"Same sound"
Vijaykarthik Sathiyamurthy
Technical Editor | Certified Corporate Trainer (Language and Communication Specialist) | Theater Actor, Director, Coach
In this article, let’s discuss …
?… HOMOPHONES
?Theory: HOMOPHONES
?Homophones are words that have identical or similar pronunciation but mean different things and are often spelled differently, as well.
?For example, the words?bite?and?byte?have identical pronunciation but they mean different things and are spelled differently, as well.
?The word?homophone?literally means “same sound” (homo – same; phone – sound).
?Why should we care?
?Well, having fun with homophone-based puns can be one really good reason to show interest in homophones!
If having fun isn’t compelling enough reason, here’s another one:
To avoid inadvertent errors and?e?m?b?r?a?c?i?n?g? embarrassing howlers in our own writing!
?Wy homophone-based howlers happen?
?Okay, let’s face it: Among languages, English is?k?n?o?t?? not particularly known for strict correspondence between spelling and pronunciation. It is, therefore,?q?u?i?e?t?? quite common in English that the same letter or combination of letters is pronounced entirely differently?i?n?n?? in different contexts.
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To?s?e?a? ?see an extreme example of what?e?y?e?? I mean, watch this short, funny clip from the very famous yesteryear show, “I love Lucy”:?“Ough” is tough to figure out
Likewise, the?r?i?v?e?r?s? ?reverse is also true: Entirely different letter combinations can often end up being pronounced identically (or almost identically). This results in situations that are funny embarrassing, depending on which side of the joke you are on.
?You might have heard a word in spoken language and learned its meaning from the context, but you might not have seen the word in print and not learned the correct spelling of the word. Later, when you want to use the word in your writing, you might end up inadvertently misspelling your intended word, which coincidentally might be the spelling of a completely different word that happens to have the same pronunciation as your intended word.
?For example, a young?theater?student of mine, who had heard the word?engaged?and its common usage but hadn’t learned its spelling, once sent me a text message that read, “I’ve been trying to call you, but your phone is young-aged.”
:)
Let’s have fun with some examples
?Here's a list of funny videos based on homophones. and without much further?a?d?i?e?u? ?ado,?h?e?a?r? ?here they go; do make time to watch them, and let me know which ones cracked you up:
?… and then some riddles!
?Here are a few homophone-based riddles,?t?w?o? ?too:
Use the comments section to put in your favorite homophone-based puns and jokes or to share interesting anecdotes related to homophones!