June’s Grammar Lesson of the Month features some things that make English spelling a little complicated: homophones.
What are homophones? Homophones are two or more words with the same pronunciation but different spellings and meanings. Some examples are:
Break and Brake
Close and Clothes
Dough and Doe
Eye and I
Hay and Hey
Mail and Male
Pain and Pane
Peace and Piece
Rain and Reign
Why do we need to learn homophones? In today’s world of technology, there is one thing that spell check hasn’t figured out: homophones! If you substitute one homophone for another when typing an email or a paper, the computer will probably not catch the mistake. This can obviously be a little embarrassing! Learning homophones will make you a better speller, and can also improve your vocabulary (for example, did you know the meaning of the word “reign” before reading this post?)
Would you like a little practice with homophones? Study these and then check back to our blog next week for a post that tests your knowledge of them!