Homophones are words that are known to have different spellings and meanings, but similar pronunciation.
Take a look at this set of homophones 👇🏿
to-too-two
To-too-two have different spellings and different meanings, but are pronounced exactly the same.
to (preposition) | too (adverb) | two (noun) |
used to show motion | means also or extremely | means the number 2 |
I am going to the park. | I am too tired today. | They bought two apples for pie. |
Here’s a list of some confusing homophones and their meanings:
1. ate-eight
Ate (verb): past tense of the verb ‘to eat’
- I ate the entire cake and now the birthday girl is crying.
Eight (noun): means the number 8
- Joy has to catch a bus at eight o’clock tomorrow morning.

2. dew-do-due
Dew (noun): small drops of water that gather on plants and objects during the night (also a popular brand of soft drink)
- The grass is wet with dew.
Do/to do (verb): an auxiliary verb, used to indicate an action
- I want to do a language course for school.
Due (adjective): expected at or planned for at a certain time
- He is due a refund for the sweater he returned.
3. they’re-their-there
They’re (contraction): form of they are
- They’re very happy about going to Disneyland.
Their (pronoun): used to show possession
- The students placed their books on the table.
There (pronoun or adverb): indicates position
- Put the basket over there.
4. know-no
Know (verb): to have knowledge or understanding about something
- You can never know everything, my child.
No (determiner): not any
- There was absolutely no furniture in that room.
5. principal-principle
Principal (noun): head of a school or an organization, or a sum of money
- The Principal said that hard work is the key to success.
Principle (noun): fundamental truth or proposition serving as the foundation for a system of belief
- Democracy operates on the principle that everyone should be treated equally.
Here are some more examples of commonly used English homophones:
accept-except | addition-edition | affect-effect | allowed-aloud |
bawl-ball | byte-bite | bare-bear | blue-blew |
ceiling-sealing | council-counsel | course-coarse | check-cheque |
deer-dear | die-dye | eye-I | feet-feat |
flew-flu | grown-groan | here-hear | hour-our |
know-not | main-mane | mail-male | made-maid |
new-knew | night-knight | one-won | pause-paws |
pear-pair | pain-pane | peak-peek | right-write |
roll-role | red-read | some-sum | son-sun |
stair-stare | toe-tow | tail-tale | weak-week |
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