English words spelled (spelt) differently but said the same

As you study English, you come across many English words that are spelled differently, but said the same. These are English homophones.

In this blog, I’m not going to go through them all – there are too many!! But, what I would like to do is go through some common homophones that students of English can often get confused.

I will include an audio lesson below so you can hear them, and this gives you more English pronunciation practise at the same time!

Audio Training lesson

Common Homophones that are tricky

One homophone that often comes up when I work with people is the pair of words ‘where’ and ‘wear’. These two words are pronounced the same in the standard American, British and Australian accents.

Some more homophones people get confused with are:

pare, pair, pear

son, sun

sew, so, sow

rain, reign

wait, weight

I’ll, aisle, isle

there, their, they’re

allowed, aloud

berry, bury

ceiling, sealing

crews, cruise

flew, flu

morning, mourning

threw, through

You’ll find more homophones here.

If I haven’t covered the words that are tricky for you, and you need some help, please make sure to put them in the comment box below and I will answer you.

When you finish practising these homophones, you might like to practise how to say 11 tricky English words correctly as well.

Best wishes, Esther