These are glasses and these are also glasses. Someone told me that these are also called
glasses and these are also called glasses. You know there are more words like that in
English? Which have same pronunciation sometimes but they always have the same spelling and
different meanings, how will you know which word means what? Don’t worry I’m here,
my name is Michelle and I'm going to help you learn homonyms in English, so stay tune
with me for new homonyms that you're learning today.
So we have some sentences here on the
board and you have a task today in this lesson, you'll have to find out which words have the
same spelling, it's not a very difficult task, isn't it? So all let's look at the first sentence
so which two words have the same spelling in this sentence? Of course these two words,
right? But they have different meanings and also different pronunciations. Let me speak
out the sentence for you, “the bandage was wound around the wound” I pronounce this
word as it is written wound, but this one is pronounced as wound. So what do we mean
by the word, ‘wound’? Have you heard of the word ‘wind’, which is a verb, wind
means to tie something around something, to wind something… this is simply a past tense
or a past participle for the verb ‘wind’, for the verb wind. And a wound as you would
know or if you don't know then a wound is an injury or maybe a cut that you have somewhere
on your body whenever you get hurt. So ‘wound’ is an injury, right, and wound is also a noun.
So as you can see that, this one here is a verb and this one is a noun but they have
same spelling but different meanings and also different pronunciations, so be careful with
their use, do not mix them up. Let's read the next sentence, first find out the words
that have the same spelling, you may have already done that, these two words so, “he
could lead, if he would get the lead out”, what does that mean? So you might have heard
of the word ‘lead’, this is a verb again. So lead means to show someone the way or to
guide someone. So my friend Marc, he could lead but only if he would get the lead out…
but what is lead? So a lead is a heavy metal, it's actually the heaviest metal and it is
a noun and we pronounce this word as /l-e-d/ and this one as, /l-e-e-d/ so this is pronounced
as lead, he could lead if he would get the lead out, this means that he could lead us
if he could be a bit more faster, if he could get the metal out of his body and get faster
he could lead all of us, so “to get the lead out” is a phrasal verb. Right, so let's
look at the next sentence that we have, “the soldier decided to desert his dessert in the
desert” or that's almost like a tongue twister, isn't it? Let's look at these two words, so
in this sentence the homonyms are these two and not this one because it has a different
spelling, so let's not get into this one right now but otherwise dessert is basically a sweet
dish or you know sweet item that you eat. So let's look at the first one, “the soldier
decided to desert…” we are stressing this word on the second syllable we're pronouncing
it as /di-zert/ ‘desert’ means to leave something so when you have a duty to fulfill
and you do not fulfill it, that's when you desert it. So if a husband leaves his wife,
he's deserting her or abandoning her, it means same as abandoning. ‘The soldier decided
to desert his dessert in the desert’. So this one is pronounced differently, here the
stress is on the first syllable we do not call it /di-zert/ we call it /de-zert/ and
desert is a noun. Desert is a very common word an arid area where there is no water
and there's a lot of sand, I didn't need to explain that though. So we have a verb here
and a noun there. Same spelling but different meaning and different pronunciation because
we are stressing at different syllables. Let's look at the fourth sentence, “since there
is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present”. So ‘no
time like the present’ with the stress on the first syllable, present means the time
that is going on right now and it's a noun, time that is going on, and he thought it was
time to present the present, so present, what do we mean by present? Present means to offer
something to somebody. But here the stress is on the second syllable, ‘he thought it
was time to present the present’ and this present actually means a gift, a wrapped gift
that you would like to offer to someone. A gift and this is also a noun. But to present
something which means to offer something is actually a verb. Right. Now we move on to
the next sentence that we have, “I did not object to the object” as you can hear I
pronounced them differently because of the word stress, I repeat myself, “I did not
object to the object”. So the stress here is on the second syllable ‘I did not object…’
Object means to disagree with something. Let's find out what I did not disagree with, I did
not disagree or ‘I did not object to the object’, so object could be anything that
you can see or touch, like a marker or a chair if you do not object to an object this means
you are agreeing with it or you like it, to the object, this is a noun. So to disagree
with something is obviously a verb but to… but an object that you can see or touch is
a noun and it stressed on the first syllable. The next sentence that we have, “the insurance
was invalid for the invalid.” I'll repeat, ‘the insurance was invalid for the invalid’,
so here I stress on the syllable in the middle invalid. So invalid is something which is
not applicable anymore, not applicable. Who do you think insurance will not apply to?
