Lovers of the English language enjoy this...

[New World Explorer]

It is an example of why people learning English have so much trouble.  Learning the nuances of English makes it a difficult language.   ..... This two-letter word in English has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that word is 'UP.'   It is listed in the dictionary as an [adv], [prep], [adj], [n] or [v]. It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP, and why are the officers UP for election.Why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report? We call UP our friends, brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, warm  UP the leftovers an d clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and  fix UP the old car. At other times this little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses... To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is  special! And this UP is confusing:  A drain must be opened UP because it is blocked UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UP about the word UP ! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look UP the word UPin the dictionary..  In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4 of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions If you are UP  to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UPis used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding  UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, the earth soaks it UP .. When it does not rain for awhile, things dry UP. One could go on & on, but I'll wrap this UP for now because my time is UP ....

[Friends just call me Ross]

Homonyms/homophones

also contribute to the difficulty--not to mention the confusion.

Quote

ad/add
allowed/aloud
ant/aunt
ate/eight
ball/bawl
band/banned
bear/bare
be/bee
billed/build
blew/blue
board/bored
boy/buoy
brake/break
by/bye/buy
beach/beech
bolder/boulder
bread/bred
brouse/brows
capital/capitol
caret/carrot/carat/karat
cell/sell
cent/scent/sent
census/senses
cereal/serial
chews/choose
choral/coral
chute/shoot
clothes/close
colonel/kernel
creak/creek
crews/cruise
cymbal/symbol
days/daze
dear/deer
dew/do/due
die/dye
disc/disk
discreet/discrete
discussed/disgust
doe/dough
doughs/doze
earn/urn
ewe/you
eye/I
fare/fair
feat/feet
find/fined
fir/fur
flea/flee
flew/flu/flue
flower/flour
for/four/fore
forth/fourth
foul/fowl
frees/freeze
gneiss/nice
gnu/knew/new
gored/gourd
gorilla/guerrilla
grays/graze
grate/great
guessed/guest
gym/Jim
hale/hail
hall/haul
hare/hair
heal/heel/he'll
heard/herd
hew/hue
hi/high
higher/hire
him/hymm
hair/hare
hoarse/horse
hole/whole
hour/our
idle/idol
idle/idol/idyl
in/inn
incite/insight
its/it's
jam/jamb
jeans/genes
knead/need/kneed
knight/night
knows/nose/no's
lead/led
leased/least
lessen/lesson
lie/lye
links/lynx
load/lode/lowed
loan/lone
locks/lox
loot/lute
maid/made
mail/male
maize/maze
meet/meat
medal/meddle
mince/mints
miner/minor
missed/mist
mooed/mood
morning/mourning
muscle/mussel
mussed/must
nays/neighs
no/know
none/nun
nose/knows/no's
not/knot/naught
one/won
or/oar/ore
overdo/overdue
paced/paste
pail/pale
pain/pane
pair/pare/pear
pain/pane
passed/past
patience/patients
pause/paws
peace/piece
peak/peek/pique
peal/peel
pedal/peddle
peer/pier
pi/pie
plain/plane
plum/plumb
praise/prays/preys
presence/presents
principal/principle
prince/prints
quarts/quartz
quince/quints
rain/reign/rein
raise/rays/raze
rap/wrap
read/reed
read/red
real/reel
reek/wreak
rest/wrest
review/revue
right/rite/write
ring/wring
road/rode/rowed
roe/row
role/roll
root/route
rose/rows
rote/wrote
roux/rue
rye/wry
sacks/sax
sail/sale
sawed/sod
scene/seen
sea/see
seam/seem
seas/sees/seize
serf/surf
serge/surge
sew/so/sow
shoe/shoo
side/sighed
sighs/size
sign/sine
sight/site/cite
slay/sleigh
soar/sore
soared/sword
sole/soul
son/sun
some/sum
spade/spayed
staid/stayed
stair/stare
stake/steak
stationary/stationery
steal/steel
straight/strait
suede/swayed
summary/summery
sundae/Sunday
tacks/tax
tail/tale
taut/taught
tea/tee
teas/tease/tees
tents/tense
tern/turn
there/their/they're
threw/through
throne/thrown
thyme/time
tide/tied
tighten/titan
to/too/two
toad/toed/towed
toe/tow
told/tolled
tracked/tract
trussed/trust
use/ewes
vein/vane
verses/versus
vial/vile
vice/vise
wade/weighed
wail/whale
waist/waste
wait/weight
waive/wave
Wales/whales
war/wore
ware/wear/where
warn/worn
wax/whacks
way/weigh/whey
we/wee
weather/whether
we'd/weed
weld/welled
we'll/wheel
wen/when
we've/weave
weak/week
which/witch
whirled/world
whirred/word
whine/wine
whoa/woe
who's/whose
wood/would
worst/wurst
yoke/yolk
you'll/yule
your/you're/yore

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/english/homonyms/

 

[campanula]

Yeah, speak Russian, friends!  It's easy. 

 

[carlos]

6 hours ago, Friends just call me Ross said:

Homonyms/homophones

also contribute to the difficulty--not to mention the confusion.

 

I understand that those may cause doubts when spelling them, but in most cases they shouldn't cause confusion. I mean, for example, ad/add. 'Ad' is a noun while 'to add' is a verb. They are always used differently, there should never be a doubt if you mean one or the other.

 

Now when there are homophones that are both nouns or verbs or adjectives, they do create ambiguity.

[Guri]

6 hours ago, campanula said:

Yeah, speak Russian, friends!  It's easy. 

 

Pravilno.  

[Raven]

7 hours ago, Friends just call me Ross said:

Homonyms/homophones

also contribute to the difficulty--not to mention the confusion.

 

Didn't look thru all of them, but noticed you put "ant" with "aunt". That is only a problem for specific dialects.

[Raven]

Would diacritics help?

[thebluebaron]

I read the list and thought that some of the word pairings weren't that difficult to spot the pronunciation difference.

[Antz12]

We loved this list! We had so much fun with it. Cause we just had the same come home with our daughter as homework!

Of course we too have different pronunciations in our home over the vowels "a" & "e" so we had....
Dare/deer/dear as well as bare/beer/bear. This then lead to the discussion of
Heir/air/ear - all depends on what latitude you were born on .



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