What are Homophones?

7th May 2021

Have you ever visited the BBC bitesize website? If not before lockdown, you probably have since? It’s a great resource whilst teaching children at home.

Have a look at the link below for an easy description of a homophone.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zqhpk2p/articles/zc84cwx

The origin of the word, as it often does, helps with its definition.

From Greek word ‘homos‘ which means  “same” + ‘phone‘ = “sound”

But remember they may have the same sound but mean totally different things, the confusing English Language strikes again.

Local dialect can also change what is a homophone and what is not. For example, Whether/whither are homophones in Scotland, but not whether/weather, which are homophones in England.

List of common Homophones

air	heir
aisle	isle
ante-	anti-
eye	I
bare	bear
be	bee
brake	break
buy	by
cell	sell
cent	scent
cereal	serial
coarse	course
complement	compliment
dam	damn
dear	deer
die	dye
fair	fare
fir	fur
flour	flower
for	four
hair	hare
heal	heel
hear	here
him	hymn
hole	whole
hour	our
idle	idol
in	inn
knight	night
knot	not
know	no

Do you ever have any difficulty with any of the above? What strategies do you use to remember the correct spelling?

There are different, fun ways to practice Homophones, you only need to google them or look on ‘pinterest’ to find lots of suggestions. Some may work for you, some may not. We are all individual and it’s best to see what suits you.

Maybe flashcards with pictures of the meaning or a game of Homophone bingo where you say the sentence and child looks to see if that spelling is on their card?

It may be key words that always confuse. Such as ‘their’, ‘there’ and ‘they’re’ ? Maybe a picture prompt near you would help? Think about their meanings;

‘TheIr’ – When discussing it highlight the ‘I‘. When you talk about ‘I‘ you think of you/ a person. Their refers to ‘belongings of a person’ – “They put on their coats”.

‘There’ – Is a place. When discussing it physically point over to ‘there‘, ask the child to walk over to ‘there’. Say “Put you drink over there“.

‘They’re’ – Is an abbreviation for ‘they’ ‘are’. Discuss the possibilities of what ‘they’ could be doing? Make it fun and personal for the child which can help memory recall. What can they picture them doing? Who are they? Make up a story of who, what, where, when and why.

• “They are my friends in school”,
• “They are running a race in sports day”,
• “They are on the school field/track”,
• “On a sunny day”
• “They like running, its fun”

The 5 W’s are a great way to engage a child in a story, but that’s for another post on another day.

Once they are invested in the story get them to draw a picture, together with the word and use as a picture prompt whilst writing.

If you have any ideas that have worked for you or a child you work with then please let me know. It may help someone else too.

Be back next week, hopefully the weather/whether will be better.