Wanna date for a date?

Today’s English
July 1st, 2017

Each English word has three distinct features – spelling, pronunciation and meaning. What traps the learners of English is the way in which any two features aforementioned differ from the other one while comparing with other words.

1. Homonyms : same spelling, same pronunciation but different meaning.

A. Give me a date to meet the manager.
Give me a date to understand each other better.
(Date in the second example refers to a romantic meeting with a boyfriend/girlfriend)

B. He rose from the chair.
He took the rose from the table.
( first rose is the past tense of rise, second rose, the flower)

2. Homophones: same pronunciation but different spelling and meaning

A. He knows my name.
He kept his nose clean.
(Homo = same, phone = sound, nose -knows)

B. She is fair, isn’t it?
What’s the taxi fare?
(Here the homophones are fair and fare, meaning beautiful and travelling charge respectively)

3. Homographs: same spelling but different pronunciation and meaning

A. Wait for a minute.
Do you want everything in minute details?
( minute in the first example is pronounced as “minit” but the same word in the second example is pronounced “mynuoot” and means “thorough”)

B. The wind blows here gently.
Let’s wind up the class by 4 O' clock.
(In the second example, wind is pronounced as waind and means “to stop /cancel from further happening)

Note: There are thousands of words which fall into these categories-  homonyms, homophones and  homographs. One can simply browse on the Net to net them quickly.

Relax yourself! Do you find any difficulty to grasp the following?

1. Is it right to turn right?
Yes, if you go left, you will be left in danger.

2. Can you tell me the date you went on a date with her.

3. She is always engaged ever since she is engaged to Mr. Sunil

4. Be a bee and be busy.

5. Students are often bored of preparing for the Board Exam.

6. By the by, buy quality and durable products sold by dealers.

7. Check whether there is any error in the cheque.

8. My wife is my dear deer and why should I go after another deer?

9. I have eye problem.

10. Do you hear what I say here?

11. These lawyers knew new hole in the whole law.

12. I too have two doubts.

13. I know, you know no ways to solve this problem.

14. Our hour is ours and why do you want that?

15. See how the sea is beautiful.

16. Do you sell cell for clock?

17. He was growing weak every week.

18. They sent me Arabian scent.

19. You can watch this live programme wherever you live.

20. She wound the bandage around his heel to heal the wound.