Fix your spelling mistakes: 10 confusing words that sound the same

Do you know the difference between one and won? Whole and hole? Threw and through? These word pairs are pronounced exactly the same, but have different spellings and meanings. These sets of words are called homonyms, and I’m going to teach you 10 pairs of these words so that you can learn to spell them correctly. It’s also a great chance to learn new vocabulary through these example sentences. So, what is a homonym? Check out this lesson to find out. Take the quiz to make sure you know the correct spelling of these common words. TRANSCRIPT Hi. I’m Gill at , and today’s lesson is about what are called homonyms. And don’t worry about the change word. All it means is words which have the same sound, the same pronunciation, but there are different spellings of them, and the different spelling has a different meaning. Okay. So, I think there’s sometimes a bit of confusion about whether these words are actually pronounced differently, as well as being spelt differently. But the point about homonyms is they are pronounced exactly the same, and it’s only the spelling that’s different. Okay, so we have 10 little quizzes for you, here. So, the first one. I’ve put in a gap to give you a chance to think of the word and the spelling yourself. So, for this sentence, it should read: “There was a __________ in the road, and it took a __________ group of workmen to fix it.“ Okay, so for the word hole/whole, there are two different spellings. So, can you think what kind of hole/whole this is, the hole/whole in the road; and what kind of hole/whole this is, a hole/whole group of people? Okay. I’ll just give you a few seconds to think, and you might like to write it down if you have a pencil and paper handy. Okay, so a “hole“ in the road, meaning something that needs to be repaired is spelt like that, h-o-l-e. Okay? But a “whole“, meaning a total group of workmen is like this, only with a “w“ at the beginning, so: “whole“, and the pronunciation is exactly the same. Hole in the road, whole group of workmen. There’s no difference in how you say it. Okay, good. Right, second one: “Do you __________ where my phone is?“ And then somebody else replies: “I’m sorry, __________ I don’t.“ So: “Do you no/know?“ and “no/know I don’t“, so I’ll just give you a couple of seconds to think about the two different spellings of that. Okay. So: “Do you know where my phone is?“ Okay. K-n-o-w. Okay. That’s one of our famous silent letters, the “k“ at the beginning. So, k-n-o-w to “know“ something: -“Do you know where my phone is?“ -“I’m sorry, no“, just the negative “no“, n-o. So, you can see n-o is in the middle of k-n-o-w, and the negative there, no. Okay. Right, the third one: “Yesterday I __________ where I had put my __________ coat. Today I have forgotten.“ So, you can see I’m forgetting things, I’m losing things. I don’t usually. It’s just for the quiz, really. I try not to forget things, I try not to lose things, but it happens sometimes. Okay. So: “Yesterday I new/knew where I had put my new/knew coat. Today I have forgotten.“ Where is it? Oh, dear. So: “Yesterday I knew“, okay, so another one. It’s the past tense of “know“, “knew“, another silent “k“. “I knew where I put my new coat.“ The new coat, which I only bought a few days ago. Okay? So, again, those are the spellings, but the sound is exactly the same. Right. Next one: “I don’t know __________ I’m going to __________ this hat.“ So this word is wear/where in two different spellings. “I don’t know wear/where I’m going to wear/where this hat.“ Okay? So, that’s “where“, in what place, like the question word: Where? Where shall I wear...? Okay? “I don’t know where I’m going to...“ Okay, so that’s a slightly different... W-e-a-r. To “wear“, to put something on. “Where“ and “wear“. Okay, and then finally from this first five: “Can you wait __________ me, please? I shouldn’t be more than __________ minutes.“ “For/four“ and “for/four“. Okay? So, f-o-r: “...wait for me“, and then the number of minutes, we don’t just put the figure because that’s cheating, we put the word. Okay? “Four“ minutes, so f-o-u-r for the word. Okay, so I hope you’ve enjoyed that so far, and we will now move on to another five. Okay, our next five. So, the first one: “The boy __________ the ball __________ the window.“ Okay? So he must have broken the window doing that. “The boy threw/through the ball threw/through the window.“ Same pronunciation, different spelling. Can you think what the two are? Okay, so, “threw“, that’s the past tense of “to throw“, an irregular verb. So, to throw, he threw in the past. “The boy threw the ball threw/through the window.“ Oops. Quite a difficult spelling, that one. T-h-r-o-u-g-h. Okay. “...through the window.“ Right.