Learning English

Same sound, different spelling

English has quite a few words that sound the same, but which have different spellings and meanings.

It's / its

Their / there / they're

Your / you're

It's over there.
Their cat had left its toys in the washing machine.
You're right, your train doesn't leave until 11.00.

These words are called homophones. Here are a few more examples:

allowed / aloud

break / brake

cell / sell

hear / here

no / know

right / write

sea / see

steel / steal

weight / wait

which / witch

whole / hole

Read the text and complete the activity

A tip for remembering which spelling is which

Look at the letters that are different, can you think of a connection between the meaning of the word and the different letter? For example:

Cell and sell: Sell is something that happens in a shop. Shop begins with S, that can help you remember that sell begins with s.

Hear and here: Hear is what you do with your ears. That can help you remember that when you mean hear with your ears the spelling is h - e - a - r.

Allowed and aloud: Something that is aloud, makes a sound. So use that to help you remember that the word aloud has ou in, just like sound.

Can you think of other examples to help you remember the homophones in the list? 

To do

Here's a quiz to help you practise some of the homophones in the list.

End of Session 1

How did you do? Don't worry if you made a few mistakes. It takes time to get good at spelling. In the next session we leave the topic of spelling and move on to look at some phrasal verbs. Now, that is something to look forward to, isn't it?