20130817: Homonyms, part 2

More Examples

1. pair, pare, pear
1. pair--a set of two, as in "Hm, need a pair of socks."
2. pair--to assign a task with one other person, as in "They were paired as the leads in the new movie."
3. pare--decrease, lessen, as in "He pared down his staff."
4. pare--to remove the outer covering or skin of with a knife or similar instrument, as in "I'll pare the apples first."
5. pear--bottom heavy fruit, as in "I'll have the pear and clotted cream."
6. pere--French noun; in English, father.  "Voila, mon pere."


2. peak, peek, pique
1. peak--mountain top or other local maximum, as in "Let's keep climbing until we reach the peak."
2. peak--to reach a peak, as in "I think audience interest in that show peaked in May."
3. peek--secret look, as in "You peeked at the Christmas presents, didn't you?"
4. peek--examine the next byte in a file content stream, without moving the file pointer, as in "Use the peek function, then test for EOF."
5. pique--ruffled pride, as in "In a fit of pique, I threw out your comic book collection."
6. pique--to excite, as in "The play piqued my interest in Moliere."


3. Pole, pole, poll
1. Pole--person from Poland, as in "I think his father was a Pole."
2. pole--a long stick, as in "I think we need a pole to get the Frisbee out of the tree."
3. poll--a sample on an issue, or an actual vote, as in "The NY Times poll indicated an even lower rating for the House."


4. praise, prays, preys
1. praise--to commend, as in "I came to seize the berry, not to praise it."
2. prays--worships religious object, as in "The monk prays three times a day."
3. preys--hunts, as in "The bat preys on the insects."


5. principal, principle
1. principal--(noun) head of school, as in "The principal had a few things to tell me in his office."
2. principal--(adjective) chief, as in "The principal reason for the change was lack of funds."
3. principle--fundamental doctrine or tenet, as in "To understand the Romans, I read about the principles of the Stoics."
4. principle--in essence or substance, as in "After some discussion, we agreed in principle."


6. cause, because, caws, Coz
1. cause--(noun) something or someone that produces an effect, result, or condition, as in "The high use of air condition was the cause of the brown out."
2. cause--(noun) a charitable undertaking, as in "...for a good cause."
3. cause--(verb) to produce an effect or condition, as in "The high winds caused some trees to fall."
4. because--(conjuction) similar to since, as in "They rested because they were tired."  This word is often pronounced, 'cos, which sounds exactly like the others here.
5. caws--The sounds were faint, but he heard the many caws of the crow.
6. Coz--surname.


7. sees, seize, seas
1. sees--(verb) present third person singular of 'to see' as in 'he sees the stars in the sky.'
2. seize--(verb) to steal something against the will of the previous owner, as in 'I saw the thug seize the woman's purse.'
3. seas (noun, plural) plural of sea, the body of water.
4. See's--name of a candy store chain, See's Candy.

20130817: Getting Started

Getting Started

1. aisle, isle, I'll
1. aisle--walkway separating seats, as in 'You will find your seats on the left side of the right aisle.'
2. isle---an island, as in 'Meet me on the Isle of Man.'
3. I'll--contraction for I will, as in "I'll do that tomorrow."


2. allowed, aloud
1. allowed--similar to permitted, as in 'Smoking is not allowed here.'
2. aloud---referring to the spoken word as opposed to the word kept in silent thought, as in 'Did I say that aloud?' This is more often replaced with 'out loud' these days.


3. bight, Bight, bite, byte
1. bight--the slack middle part of an extended rope
2. Bight--a wide indentation of a shoreline, or the body of water bounded by such a curve, as in the place names Great Australian Bight or the Bight of Benin
3. bite--a mouthful, as in 'that last bite of cantaloupe was sweet'
4. bite--verb, to cut into with teeth, as in 'bite into it'
5. byte--eight bits; unit of computer storage; also used with multiples, such as megabyte, kilobyte, terabyte.


4. rain, reign, rein
1. rain--liquid water precipitation, as in "I see the rain outside."
2. reign--sovereign rule, as in "That was during the reign of Queen Victoria."
3. rein--a horse's steering wheel, as in "Use the reins!"


5. rapped, rapt, wrapped
1. rapped--to knock sharply, as in "The UPS guy rapped on the door."
2. rapt---spellbound, as in "He had our rapt attention."
3. wrapped--encased in cloth or paper, as in "I'll be glad when all the presents are wrapped."


6. right, rite, wright, Wright, write
1. right--the opposite of left, as in 'Make a right turn here.'
2. right--correct, as in 'checking the tires was the right choice'
3. right--a legal fiction, such as 'the right of free speech'
4. rite--a ritual, as in the burial rites of a particular culture
5. wright--a maker, such as cart wright, wheel wright
6. Wright--surname, as in Wilbur and Orville Wright
7. write--to inscribe, to commemorate language, as in "I'll write a note on the stickie pad for you," or "I'll write a new blog entry on my site."


7. road, rode, rowed
1. road--street, as in 'keep your car on the road and you will get there'
2. rode--past tense of ride, as in 'we rode toward the mountains for hours'
3. rowed--past tense of row, as in 'we rowed upriver for two miles'


8. there, their, they're
1. there---introduces sentences, as in 'There are three people here.'
2. there---location, as in 'Go over there.'
3. their---possessive pronoun, as in 'Sam and Max finished their record.'
4. they're--contraction for 'they are', as in 'They're doing well today.'


9. to, too, two
1. to--the preposition, as in 'give that to me'
2. to--start of an infinitive, as in 'to be or not to be'
3. too--rather like also, as in 'I would like a coffee with that, too'
4. too--overly much, as in 'it is too loud in here'
5. two--cardinal number, as in 'just the two of us'


10. your, you're, yore
1. yore--the past, as in 'days of yore'
2. your--possessive pronoun for the second person, as in 'your car sounds like it has engine problems'
3. you're--contraction for the clause 'you are', as in "you're right about that"
4. --------------------------------------------
5. One of my all time favorite sentences in English is "Grammar is the difference between knowing your shit and knowing you're shit."  That difference is huge.


11. bear, bare
1. bear--noun: large mammalian quadruped.  Yogi Bear.  Brown bear, polar bear, grizzly bear.
2. bare--adjective, unadorned: that's the bare truth.
3. bear--verb, to withstand: they could not bear the stress.
4. bare--adjective, naked: Having not watched the weather forecast, they went out with bare heads into the ice storm.


12. Weak, week
1. Weak, adjective: lacking strength or effectiveness. That was a weak response. His arm was weak after the break healed.
2. Week, noun: seven days. A week had gone by. I will see you in a week.


13. vein, vain
1. vein, noun: one of the two types of blood vessels in mammals. Veins return blood to the heart and lungs to be re-charged with oxygen.
2. vain, adjective: not yielding the desired result; a vain attempt
3. vain, adjective: excessively proud. Conceited. A vain blowhard.