Gotta Love the Homos...

HomoNYMS, that is! A homonym is "a word same as another in sound and spelling but different in meaning" (mahalo to Dictionary.com). This post is dedicated to one of my best friends in the whole entire galaxy (yes, I have friends on Mars and Jupiter), Taryn.

Recently, I wrote an email to Taryn in which the title read, "Your Hired!" Of course, in true Taryn fashion, ridicule ensued. I was a bit embarrassed initially, but then I was kind of mad at myself. When I read other people's blogs and Facebook posts, I am quite critical of their grammar and here I was making a gross error for potentially the whole world to read! I've often thought about posting a little tutorial on the subject as a refresher but there always seemed to be better events to document and it seemed lame since no one really reads this blog anyway.

Although I was a social studies and not a language arts teacher, I always took a couple of lessons to talk about homonyms since I knew I'd spend the rest of the year reading their essays and exams. I would also pose a challenge to the kids asking them to think of as many homonyms in one sitting. I think one student actually got to 100 or so. Alan Cooper has a list of 1,529 homonyms and although some of them are questionable (a and eh?) it's a pretty good list.

Here are the most commonly misused homonyms that I have seen:

their (possession) "I would love to live in their house!"
there (direction) "I see the house over there."
they're (conjunction, "they are") "They're buying a beautiful house."

to (toward) "I would like to move to Bainbridge Island"
too (as well) "I love Bainbridge Island, too!"
two (a couple) "There are two people in our family who would like to live on Bainbridge Island."

its (possessive pronoun) "Its leaves are falling fast."
it's (conjunction of 'it is') "It's going to be a long autumn."

your (belonging to you) "I love your sense of humor."
you're (contraction of 'you are') "You're too funny!"

So THERE Taryn! Put that in YOUR (not you're) pipe and smoke it! You know I love you!