Mrs. Ruark

Perry Hall Middle School: Baltimore County Public Schools, MD

Homophones according to

I originally encountered them when I taught 6th grade Language Arts with Ms. Gerard. They were presented to students in an enrichment activity, but certainly plague people of all ages! Here are some visual ways to remember the correct spellings.

Press one of the buttons below to see an animation to help remember their spellings.

Submit your own homophones!

If I ever write a textbook, it would be called English is Mean.

Homonyms are: One of two or more words that have the same sound and often the same spelling but differ in meaning, such as bank (embankment) and bank (place where money is kept).

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

More problematic word sets:

• air heir 'ere
• hair hare
• read read (past tense) red
• 1 car 2 cars
• 1 fish 2 fish
• 1 mouse 2 mice
• 1 goose 2 geese
• 1 moose 2 moose

My daughter's Ebonics example: "He wants hims blankie," which follows from "If it belongs to her, it's hers. If it belongs to him, it's hims."

• Ebonics follows rules, and this one follows an unwritten, because it doesn't exist, rule.

Here are some things I learned how to do during the TIM²S sessions.

Maintained by K. Ruark. Updated 7/16/03.