常见混淆词第3部分：同音词

Commonly Confused Words Part 3: Homophones

Hello, I’m Miss Fang. Today, we are lookingat more commonly confused words in the English language. Today's subject ishomophones.

Homophones are two or more words that soundalike, but have different meanings or spellings.

It is easy to understand the differencebetween some homophones. For example, English learners usually understand thedifference between the word ate -- the past tense of eat -- and eight -- thenumber.

But other homophones are difficult, evenfor native English speakers.

Bear and Bare

One set of commonly confused homophones arethe words bear and bare.

Let's start with bear [b-e-a-r.] Of course,as a noun, a bear is a large, heavy animal with thick hair and sharp claws.

But the word bear [b-e-a-r] can also be averb. It can mean "to accept or get through something," usuallysomething difficult.

The verb bear is often used with the modalverb can and a negation. Using this structure, "cannot bear"sometimes means "strongly dislike." If you travel to a very coldplace in the middle of winter, you might say, "I cannot bear the coldweather."

Bear can also mean "to assume oraccept something, such as a cost or responsibility." For example,"The man must bear full responsibility for his actions."

Bear can also sometimes mean "tocarry." For example, Americans often talk about the "right to beararms," or the right of citizens to possess a gun.

Sometimes, people make jokes about thisexpression. They replace the meaning of bear in this example with its meaningas a noun. The phrase then means that people have a right to possess a bear'sarm.

The past tense of bear [b-e-a-r] is bore[b-o-r-e]. For example, you might hear a sentence like, "The company boreall of the expenses." In the present tense, bore is a verb in its ownright. But it has no relation to the past tense of bear.

Now let's turn to the word bare [b-a-r-e].Bare is mostly used as an adjective. It means "not having a covering"or "not covered by clothing, shoes or something else."

If you just moved to a new home, the wallscould still be bare. And, if you take your shoes and socks off before enteringa room, you will have bare feet.

As a verb, bare [b-a-r-e] is similar to itsadjectival meaning. To bare means "to remove the covering fromsomething." It can also mean "to show or expose." For example,an angry animal might bare its teeth. The past tense of bare [b-a-r-e] is bared[b-a-r-e-d].

Sight, Site and Cite

Next, we turn to three more homophones:sight, site and cite. All three words sound exactly the same.

Sight [s-i-g-h-t] means one of your fivesenses. As a noun, it is "the ability to see." Sight can also mean"someone or something that is seen." For example, "The sunsetlast night was a beautiful sight."

Another meaning of sight is "a famousor interesting place in an area." If you take a trip to the United States,a tour guide might show you all the sights in New York City or Washington, DC.

But some of those famous sights are alsosites [s-i-t-e-s]. The word site means "a place where something importanthas happened." It can also be "a place where something is, was, orwill be located." So, if you like history, you might want to visitimportant battle sites near Washington, DC.

Site has a few other meanings. It is alsoshort for website.

The third homophone, cite [c-i-t-e], is averb. It can mean "to write or say the words" of a person, book oranother source. It can also mean "to mention something," usually tosupport an idea or opinion. When you write research papers in school, forexample, you cite other sources to support your argument.

So, if you ever have a disagreement with afriend about the English language, you can always cite (with a "c")Everyday Grammar by visiting our site (with an "s").