Homonyms, Homophones and Homographs

    Today we will take a look at three groups of words that are very difficult to understand not only for who are studying English, but also for the natives, but if we study hard we can get it.

 
   "Homonymy" is the relationship between the concept and the name that occurs when multiple meanings share the same word, but the concepts to which it refers have no similarity. The fact that the name and spelling are the same  is mere coincidence, since they generally have very distant origins.
   "Homophones" belong to this group of  dificult words. Their spelling do not match  and have also different meaning, but the phonology is always the same.
   "Homographs" are words that are spelled the same, but have different meanings and are often pronounced differently as well.
    The last two include Heterograph and Heteronym respectively as special cases.
  
    The next picture pretty much sums up the distinctive characteristics of each group.

      I consider very effective and useful the exercises that Spelling City chose related  with the words's list to better understand the definitions. I mean: Audio Word Match,  a traditional memory match game that increases familiarity with terms by allowing students to match words they both see and hear read aloud; and Word Videos, in which students choose from a variety of options to create their own word video for their spelling and vocabulary words. Finally everything learned is tested in a fun exercise against the clock: Speedy Speller.
     
      Now I leave another picture with some representative examples, so that you can realize better the differences.  I also invite you access the link and consult as regards homonyms, homophones and homographs in Vocabulary Spelling City, paying particular attention to the homophones (sound alike words) 
 

 

Signs of Improvement

Hi guys!!!
    Sorry!  I have not posted for a long time , but the fact is that I have been very busy getting ready to go to college. Lately, I have had many tests and I had to study for all subjects. But I realized that my grades improved a lot in one subject in particular: Inglés. I wonder why. Certainly, by the help of Vocabulary Spelling City and the lessons of the first course.

    The teacher noticed that my writings in English had improved considerably and asked me how I had gotten. I told him about Spelling City and blog; then told me that I should continue writing because my vocabulary and, in general, my English has reached a higher level with the help of word lists, educational games and all the theory I should be reviewed to write to the blog.

    So, I come with new strength to learn because Spelling City will help me not only to learn English but also to get a good grade on the exam I am going to have in May.
    For now, here is the paragraph that I had to write this lesson, using the words from the list.

      English teacher asks to write a brief paragraph in which I must include all the list words. It is a hard work to me because I am afraid when I have to write in English. Although I can´t explain this feeling but I think I can handle the tasks that weigh on my shoulders. You must try too; choosing between not learning English or know it in depth. Doesn´t matter if you need to erase the paragraph again and again, the important part is your desire to learn. There is no reason to give up! Maybe you will not do it bad at all. Look! I have used eight words from the list, but surely my notes decay because I have not used all of them. Oh, wait a minute! Yes, I did it!

   These words represent two very important vowel sounds:  Long /a/ sound & Long /e/ sound, whose sounds are summarized in these videos.
   For these irregular sounds SpellingCity has a very effective method by which to establish sound-symbol correspondences . See the next link for tips if you also want to Improve Your Writing Skills 
 

 
 

Plural Nouns to Remember

    Today we are remembering another issue we have previously discussed, because the plural nouns are used frequently and we must keep in mind the spelling.
     Most nouns make their plurals by simply adding –s to the end (e.g. cat/cats, book/books, journey/journeys). Some do change their endings, though, the main types of noun that do this are:

1. Words ending in a consonant + "y": "y" changes to "i" and add "es".
party / parties (fiesta/s)
city / cities (ciudad/es)

2. Words ending in a vowel + "and" add an "s".
boy / boys (chico/s)
toy / toys (juguete/s)

3. Words ending in "s", "ss", "sh", "ch", "x", "or" add "is".
bus / buses (bus/es)
glass / glasses (copa/s)
brush / brushes (cepillo/s)
watch / watches (reloj/es)
box / boxes (caja/s)
tomato / tomatoes (tomate/s)
 There’s one exception to this rule. If the -ch ending is pronounced with a ‘k’ sound, you add -s rather than -es:
singular    plural
stomach    stomachs
epoch    epochs
4. Words that end in -f or -fe usually change the f sound to a v sound and add s or -es.
leaf / leaves (hoja/s)
wife / wives (esposa/s)
There are, however, exceptions: more than one dwarf = dwarfs; more than one roof = roofs


     SpellingCity gives an interesting list of words that includes many of the rules discussed above.

Fingers                                                  

     
   Many other nouns are pluralized in an irregular manner. There are two cases:
   




Foxes

  

 1. When the plural and singular do not change.
 
fish (peces o pescados)        sheep (ovejas)         




Wishes
   2. When the plural varies irregularly. There are several nouns that have irregular plural forms. Plurals formed in this way are sometimes called mutated (or mutating) plurals.



