Homophones (II). ABA on air

Today we're going to look at homophones. These are words which have the same pronunciation (sound) but different meanings and spelling.

Let's start with some very basic ones: “I” and “eye”.

“I” is the first person singular subject pronoun.

For example,

I live in Barcelona.

We use our eyes to see.

For example,

I like your eye colour.

Let's take a look at some more words and try to remember them to avoid confusion.

“ate” is the past simple form of the verb “to eat”.

Here is an example with “ate”:

We ate pizza for dinner last night.

“ate” is pronounced in the same way as “eight” (8).

Here's an example with the word “eight”:

I have eight cousins.

“it's” is the contraction of “it is” and “it has”.

It's (=It is) sunny today.

It's (=It has) been sunny all week.

“its” is a possessive pronoun.

The dog ate its food.

“to hear” is a verb which means “to perceive sound by the ear” while “here” is an adverb of place meaning “in or towards this place”.

Look at an example of each word:

I cannot hear you. Please speak louder.

Come here please!

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I and eye.
Ate and eight. We saw it in this blog.
It's and its
Hear and here. We saw it in this blog.