear, where
* **/eɪ/**: ate*AmE*, eight; brake, break; grate, great; made, maid; mail, male; place, plaice; rain, reign; rains, reigns, reins; sail, sale; shake, sheik *(also* \ʃiːk\); steak, stake; tail, tale; waste, waist; weigh, way; weight, wait; weighed, wade;
* **/ɪ/**: billed, build; gym, Jim; in, inn; its, it's; which, witch;
* **/ɪə/**: dear, deer; hear, here; peer, pier
* **/iː/**: beat, beet; feat, feet; flea, flee; genes, jeans; he'll, heal, heel; meat, meet; peak, peek; read, reed; sweet, suite; scene, seen; steel, steal; team, teem; we'd, weed; week, weak; we’ll, wheel
* **/ɒ/**: knot, not
* **/ɔː/**: board, bored; chord, cord; for, four; hoarse, horse; mall, maul; moor, more; pore, pour, poor;*BrE* your, you're

Non-rhotic only: caught, court; fort, fought; sauce, source; saw, sore; sort, sought
* **/əʊ/**: broach, brooch; hole, whole; know, no; knows, nose; loan, lone; road, rode, rowed; sew, so, sow; sole, soul
* **/ʊ/**: wood, would
* **/uː/**: blew, blue; cue, queue; dew, due; flew, flu; hue, Hugh; knew, new; root, route; threw, through; who's, whose; yew, you
* **/ʌ/**: none, nun; one, won; son, sun
* **/ɜː/**: earn, urn; heard, herd; tern, turn

### Polysyllabic words

* aloud, allowed; bolder, boulder; complacent, complaisant; complement, compliment; forego, forgo; gorilla, guerrilla; principal, principle; weather, whether

### Letters

There are several letters of the alphabet that are pronounced like words:

* A, eh; B, be, bee; C, sea, see; I, eye; O, owe; P, pea; Q, queue; R, are; T, tea, tee; U, you; X, ex; Y, why.

## References

1. ↑ Wikipedia, "Phonological history of English fricatives and affricates - Wait-weight merger"

## External links

* firstschoolyears.com, List of homophones
* International Business Times, Utah Blogger Fired After Boss Complained Homophone Blog Post 'Associated School with Homosexuality', 4 August 2014.