antonyms – homonyms – synonyms

Don’t worry about knowing how to say these words or knowing exactly what they mean.

It’s confusing for native English speakers too.

They are terms that are used to describe words that are similar to each other in some way and are different to each other in another way. I had a hard time remembering which was which when I was in elementary school.

But it is important to know the difference between words like :

Hire

Higher

The manager will hire the person who is nice to everyone.

This mountain road keeps getting higher and higher.

Browse

We will browse around before we decide to buy any books.

Brows

Look at that dog’s brows. They are so much lighter than the rest of the hair on his body.

The examples I gave you are words that have the same pronunciation but different meaning. These are words are called homonyms, if you want to know.

English has thousands of these kinds of words

Maybe millions.

Have fun with them.

Question

What is the difference in meaning of chair in these sentences?

The cat was in the same chair all day.

The older man next to the door is the chair of this meeting.

Please let us know what you find out.

Add a comment and please press Like.

Here’s another:

fret and fret

One is a verb and the other is a noun.

The pronunciation is the same.

Examples:

Don’t fret about this small mistake you made, you will get it right next time.

To make the G chord, put two fingers on the second fret, like this.

The meaning of fret as a verb = to worry or be concerned

The meaning of fret as a noun = a place on a string of a musical instrument when pressed upon while an instrument is being strummed or plucked makes a specific sound, usually separated by thin bars going up and down the neck of an instrument.

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ON A SIMILAR TOPIC     THE WEIRDNESS OF the 

            THE WEIRDNESS OF "HE" SOUNDS 

Without further adieu, Look at these gems, and let's scratch our heads 

Here     say this word a few times.  ok. got it locked in. heeeeeeeeeer long /ee/

Her      say this one, several times.  Huuuuuuuuuur ur.  ur. ur. hur. short /u/

Herb   this one, now. careful, there is no /h/ it’s urb urb short /u/

Help and example 4   el el elp help. el el el   /short e sound/

Now, do you know what I want you to do?  Do nothing please.

I want you to be careful with these 4 different pronunciations of “he.”

There are complicated reasons, but quickly, let me say that an “r” following some vowels, makes the pronunciations go crazy. It’s the R-Controlled situation with a vowel soundy thing. Watch out, OK?