Teaching Tips Archive

Homonyms

2009-07-13

English is a difficult language to master. Just one of the things that make it difficult is that two words may be spelled the same, but may be pronounced differently, and have different meanings. Teach your students to take the pronunciation and context into account when using words.

Here are some examples you can start with. Your students will enjoy them, and you should have no difficulty adding more.

The medical insurance was invalid for the invalid.
He realized that there was no time like the present to present his idea.
He wound the bandage around the wound.
You can eat the rest of the pizza after you rest for awhile.
The gum stuck to his lower gum.
The pitcher drank an entire pitcher of ice tea when the baseball game ended.
She turned left when she left her house.
As he searched for it, he finally saw the saw at the back of the tool shed.

Here's a tricky one:

The farm used to produce produce.

Here's a really challenging one:

When I told him that his score was below the mean for the class, I didn't mean to be mean.