995: Homophones Aug 30, 2017

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There are some homophones in English that are spelt differently, such as 'your' and 'you re', ''they're', 'their', and 'there', 'two', 'too', and 'to', or 'due', 'do, and 'dew', as well as many more that are spelt the same but still have different origins—called 'homographs'—such as 'limbo' referring to a dance and a synonym for 'purgatory', as well as 'bear'. All of the homophones that are not homographs listed above still do contain all of the same consonants however, but this is not always the case. As spelling does have an element of arbitrariness, and because speakers pronounce individual sounds differently depending upon the sounds that precede and follow them. Some words like 'disgust' and 'discussed' are indistinguishable, as are 'prints' and 'prince'. There will be more on this tomorrow, but if you think of any yourself, write it in the comments.

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