Different Spelling but Same Pronunciation? 🤔 Homophones in English

Hey, it's Hadar. Welcome to my channel. Today we are going to tackle confusions around spelling versus pronunciation. Sometimes you may look at a word and it looks exactly like another word that is spelled the same, but they sound completely different to you. Or sometimes you see two words that are completely different yet they sound exactly the same. And then you think to yourself, how is that even possible? Well, it's possible because you know why? It's English. And anything happens in English, especially when it's related to spelling and pronunciation. So English is not a phonetic language. Therefore the spelling does not represent the pronunciation of a sound or a word. So what we're going to do today is we're going to tackle the places where it clashes in your brain, like where you get confused. And that happens usually either when it comes to homophones or heterographs. And that is when words are spelled differently but pronounced the same, like flower versus flower. And in the next lesson, because it's a two part video series, we're going to talk about homographs. That means the words are spelled the same but pronounced differently, like tear versus tear. Right. So what's going to happen is that we're going to cover a bunch of pairs that are very commonly used and we want to make sure that we clear all confusion around them. So let's begin with part one. Words that are spelled differently but pronounced the same. The first one is flower. Both are pronounced exactly the same. Flower. You move from the W to the R. Were. Flower. It's both for oh, what a beautiful flower. Or this cake doesn't have any flour in it. Flour. Then we have here, it's an H sound. Then a high e. He. And then you shift to the R here. Make sure the E is long enough. Here it's both for I can hear you pretty well and I'm right here. Here. Then we have sun. It's an S sound. A cup. It's like a stressed schwa and an N sound. Sun. Make sure you lift the tip of the tongue to touch the upper palate for the N. Sun. Sun. And it's both for the sun in the sky. Or. Or my son doesn't like to wake up in the morning. Next, up there. These three words are homophones pronounced exactly the same. A th sound, then an e. So drop your jaw a little bit. And then at the end you bring the tongue up for the R. There. There. All three words are pronounced the same. It's over there. It's their house. They're pretty satisfied about it. They're pretty satisfied about it. There they are. They're pretty satisfied about it. This is a contraction. And by the way, I have a full video about contractions that you can watch. I'm going to put a link in the show. Notes for it there. Right. And right. I actually get a lot of questions about this pair and people ask me how to pronounce the right write. Right. I need to write a book in comparison to my right arm. Right? So here they're pronounced exactly the same. It's an R sound. You don't really hear the W when it's before an R. It doesn't really exist. Right? So round your lips for the R, change it to an I as in my R and bring the tongue up for a T sound at the end. Right. You can release the T, Right. Very lightly or hold it right. For a held T, just stop the breath abruptly or stop the sound. Right. And that's the T. Right. I need to write a book or write an article. And it's on your right. Road versus road. As you can see, they're pronounced the same. Another R word round your lips. Then it's the O as in go road and finish it up with a D. I'm on the road and I rode my bike yesterday. Road. Then we have this one. Horse. Horse. So here we start with an H sound, then the or, as in for horse. Make sure you pronounce the H. Horse. I'm sure you know the meaning of the first one. Horse. Horse. Like I rode my horse yesterday in the farm. So I don't just ride my bike, I also ride horses. Horse. The other one means that I strain my voice. My voice gets all raspy and tired. It's when you have a cold and your voice gets hoarse. Hoarse. Okay. So I spoke all day yesterday in a meeting, and now my voice is horse. They're pronounced exactly the same. It's kind of funny. Soul. Soul. I'm the sole owner of the company. Soul. Or you have a beautiful soul. Soul. Here we start with an S sound. Then it's the O as in go. So. And a dark L at the end. So. So you have that back, dark, deep voice quality sound quality to it. So soul. The next one, war. These two words are also pronounced the same. War. Here you start with the W sound. Then again we have the or as in for war. Make sure you drop the tongue after the W so it doesn't sound like were were. Right. War. War. So the first meaning is war as in make love, not war. And the second one is the past form of the word wear. The verb wear to wear something. So I wore this sweater last night as well. Or I wore it out completely. Wore. See. I see the sea. See as in the verb. And see is where you go to get in the water. See, it's an S sound. And high E. Make sure it's long so it's not C. See, see, see. And the last one for today is two, two and two. So we have the number two. I need two people to help me. Two. It's a T sound, then the long oo sound. And you want to imagine if you're adding a W at the end. Two. Also the word two as in as well. I need two people. Two, two, pronounced exactly the same. Then we have to as in to go. But you already know because you've been following my videos, that the word to is usually reduced to t to go. However, when it's at the end of the word or when the word is stressed, it is pronounced like the number two. Two. I don't know where I need to go to. To. To. Right. I don't know where I need to go to. If the to is at the end, it is not going to be reduced. Listen, I don't know where I need to go to. I mean, no. Okay, so you want to pronounce it fully like the number two. That's when it's a homophone. That's when it's pronounced the same, but other than that, it can be dropped to T and then it doesn't sound the same. Okay, okay, that's it. Now let me know what other homophones are you familiar with again? Homophones are words that are written differently or spelled differently, but pronounced exactly the same. Put them in the comments below and let's all practice together and see if you got them right. Don't forget to tune in next week, because next week I'm going to talk about words that are spelled the same but pronounced different, differently. And this might be even more challenging because you might not even know that they're pronounced differently. So we want to tackle that confusion as well. So make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel or to my newsletter to get this lesson into your inbox and other fun stuff every single week. So that's it. So I'm waiting to hear from you in the comments and like this video and share it if you liked it, and I will see you in the second part next week. Bye.