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What to Do, What to Do, with Homophones and Homonyms? (And Why they all Sound the Same)

Updated: Mar 4, 2021



As tragically comedic as t is, the English language has several of its words sound and look exactly alike, yet mean completely different things. What are they?--homographs, homonyms, and homophones.



What exactly are these "homo-" terms, and how do we distinguish them? Rapid-fire:


Homographs/Homonyms: two or more words are spelled the same, aren't but not necessarily pronounced the same; all while having different meanings and origins

ex. "just"-- the adverb vs. something morally correct


Homophones: two or more words pronounced relatively the same (conditional, due to location and the presence of other languages' influnce), are spelled differentl and usually have different meanings and origins

*examples below*



And in both new and long-working writers' work, I've personally noticed that many lexical errors come more from confusion over homophones than homonyms/homographs. Which makes sense--we live in a digital age that retains writing and reading, but alos offers several visual and auditory media where the actual words we hear aren't presented as themselves but sounds. Moreover, it's arguable that such media gives us knowledge about the world (and the words with which we use to describe and explain things) that they intuitively, or, transmits it into our subconcious. If the sounds are similar enough and are repeated often enugh without actually showing the words, how could we not get get them all mixed up a few times?



So, as two pieces of advice:


A. Visualize the actual word you wish to use, then visualize and feel for the context in which you want to use it, especially when one of your options is a physical thing versus a verb/adjective/adverb or a concept.

B. Figure out an editing routine that allows you to look back at each sentence after a certain amount of pages/chapters/lines/etc, and if you come across a word that doesn't look or sound right, sit with it and go through the process above.



And of course, there's just to practice. Writing is a meticulous task not because the bursts of drafting and ideation that may or may nor come before the draft, but due to editing the words themselves.



Common Homophones Writers Mix Up

to/two/too

its/it's

they're/their/there

your/you're

bear/bare

right/rite

light/"lite"

hear/here

accept/except

affect/effect

then/than

witch/which

right/write

one/won

complement/compliment

lie/lay

principle/principal

dessert/desert (debatably similar depending on how a person sounds it out)

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