It’s Hammer Time: Hammering Down Homophones

 

Have you ever asked yourself, “Hey, am I spelling that right?” Rest assured, you are not the only one mixing up the spelling of words.

Specifically, many people are guilty of interchanging two words that sound the same. These types of words even have their own word; they are called homophones, which is Greek for “same voice” or “same utterance.” This type of typo is all too common and the following are a few I have compiled to teach the proper tools.

First off, before we begin, I would like to quickly discuss contractions. Contractions are words that combine two words into one, replacing a dropped letter with an apostrophe. Commonly used contractions are “don’t,” “can’t,” or “didn’t.” In these cases, the apostrophe is taking the place of the “o” in “not.”

Keeping contractions in mind, one of the most popular misprints in writing is interchanging “your” with “you’re.” Let us start with the contraction. “You’re” stands for to words “you” and “are,” and standing in for the “a” in the latter is the apostrophe. On the flip side, “your” is a possessional word such as “Did I read your email right?” The email is your possession (while it may be in my possession).

Example: “You’re loving this article, now I see your smile.”

Moving along, “its” and “it’s” receives the same mistreatment. Remember right off the bat that “it’s” is two words: “it” and “is.” Similar to “your,” “its” also takes the possessional form: “its wording.” Therefore, you would never say, “Do you see ‘its’ the wrong word?” You would say, “It’s totally the wrong word.”

Maybe you can guess where we are going now. Last ones, I promise. While “who’s” is the combination of “who” and “is,” “whose” describes somebody’s possession.

Example: “Whose email was that? Who’s going to respond to it?”

Now, this might be tricky, but how many of you have gotten “their,” “there,” and “they’re” confused? As I think you are catching onto now, “they’re” is the sandwiched version of “they” and “are,” a la, “They’re all thinking how they’re spelling all these words wrong.”

Moving right along, as you are also familiar with now, “their” also creates a possessional phrase. For instance, “Their emails are littered with typos.” Finally, “there” is used in conjunction with a place or a position to move in, at, or to.

Example: “The email is right there in your inbox” or “Go to lulusloosescrew.blogspot.com; my newest post is there.”


So the next time you’re at your desk, drafting an email, remember that it’s not as difficult as it seems. It’s up to you to make sure you’re spelling your words right. It’s simple once you know who’s in charge. And then, when you master the proper language, there will be plenty of typos to fix and the best is that they’re always going to be theirs and not yours.

                                                                      *   *   *

For fun, here are a few more homophones for review:


Finally, the ridicule portion of the post; even I needed a reminder on one of these myself >_<



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