Did ewe no that homophones are a pane in the but?

[Ame Yuki Kaze]

Nobody flame me! The misspellings above are intentional.

Homophones, what are they and why should we care about them? Well, for those who don't know, homophones are two words that are pronounced the same, but are spelled differently and mean different things.

There are the more common ones such as "right", "rite" and "write", "to", "too" and "two", etc. as well as many others.

I've seen many posts on Gaia that confuse the words and must admit that I'm guilty of doing so myself, particularly when I'm in a hurry. To that end, I've made up a list of homophones and have defined them. I hope this list is a help to anyone who's confused by these little monsters. As always, feel free to add your own!

bare, bear

His wore no shirt, so his chest was bare.
That grizzly bear looks hungry. Get the rifle, Ma!

fare, fair

How will you fare with no money?
Why does Johnny get a pony and not I? That's not fair!

heal, heel

His wounds need time to heal after that huge battle.
That stupid dog bit my heel, so I kicked it to death.

hear, here

I can't hear you very well. Could you speak up?
Here we are. He has to come here.

heard, herd

Have you heard the new Gorillaz song yet?
Triceratops was a dinosaur that lived in a herd.

hoar, whore

The snow was the color of hoar.
That girl who slept with 15 different guys in one night was a big whore.

hour, our

I'll meet you there in an hour. An hour contains 60 minutes.
This is our car. Get your own!

knight, night

Sir Lancelot, the great knight rode in on his coal-black steed to win the maiden fair.
We waken by day and sleep by night.

meat, meet

I have friends who are vegetarian. They eat only vegetables and never eat meat.
I'd love to meet that movie star and get his autograph.

new, knew

This is a new computer.
He knew his math very well.

no, know

No, you may not have a cookie!
I don't know what you're talking about.

pain, pane

The burns cause me a lot of pain.
The paint on the window pane is chipped.

pair, pare, pear

He's missing one shoe of the pair.
I'll pare the skin from the apple so I can just eat the flesh.
I hate pears. They're too grainy!

rite, right, write

Getting one's license at 16 is the closest thing young people have to a rite of passage in this capitalist civilization of ours.
Turn right at the corner.
I have rights, you filthy government tyrants!
I'm right. You're wrong!
Can you write a story? Your handwriting sucks.

sale, sail

I got a great deal on a new AMD FX computer that was on sale for half off.
That boat has a tear in its sail.

site, sight

I have my own site on the Internet. Never enter a construction site without a hard hat.
Get out of my sight. The very sight of you disgusts me. I need glasses to correct my sight.

steal, steel

That no-good kid looks like he would steal a little old lady's purse just to get her last $20.
A car is three tons of steel barreling down on unwary pedestrians.

tale, tail

You believe in a tale instead of sound doctrine!
Why'd you cut off that puppy's tail?

there, their, they're

He is over there. There it is.
This is their car. Let's go to their house.
They're in the way! They're a bunch of idiots.

to, too, two

Let's go to the store. It took all my strength to lift that car.
He is too nice. She was in the bedroom too.
There are two puppies instead of just one.

where, wear

Where are you?
Are you going to wear that same old outfit?

you, ewe, yew

Who are you? I am me and you are you.
Look at that pretty little ewe and her spring lamb.
He is sleeping under the yew tree.  

[Shrocomemos]

Your, you're

Your dog peed on the curb.
You're an imbecile.

Then, than

Then she shot the man. The book was then thrown across the room.
I'm taller than you! My list is shorter than yours.

 

[Sachiko13]

bow, beau

He shot the arrow with the bow. He is wearing a bow tie.
A beau is another word for a boyfriend.  

[Shrocomemos]

A beau is a boyfriend? I just thought it mean 'beautiful' in French... eek

I learned something today! *dance*

 

[Ame Yuki Kaze]

askew, eschew

His room was thrown badly askew as he looked for his missing shoe.

I decided to eschew the website because I hated their new layout and fascist rules!  

[Ame Yuki Kaze]

who's whose

Who's there?
Whose jacket is this?  

[Ame Yuki Kaze]

it's its

It's almost 10 o'clock.
That dog is ugly. Let's hide its toys.  

[Thalestris]

Two that reeeeally get on my nerves:

Except and Accept.

Please accept my invitation.
Everyone is invited except for you.  

[Dasaretba]

Fun with Homophones:

"Tube he ore knot tube he, data seek west young:
Wed hurt is know blurring tam hind two sough fur
Dish leans sand err rows of out rage us for tune
Ore toot ache arm sag hint stasae oft rubbles,
End bye up pose sing hem dam?"

Billy Wiggle-dagger
-- Firm Hem Lit (Tree, Eye, Fit Tee Sex Two Sex Tee Won)

The Original:

"To be or not to be, --that is the question:--
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?"

William Shakespeare
-- From Hamlet (III, i, 56-61)  

[Dasaretba]

And, for the record, "stasae" is the proper Latin plural for "stasa" which is a derivitave nominal form of "stasis" and thus is properly used when talking about a traffic jam.

So... I cheated on that one.  

[Lily-Anne-Marie]

would, wood

He would go to the store if he was ask.
We threw wood on the fire to keep it going.  

[Ithaya]

Doumyouji

seam, seem

Can you sow this back up at the seam?
He seems like a nice guy.

And looking at this reminds me:

Sew, so (and sow, which is not a homophone, but a misspelling).

I need someone to sew my dress.
So I went to the clobblers.
There was a large sow (female pig) standing outside.


And I really think someone should write something about affect and effect.
So I suppose I shall:

This is likely to affect you, so listen up:
spelling has an effect on the reader's understanding.

In short, affect is a verb and effect is a noun.
I have been told they can be used in ways where affect is not a verb, and effect is not a noun, but I didn't really understand so I chose to ignore it.  

[Ithaya]

Practice/ practise:

(If you're English.)

Practice being the noun, practise, the verb.