 Cities

   
    more than one child = children
    more than one woman = women
    




 Visitors

   
    
    more than one goose = geese
    more than one barracks = barracks
   






Ladies

    
    
    more than one man = men
    more than one person = people  






Classes

 more than one deer = deer
 more than one tooth = teeht





Wolves

  
more than one foot = feet
more than one goose = geese






Mice

more than one louse = lice
more than one cactus = cacti





Branches

  
  more than one appendix = appendices
  more than one ox = oxen







The point of learning languages is in large part for travel.  CarmensLuxuryTravel.com, has travel tips and helps support this site.  The site has  ideas for travel to the Seattle Space Needle, Cuba Remedios, and with discussions of the best rooftop breakfasts on the planet.

Short Vowels Review

     Hey guys!!! I have already returned to continue the second phase of the blog, something like a second season as in  television series ... lol ... I will continue with the same dynamics: each entry will be related to the lesson daily of VocabularySpellingCity, and this time we will be trying lists words for fourth grade.
     So we start with a reminder of a very important issue that we saw in the first stage: Short Vowels Sound
     When there is one vowel in a word, either at the beginning or between two consonants, it usually has the short vowel sound. A short vowel word is any word that does not allow the vowel within it to generate that vowel’s long vowel sound.For instance, the word bug is a short vowel word, because there is no long U sound. 
      You can see that a vowel is usually short when there is only one vowel in a word or syllable, as in cat, bed, and hot; but a word doesn’t necessarily have to have three letters to be a short vowel word, although it makes for the easiest example, and three-lettered words make up the bulk of any list of words with short vowels. However, there are exceptions to this rule, such as with irregular vowels.

 -I should get credit for access to my favorite college

farm ranch is abandoned.

-My shadow is cast on the wall when I interpose between it and the light.

-The drink is very chilly

-The girl put her head on the boy's chest and hugged him

-I have lunch at 2 pm every day.

-The frog jumps in puddles and likes hunting flies

-The girl split the candy to share with her ​​little sister

-The car trunk is full of luggage

-We must solve the exercise which left the teacher in math class

     Here you have a great list!!! and I leave you a  funny video about Short Vowels too.

1. Short vowel a words

ant

pan

wag

jam

cat

bad

ax

ran

flag

and

bat

dad

wax

van

cap

band

hat

has

can

gas

map

hand

pat

mad

fan

bag

nap

sand

rat

sad

man

tag

ham

lamp

sat

glass

2. Short vowel e words

egg

bed

test

jet

hen

fell

leg

fed

vest

met

men

hell

sled

red

west

net

pen

sell

step

nest

web

pet

ten

well

tent

rest

get

wet

bell

smell

3. Short vowel i words

dig

tip

hid

crib

sit

fill

pig

pin

kid

fist

bit

hill

wig

sin

lid

list

fit

kill

dip

tin

bib

milk

hit

pill

hip

win

fib

silk

pit

will

lip

did

rib

swim

mitt

him

4. Short vowel o words

God

hop

stop

jot

fox

cob

nod

mop

cot

not

ox

mob

pod

pop

dot

pot

box

rob

rod

top

got

rot

pox

sob

sod

drop

hot

tot

mom

pond

5. Short vowel u words

cub

gun

buzz

dug

tug

bus

tub

run

but

hug

cuff

dump

bud

sun

cut

jug

puff

hump

mud

cup

nut

mug

gum

jump

gull

pup

bug

rug

yum

pump

Latin roots "port" & "mot"

     Wow!!!! We finish the Summer Program today. These months have been very useful to develope our English knowledge and vocabulary with the help of Spelling City.

     Learning root words can be helpful in improving your vocabulary. When you know root words, you can recognize the root and use that knowledge to define a word you may not otherwise know. Of course, that is only a helpful technique if you know the meaning of root words.  Today we are going to check words with the root "port" or "mot". The root port means "carry". The root mot means "move".
       In Spelling City there is a representative  list of  the roots "mot & port":

 -Portable radios can be carried everywhere.

-Our car is the finest automobile ever made.

-They inpire and motivate me to work hard.

-He will transport the products by truck.

-The newspaper reporter wrote an article.

-They import foreign food into this country.

-Planes land on a runway at the airport.

-The motion of the boat made me seasick.

-The engine of the car is its motor.

-My boss will promote me to the next level.

     This was the last lesson. It was short and was the last but no for that it is unimportant, because in this English program, everything has been necesary to us. Every lesson, every word list, every activity, have done we as students, have been able to learn small and hidden rules English language that we didn´t know before. Just, I must say thank you Spelling City for this amazing adventure and thanks for the great experience that all lessons have provided me. 
                                                                                                             Good bye bloggers!!!!!

And thanks to you, Alexandra, for all those posts. Very interesting for us to watch your skills in English grow and to see how you have used VocabularySpellingCity.