I believe to a person who is very, very sick, so a person who is sick is called an ‘invalid’
with the stress on the first syllable, ‘a sick person’ and this is a noun and this
is an adjective. So /in-VA-lid/ and /IN-v-lid/. The next sentence that we have is, “there
was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.” So there was a ‘row’, this word is a noun
but what does it mean to have a row? ‘To have a row’ means ‘to have a quarrel’
or a disagreement with someone. So if you have a verbal disagreement or an argument
with someone that is, ‘having a row’. To have a quarrel. So there was a quarrel
among the oarsmen…, oarsmen are people who row the boat, okay? And they were having a
disagreement about how to row, this is also same as this row, but it does not mean the
same thing. To row means to propel the boat or to move the boat. To move the boat in the
water using propellers. And to move the boat is of course a verb and this one is a noun
which means to have a quarrel. But be careful this one has the same pronunciation, both
of them. So you need to be utterly careful because their same pronunciation, same spelling,
but different meanings. Now we look at the next sentence that we have, “they were too
close to close the door.” So the first one ‘too close’, when someone is too close
to you it means they're very near to you, in space, someone is standing next to you
means they're very close to you, very near. So this marker is too close to me, it's very
near to me, this is an adjective. Something which is close to you it's an adjective. But
‘they were too close to close the door’ so if someone is just standing next to the
door, maybe they are not able to close the door. So this close means to shut the door
which is now a verb. So again it's time to be very careful because ‘close’, ‘close’
have same pronunciation, same spelling but entirely different meanings. Right, so the
next sentence that we have is, “the buck does funny things when the does are present.”
You must have guessed which words are we talking about ‘does’ and ‘does’. You might
be thinking what are ‘does’, but to tell you that I'll first tell you what a ‘buck’
is, so a buck is a ‘male deer’ or an antelope and ‘does’ is a female deer but in plural
they are called ‘does’. Female deer and of course deer is a noun. And this one here
the ‘buck does…’ does is the second person for ‘do’ as you would know, for
the verb ‘do’. So you know when you read the sentence you might be really confused,
but you can obviously understand when I pronounce it, that this is /du-z/ and this is /do-s/.
Let's look at the last sentence that we have, “upon seeing, the tear in the painting,
I shed a tear.” So I'm pronouncing these two words very differently. This is a very
common mistake we end up pronouncing both of these words in the same manner, but they're
pronounced differently. ‘Upon seeing the tear, /t-a-i-r/ is how I would pronounce it,
but I'd write it of course like that. So ‘upon seeing the tear in the painting…’ tear
is when something is cut into parts or something is you know there's a cut in the painting
that's when I say ‘tear’ and it is a verb. So ‘upon seeing a tear in the painting’
I was so sad that ‘I shed a tear’, ‘tear’ is like obviously you know what it tears and
you're crying, or when you’re sad, there’s water floating out of your eyes. So I would
pronounce this as /t-e-e-r/, so /t-a-i-r/ and /t-e-e-r/, this one being a noun and this
one being a verb, yeah, already written that for you. So you've seen all these sentences
and you've learned a lot of homonyms, these are the words you need to be very careful
about when you're speaking, reading or writing or maybe even listening… some areas of frequent
errors by native speakers, non-native speakers almost everyone. So I hope this is really
helpful for you, come back for more lessons with me, bye-bye