Pronunciation Practice: Homophones-I

 Pronunciation Practice: Homophones-I
 

                                   

Source: https://www.englishbix.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/List-of-Minimal-Pairs-for-Speech-Therapy.jpg

Dear readers, in the previous post we learnt about Minimal Pairs in English. To acquire good pronunciation, one should have brilliant receptive capacity. To make a distinction between pronunciation of two similar words, one should be good at listening and observing the sound as well as rapid lip movement. Practising listening to different sounds and repeating the heard sounds in an exact way makes one speak a language with appreciable pronunciation. In this connection, now we are going to learn what “Homophone” is and how it helps a person in both listening and speaking.

According to Cambridge Dictionary, Homophone means “A word that is pronounced the same as another word but has a different meaning or spelling, or both”. In simple words, “homo” means “same”, and “phone” means sound. Therefore, in English, there is a lot of homophones which play pivotal role in communication.

For example,

Sun            –          Son

See             –          Sea

Eyes          -           Ice

The above-mentioned words contain the same pronunciation, but they convey different meanings and spellings. Let us learn some of the popular homophones available in English.

Accept                   -           Except

Air                         -           Heir

Arms                     -           Alms

Axe                       -           Acts

Alter                      -           Altar

Ate                        -           Eight

Buy                       -           By

But                        -           Butt

Bear                      -           Bare

Bite                       -           Byte

Bean                      -           Been

Board                    -           Bored

Break                    -           Brake

Calf                       -           Cough

 

Cell                       -           Sell

Cent                      -           Scent

Check                    -           Cheque

Cot                        -           Caught

Course                   -           Coarse

Dall                       -           Doll

Dear                      -           Deer

Die                        -           Dye

Due                       -           Dew

Fair                       -           Fare

Feet                       -           Feat

Find                       -           Fined

Flu                         -           Flew

Four                      -           Fore / Foe

Practising these homophones certainly helps in refining pronunciation. In the next post, let us explore further about Homophones.

 

Author:

K. Nandhakumar

Assistant Professor of English

Sri Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya College of Arts and Science (Autonomous)

Coimbatore- 641 020