How to Get 50% Wrong...and Still Be Right

Homophones—also known as homonyms—are tricky words that sound alike but are spelled differently. Many spelling problems, even for adults, are caused by incorrect homophone usage. For instance, have you ever received an e-mail from a friend that included a sentence like this: There dog got into the kitchen cupboard and ate all of the dog food that was in their! Although the misused homophones cause confusion, the average computer spell checker won’t flag any of those words as incorrect; after all, they are all spelled correctly.

Now, William Shakespeare was not a careful speller by any means—in fact, he even spelled his own name several different ways! But what if he had gone one step further: what if he had carelessly used homophones, paying no mind to choosing the proper word? We might have ended up with famous phrases like these:

“Two bee, oar knot two bee.”

“This above awl: two thine own self bee true.”

“A hoarse! A hoarse! My kingdom four a hoarse!”

“Good knight, good knight! Parting is such sweet sorrow,
that eye shall say good knight till it bee morrow.”

These “revised” phrases—courtesy of The Homophone Machine—exemplify the fact that even though nearly 50% of these immortal Shakespearean words have been rewritten incorrectly, there isn’t a misspelled word among them.

With all of this potential for homophone confusion, what’s the best course of action? Have fun with homophones! Point them out to your students. Embrace their existence. Let your students play around with the Homophone Machine. Play games: see who can come up with a readable sentence that has more than 50% of the words wrong.

By thoroughly exploring homophones, your students will be far more likely to identify potential misuse and far less likely to write a sentence about how “there dog got in the kitchen cupboard.”

And remember that the computer’s spell checker, although a handy tool, will not necessarily catch incorrect usage. Demonstrate this concept to your students by introducing them to the poem “Candidate for a Pullet Surprise” by Dr. Jerrold Zar, which aptly illustrates what can happen if you rely too much on the spell checker! Astonishingly, 127 of the 224 words in the poem are incorrect, even though all words are spelled correctly.

In Levels 3 through 7 of the All About Spelling program, students are given many opportunities to practice and review homophone usage, building a solid foundation upon which to hone their spelling skills. Students can have even more fun practice with these word pairs with the All About Homophones workbook.

And don't forget two halve fun as ewe and you're students study homophones together!

Have a question about teaching homophones?

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