I should buy another one of these.

What?

Oh, hi. James from engVid.

I was just looking at my book, here, and it seems E has a question.

Let's go take a look.

So, what's that, E?

"I won the race?", "I one the race?" - you don't know the difference?

Do you know the difference?

Today we're going to work on homophones.

I'm going to explain what they are and give you some very common examples that you've

probably made mistakes with, but I'm going to help you today to clear them up.

You ready?

Let's go to the board.

Oh, I said "homophones", and I know there are some of you out there that are grammar

nerds, and you're going to say: "Oh, homophones, homograms, dah, dah."

I'm going to break it down and say: When we talk about "homo" it means the same; the same.

And in this case, a "homograph" is something that is written graphic.

It is written like a picture.

And when we say "homophone", I'm sure you have a cellphone, like, you know, cellphone.

We call it a "phone" because it's the sound.

With a cellphone, we deal with sounds; and with homographs we deal with what is written.

Today I really want to concentrate more on homophones, which are words that are going

to sound the same...

So, let's take a look: Homophones are words that sound the same, but they are different.

I forgot a period, here.

And an example would be "bare" and "bear".

Okay?

Or: "whether" and "weather".

And I've had many students ask me: What's the difference.

They go: "How do you pronounce it?

I...

I know it looks the same or almost the same."

And I say: "It sounds the same."

They go: "Why?

They mean vastly or very different things."

I go: "Yes, you're right, and I'm going to help you see the difference."

Now, the problem with a homophone, of course, is when you say it, you don't know how it's

spelt, and we use the spelling to tell us that it's a different meaning.

The secret to that is context, and I'll go through a couple of examples a little later

on and show what I mean by: If you listen to the context, you will have an idea of what

they mean.

As I said: homographs are words that are written the same, but have different meanings.

But because I'm not going to go into homographs right now, I'm not going to give you the examples.

I'm going to give you the examples for the homophones, here.

And if you notice, I have something that looks like a calculator or, you know, some buttons

you can press on a dial for a phone.

And I did that because, in some of these, we can use the homophones to show or illustrate

the difference.

So, let's do the first one, here.

"One" and "won".

If you noticed, E had a problem with: "I won the race?", "I one the race?"

To be honest, once again, it's a homophone; the sound is exactly the same, but the context

will tell us what the difference is.

"One" is clearly number one.

I have one friend - a number.

But when I won a race, because it's a competition, I can go: "Oh, it's 'won'."

That's our first homophone.

We did number one; let's look at number two.

Because I'm smart like that, I did "two" and "to".

In this case, "two", the number two - you know it?

Right?

One, two, three.

We have another "to", this one, here, which can be used both in an infinitive form and

a preposition.

Examples.

"I want to buy" is an infinitive form.

"We're going to the store".

Right?

We can use that as a preposition "to"...

"To" or "from", when we're using it like that.

And this one I like as well: "too", "t-o-o".

I say this is what we call there's too many o's or it's excessive in English.

Meaning that it's more than you want.

An example is: "It's too...

My coffee is too hot; I cannot drink it."

Cool?

All right.

That's the number "two".

Notice the homophone?

They all sound the same.

So, if you're going: "Well, why is he teaching us?"

It's just so you know, when you see these words, do not change how you say them; the

pronunciation is the same, but know when you're writing them or in the sentence you're saying

them...

Well, when you're writing it down, because that's what we're really looking at - it should

be written differently for different instances.

This is for the number, this is for the preposition or infinitive, and this is for excessive - when

something's too much.

"This costs too much money; more than I want to pay."

Cool?

Now let's go to number three: "your" and "you're".

These are different.

I know a lot of students have a problem; they go: "Teacher, it's the same."

Well, this is possessive.

This is a possessive pronoun: "Your car".

All right?

"Your house".

Well, when we're looking at this, this is a contraction for "you are".

"You're looking good today.

You're a nice guy."

Okay?

So, we've got a possessive and a contraction, here.

Different.

In this case: "brake" and "break".

Some of you may not know what this means, so I'll explain it.

"Brake".

In your car, you have a brake, which is you press the gas - you're driving; and to slow

the car down, you put your foot on the other one - the other pedal, which is a brake.

So, if you have a pedal...

I don't know if you can see my foot.

I'm pushing...

Pushing the brake.

Think Flintstones.

You're running your car, and then you need to stop - you put your foot down.

"Ennh!"

You put on the brakes.

That means to stop.

