What is a Homophone?

So, what is a homophone? Homophones are words that sound the same but have different meanings and spellings. The prefix “homo” means “same” and the suffix “phone” means sound. Whether you’re trying to remember which witch is which or writing about how 5,000 hertz of sound hurts your ears, you want to make sure you’re using the correct spelling!

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What are some examples of homophones? Let’s look at some common ones that tend to trip people up and identify ways to keep them straight. Luckily, grammar checks have gotten pretty good at spotting the wrong spelling and bringing it to your attention, but it’s not 100 percent fool proof.

There vs. their vs. they’re. Anybody who’s spent more than a few minutes on social media has seen there, their, and they’re used incorrectly. These homophones can be tricky because the one with an apostrophe is NOT the possessive one, like you’d assume, and the one without the apostrophe IS possessive. Let’s look at each to understand their meanings, parts of speech, and how to use them correctly.

There is a preposition. It’s used to indicate a specific location. For instance, you might say, “Where are my shoes?” and the response would be, “Your shoes are over there,” with the person pointing to a specific spot. We use there to indicate a non-specific location. Rather than saying, “You left your shoes next to the ottoman,” we would say, “You left your shoes over there.”

There is a possessive pronoun for they. You can use their to indicate possession to both a group of people or a single person. An example of using their would be, “We’ll take their car to dinner.” You’re indicating that you’re using somebody else’s car. You could even say, “We’ll use their car to drive there.” In this case, you’re saying you’re riding in another person’s car to go somewhere.

They’re is a contraction of “they” and “are” that’s used to identify who is doing something. Using they’re correctly can be difficult because we usually want to include an apostrophe for possessive pronouns, but they’re falls into “the other rule” with apostrophes in that it’s a contraction. As with other contractions, you can pull they’re apart to they are to make sure it fits the context in which you’re trying to use it. For example, “They’re running late,” can be broken down to, “They are running late.”

It’s vs. its. Of all the homophones, it’s and its can be the most confounding because it goes against all the rules we’re accustomed to. It’s is a contraction for it is—while its is a possessive form of something that belongs to an inanimate object. For example, “I dropped the table and its legs fell off—now it’s completely destroyed.”

You’re vs. your. You’re and your are similar to it’s and its. You’re is a contraction of you are, while your is indicating possession of a person you’re addressing. (e.g., You’re a better driver so let’s take your car.)

If you’ve been struggling with homophones, hopefully that helped a little. The good news? You can only get homophones wrong when you’re writing…not speaking! Since they sound exactly the same, no one will ever be the wiser!