Hello and welcome to Introduction to Homonyms,
the video that teaches you about fun words that get easily confused.
Homonyms are words that sound the same, but are spelled differently
and have different meanings.
You already have come across many homonyms when you read.
Some examples of homonyms are "maid" and "made," "son" and "sun," "bare" and "bear."
These pairs of words all sound the same, but they look different.
And they have different meanings.
A trick to remember the spelling of homonyms is to create some fun ways to remember them.
Sometimes you can remember them through grammar rules and rhymes, sometimes through images,
and most times through logic, just as in these examples.
I'll show you what I mean by looking at some of the most commonly confused homonyms.
Let's start by looking at this trio, "They're, There, and Their."
They all sound exactly the same, but they have different meanings,
and are spelled very differently.
How will you know what's what?
If you remember our video on abbreviations,
you'll realize that "They're," is actually two words.
"they" and "are."
The letter, "a," is dropped, and is replaced by an apostrophy.
"They're" means "they are."
Here is a trick to remember the second one.
In this word, do you see the word "here?"
The opposite of "here" is "there."
And, that's this "there" right here.
That leaves us with one more.
"Their" is pronoun that means "belonging to them."
It's their car.
The car belongs to them.
It's their house.
The house belongs to them.
So, one is a contraction.
Another is the opposite of "here."
And the last one means belonging to them.
Easy enough to remember!
Let's look at "You're" and "Your."
It's another pair of homonyms which are easily confused.
Notice that the first one is a contraction.
Since a contraction is shortened words replaced by an apostrophy, what two words do you think
that "you're" stands for?
If you said, "you and are," then you are correct!
The second one then, must mean "belonging to you."
It is a pronoun.
This is your car.
The car belongs to you.
This is your house.
The house belongs to you.
Great!
Let's tackle another one.
Ready?
"Bye, Buy, and By."
The first "Bye" is the short form of "good-bye."
The second "Buy" is the kind that you do when you go shopping.
I like to remember it this way.
The U is like a wallet that holds my coins when I go shopping.
And finally, "By" is the one you use to mean it's from someone, or you pass something.
The final homonym we'll look at is, "Two, Too and To."
The first "Two" means "the number two."
Just like you'd say, "I have two fish."
The next one means, "also."
I have some fish too.
It also means "a lot."
My mom says I have too many fish.
The way I remember this one is that "Too" has too many O's.
Get it?
A lot of O's.
This last one is used in sentences like, "I am going to the pet shop."
Or, "I'd like to feed my fish."
I feel like I have too many things to remember!
Do you?
The best way to remember the spelling of homonyms is to create memory tricks for yourself.
There are a lot in this video, so if you get confused, be sure to rewatch it and review.
Then, practice using our fun games and quizzes on Always Icecream and Clever Dragons.
You'll find new homonyms there, but use your logic by looking at clues in the sentence.
Have fun!