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Homophones are Out There, Hiding.

Sometimes it because of a blind spot. Other times, it because your typing-brain want to make you look silly. Either way, be aware of different words which sound similar (homophones), especially in your internal monologue which lets you know what to type. 

It’s hard to write a first draft without having at least one of these hiding in that particular chapter. The aim of the game is to spot it before anyone else does. Here are a few that are commonly written but not commonly spotted, or so it seems:

Dessert – A tasty pudding.
Desert – A not so tasty vast area of sand and heat and sand...

Wary – Concern, worry, cautiousness.
Weary – Tired from physically activity or lack of sleep.

Storey – A level in a building, like your bedroom is probably on the second storey. This is a British preference.
Story – A wonderful tale. Perhaps take a read of my newest story, The Clearing? No? Well, I tried.

Compliment – A polite, usually positive comment.
Complement – A positive addition, like how that top your wearing complements your trousers nicely (that’s a compliment).

Peak – The tip or top, like the summit of a mountain.
Peek – A sneaky little look. A sneaky little homophone too.

Discuss –Debate, argue, you know what it means.
Discus – This was actually in my novel for some time. Sneaky little throwing disc used in the Olympics...

Here are 441 more if you’ve got nothing better to do for the next hour or so and you want to brush up on your knowledge. I’d recommend taking a peek rather than peak at them, because one makes perfect sense while the other... well.

Comments

  1. Unknown16 October 2013 at 21:48

    You've got desert and dessert the wrong way round. I assume to check who is paying attention!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Scookie16 October 2013 at 22:15

    You know what, that's partly because I was editing someone's work and this cropped up so I copied it over from there and made the mistake. I knew something like that was bound to happen with an article like this.

    I was actually going to put one the wrong way round and add on the end if anyone spotted it... and I thought I had decided against that!

    ReplyDelete

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