While this one, "to break" is like: I broke it.

You can break an arm, break a glass, break a leg - if you're in the movie industry.

Okay?

So, they sound the same, once again, but they're written different...

Differently, so you have to listen to the context.

"Did you break the glass?", "Put on the brakes.

We're driving too fast."

Number three.

Oh, sorry, that was number six.

I'm jumping around, because I'm all over the board.

But let's go to number four: "bear" and "bare".

"The bear is in the woods today - doo-doo-doo-doo-doo.

Arrr!

Bear."

If you speak English and you're wondering about this lesson - I know, but hopefully

that makes you smile because that's, like, an old-time memory of yours.

All right?

Okay.

So, "bear".

Bear is in the woods; it's an animal.

Now, "bare", like my arms.

"Ooo.

Rown, rown", means nothing is there; nothing is on it.

An example: If you go to the refrigerator and there is no food in your refrigerator,

your refrigerator is bare; it's empty - nothing is there.

When I go in the shower, I go bare naked; I have no clothes on.

Don't even think about it.

Stop thinking about me naked.

Actually, that might make you sick.

You should stop immediately.

But that's "bear" and "bare" sound exactly the same, but context makes them different.

Okay?

Now, let's go over here, I'll go to five.

Finally, number five: "weather" and "whether".

"Weather", is it sunny?

Is it raining?

"Whether": Whether you like it or not.

Think of "if".

That's not the best example, I'm not going to go into a long explanation for "whether",

here, but you can liken it...

Or, sorry.

You can think it's similar to the word "if".

"If you like it or not.

Whether you like it or not, we're going..."

Sorry.

"Whether you like it or not, we're going to go."

All right?

"Whether I speak too quickly or not, you still have to learn this lesson."

That's why I said sorry; I was going too fast.

But in this case, as I said, context will help you.

It doesn't matter if you say: "The weather is nice" or "Whether he helped you or not"

- I doesn't matter.

But when you write it down...

Remember we talked about homographs, like when you write something down - that's when

it matters because some people will get these confused, and actually there are English people

who write "weather" like this on paper, because they actually don't know that this "whether"

is the correct one.

Don't be one of those people.

"Its" and "it's".

Yeah, I can understand why that's tough, because in this case, they almost look exactly the

same, so you're going: "What's the difference?"

Well, this one: "its" is a pronoun showing possession, like: "Its.

Its.

Its house."

It's talking about, let's say an animal or thing - it belongs to them.

Well, this is a contraction for "it is".

They are not the same at all, so be careful when you're writing or even when you're reading

it.

In this case, when you're reading it, you can clearly see that each one of these words

is very different, but this one is so close you might make the mistake of thinking it's

the same when they are not.

Okay?

This is the contraction for: "It is something.

It is happy."

While, it's: "Its coat", referring to an object.

All right?

And it belongs that object.

Are we okay?

That's, like, similar to the word we have with "your", up here.

Okay?

It's possessive.

Don't confuse it.

Ah, and speaking of possessives and thinking of confusing words: "their", "they're", "there".

If you read British novels, you'll hear them go: "There, there.

There, there, there, now.

Be good.

There, there."

No, they're not saying: "Their, they're, there" because they're confused which one to read;

it's older English.

But we do have a problem, here, because "their" means "belong to": "Their house.

Their coat.

Their country.

Their car".

"They're" here, even though it's strange.

We say: "They're" very quickly - it's a contraction for: "They are".

"They are happy.

They are moving."

But they sound the same, but they're not.

It's not possessive; it's: "They are", similar to what we're doing here.

And then there's this word: "Here or there".

You're going to say: "James, did you say 'there'?"

I'm like: Depends.

Listen to the context of the sentence.

"I haven't lived there in 20 years".

"They're a nice couple.

We went to dinner with them last week".

"Their house is nice."

Context tells you the difference; the sound will not.

Cool?

All right.

So, now I'm going to do my final one, which I like a lot.

Well, I don't.

It reminds me of my principal from high school, is: "principal" and "principle".

In North America, we have the person who's in charge of a high school or a public school,

we call the principal.

I hated my principal in high school, and...

I'm actually just joking.

But I thought: Mrs. Sigagne, if you're still alive, you were the best vice principal ever.

We use this word for "principal", like this.

Now, if you have moral rules that you follow, we talk about this one: "principle".

"Don't you have any principles?"

And that's, like, moral laws, like: "Always tell the truth.