--- title: Homophones: words that sound the same — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Homophones: words that sound the same», a lesson of the language course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Ava reads "The knight rode at night" and frowns: out loud the two words are twins, but on paper they wear different clothes, and th --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/27-homophones-words-that-sound-the-same/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Language](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/) / Homophones: words that sound the same # Homophones: words that sound the same Lesson 27 of the language course of Mova's primary school: 14 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/language/27-homophones-words-that-sound-the-same/). - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/27-homophones-words-that-sound-the-same/1/) — Ava reads "The knight rode at night" and frowns: out loud the two words are twins, but on paper they wear different clothes, and the meaning tells you which one to write. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/27-homophones-words-that-sound-the-same/2/) — Many homophones once sounded different, and spelling still remembers the old sounds; the k in "knight" was once said out loud. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/27-homophones-words-that-sound-the-same/3/) — Homophones also depend on accent: a pair that sounds the same in New York may sound different in London or Glasgow, and both accents are fine. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/27-homophones-words-that-sound-the-same/4/) — The trick for spelling is to think about meaning first, and to use little memory hooks, like "you hear with your ear, so heard has ear in it". - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/27-homophones-words-that-sound-the-same/5/) — Homophones are words with the same sound but a different meaning and often a different spelling: knight and night, sea and see, son and sun, write and right. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/27-homophones-words-that-sound-the-same/6/) — "Flour" and "flower" were once the same word; "flower" also meant the best part, and flour was the finest part of the ground grain; the spellings split only a few hundred years ago. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/27-homophones-words-that-sound-the-same/7/) — "Bear" means put up with, carry, or the animal; "bare" means uncovered or empty; "I can't bear it" means I can't stand it. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/27-homophones-words-that-sound-the-same/8/) — For most English speakers "which" and "witch" sound the same, but many speakers in Scotland and Ireland say "wh" with a breathy sound, so the two are different. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/27-homophones-words-that-sound-the-same/9/) — "Heard" is the past of hear; "herd" is a group of animals like cows; "heard" has "ear" in it. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/27-homophones-words-that-sound-the-same/10/) — "Write" (put down words), "right" (correct, or not left), "rite" (a ceremony) and "wright" (a maker, as in playwright) all sound the same. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/27-homophones-words-that-sound-the-same/11/) — In many American accents "Mary", "marry" and "merry" sound the same; in many British accents they are three different sounds. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/27-homophones-words-that-sound-the-same/12/) — "Buy" means pay for, "by" means near or through, and "bye" means goodbye. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/27-homophones-words-that-sound-the-same/13/) — "Prey" is an animal hunted for food; "pray" means speak to God or a god. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/27-homophones-words-that-sound-the-same/14/) — "Stationery" with an e means paper, pens and envelopes ("e for envelopes"); "stationary" with an a means standing still. - ← previous: [Phrasal verbs: get up, give up, make up](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/26-phrasal-verbs-get-up-give-up-make-up/) - next →: [Puns and jokes that need a pun](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/28-puns-and-jokes-that-need-a-pun/) - ↑ back to [Language](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/)