Chapter 9 page 1

THE AMERICAN ENGLISH EXPRESS Chapter 9 page 1

Dangerous Homonyms & Useful Vocabulary Words

Or how to express yourself better

Homonyms, remember, are words that sound the same but mean

different things, such as:

‘Brake’ which is a ‘restraint’ (as in the ‘brake pedal’ that stops the car) and

‘Break’ which has many meanings, including ‘to destroy’ or ‘to smash’.

‘One’, which means ‘single’ or individual’ or the quantity ‘1’

and

‘Won’, the past tense of the verb to ‘win’, which means to ‘succeed’.

Listed below are some of the common homonyms and other words that sound so similar that often students become confused. As I stated earlier, homonyms are particularly dangerous for those of you who have learned your vocabulary chiefly through listening to others speak.

As we have gone along, I have pointed out some of these very confusing words. I will now list them so that it is convenient for you to refer to them as you practice your reading and writing skills:

DO NOT MAKE THE MISTAKE OF USING

ONE HOMONYM INSTEAD OF ANOTHER!

In most instances this is a sure sign to a teacher that the individual has a very limited vocabulary and poor command of English

Dangerous Homonyms A to Z

and other words that sound similar and are easily confused

A. There/ their/ they’re: one of the most dangerous of English homonyms.

Many students continue to make this academically horrible mistake, whether English is their first language or not, whether they graduated from an American high school or have even spoken English all their lives.

· ‘There’ means ‘present’, ‘in attendance’, ‘at hand’, ‘near’, or ‘nearby.

This word has to do with space and time, and is used in many expressions, such as:

‘There are’, ‘There is’, ‘There was’, ‘There were’,

‘Over there’, ‘There and back again’,

and

‘There is more than one way to skin a cat.’

(an American idiom, meaning that there is more than one way to do things –

see Chapter X for more about American idioms.)

You will never use the homonym ‘their’ in this way.

This is one of those times when I must repeat myself as loudly as possible:

DO NOT MAKE THE MISTAKE OF CONFUSING ‘THEIR’ AND ‘THERE’ IN FORMAL WRITING!

· ‘Their’ is a plural possessive pronoun and means ‘belonging to them’.

Thus, you will never read or write the following expressions:

‘Their is’ or ‘Their was’, etc.

· The last of these three homonyms is the contraction ‘they’re’.

‘They’re’ means ‘they are’. It never means anything else. It is the combination of the plural pronoun “they” and “are”, the third person plural of the verb ‘to be’.

When considering contractions, remember that they are acceptable ONLY if you use them correctly. The best advice I can give is not to use contractions UNLESS you are absolutely sure that you are using the form of the word properly.

In general, you cannot make such a mistake if you do not use contractions.

B. ITS/ IT’S: Another homonym using a contraction is the word “its” or “it’s”

· “It’s” is a contraction for ‘it is’, as in the sentence:

“It’s about time that student came to class and participated in the discussions.”

“It is about time that student came to class and participated in the discussions.”

· “Its” is a possessive meaning, ‘belonging to it’, as in the sentence:

“The cover is loose, its fastenings have broken.”

This sentence can be re-written either of the following two ways without changing the meaning at all:

‘The cover is loose because the cover’s fastenings have broken.’

‘The cover is loose because the fastenings of the cover have broken.’

C. To, Two, Too: We have already discussed the word ‘too’ and that it should NEVER BE USED in formal writing.

· ‘Too’ is informal for ‘and’ or ‘very’, as noted in the last chapter.

· ‘To” is a preposition used with the infinitive form of every verb in English, as in, ‘to understand’, ‘to know’, ‘to comprehend’, ‘to exist’, or ‘to learn.’

· “To’ is also a preposition indicating direction and means ‘in the direction of’, 'toward', and ‘on the way to', as in the sentence:

“On the way to school, the student read the chapter assigned for the day.”

You will need to use this word almost constantly.

· ‘Two’ means the quantity (number) ‘2’ and nothing else, as in the sentence:

“Those two students are the best in the class because they always study and complete their assignments.”