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Confusing Words In Your Language?

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WentworthsGal
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 Message 1 of 11
26 November 2011 at 3:09pm | IP Logged 
I thought it would be interesting (apologies if this has already been tackled) to find out which words in your language (specifically in one dialect or region) either sound the same but have different spellings or have the same spelling but can sound different for different meanings...

English - South East England - sound the same but different spellings

to, too, two
which, witch
bear, bare
meet, meat
be, bee
son, sun
dye, die
tea, tee
your, you're
hair, hare
here, hear
deer, dear
there, their, they're
red, read (past tense)
reed, read (present tense) and I think there's 'rede' too
need, knead
pea, pee
hay, hey!
key, quay
queue, cue
know, no
seek, sikh
tail, tale
Wales, whales (plural)
pawn, porn
cheater, cheetah
break, brake
wait, weight
flower, flour

English - South East England - Words spelt the same but pronounced differently

Polish - polish used to shine things and Polish in the sense of Poland
rebel - rebel as in the verb and then rebel as in the noun

can't think of any more just now for this category...


Edited by WentworthsGal on 29 November 2011 at 4:56pm

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Fasulye
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 Message 2 of 11
26 November 2011 at 4:32pm | IP Logged 
WentworthsGal wrote:
I thought it would be interesting (apologies if this has already been tackled) to find out which words in your language (specifically in one dialect or region) either sound the same but have different spellings or have the same spelling but can sound different for different meanings...


Hi people with a solid study background in linguistics:

What are the correct linguistic terms for these two categories of words? One category I am thinking about may be homonyms.

Fasulye
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a3
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 Message 3 of 11
26 November 2011 at 5:58pm | IP Logged 
iirc homonyms are words that are spelled and pronounced the same, but have different meanings and here we're talking about paronyms
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jeff_lindqvist
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 Message 4 of 11
27 November 2011 at 12:12am | IP Logged 
Isn't it "homophones" (as in sounding alike)?
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Vos
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 Message 5 of 11
27 November 2011 at 2:26am | IP Logged 
No no Fasulye, you were correct with homonym - Two or multiple words having the same pronunciation, but
different meanings, origins or spelling (to, too, two).

A paronym on the other hand is a word which is related to another and has a related meaning, thus brave and
bravery, or tide and tidal for example.

A homophone seems to be basically the same as a homonym according to my dictionary. - each of two or more
words having the same pronunciation but different meanings, origins or spelling.

Also homographs are the words which have the same spelling but are not necessarily pronounced the same and
have different meanings and/or origins.
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Carlucio
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 Message 6 of 11
27 November 2011 at 3:50am | IP Logged 
The word manga in portuguese can mean:
Mango
Sleeve
Japanese comics.

The adjective alto:
High
Tall
Loud



But the champions of the confusion are the Porquês, there is 4:
Por que----Why
Por quê-----Why?
Porque----Because
Porquê-------The reason.
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mrwarper
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 Message 7 of 11
27 November 2011 at 11:48am | IP Logged 
The 'confusing' words:

Words that sound the same (but are different) are homophones, as Jeff pointed out.
Homograpsh are different words that are written the same, as Vos said.

If you have words that look and sound the same (different meanings), they're homonyms.
Looking at it the other way around, a word or expression that has several meanings is a polyseme.

Paronyms are words similar (not equal) to each other, be it because of spelling or etymology, so they should be a bit less confusing ;)

Sorry, but to give you a list of any of them I'd spend half a too beautiful morning.

Interesting, though, to see we have the same 'por que' stuff as Portuguese here. Luckily, we used to be told how it works at school :)

Edited by mrwarper on 27 November 2011 at 11:54am

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WentworthsGal
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 Message 8 of 11
27 November 2011 at 1:30pm | IP Logged 
Yeah, I decided to avoid the same word and spelling but different meanings e.g date, table etc as I knew I'd be here all day listing them lol.

I like the pourque words... I'm sure quite a puzzle for beginners learning Portugese and Spanish until they get used to them...


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