Homophones and minimal pairs

Homophones - minimal pairs

Homophones and minimal pairs.
A quick overview on the similarities and differences between homophones and minimal pairs, including heaps of examples and FREE worksheets. (Download at the bottom of the page)

What is a homophone?

A homophone is a set of words that sound the exact same, but often have nothing in common.
They have the same pronunciation but different meanings, origins, or spelling.

Note: homophones can differ depending on someone’s accent.

Commonly confused homophones

allowed
all together
rain
bored
plain
scent
illicit
heard
flower
deer

aloud
altogether
reign
board
plane
sent
elicit
herd
flour
dear

What is a minimal pair?

A minimal pair is a set of words that sound very similar, but is not pronounced completely the same. They differ by one sound only. That sound appears in the same position in each word and can be either a vowel or consonant.

Note: homophones can differ depending on someone’s accent.

Commonly confused vowel sounds 
(minimal pairs)

short and long A

short and long E

short and long I

short and long O

short and long U

am - aim
back - bake
sweat - sweet
red - read
will - while
sick - psych
odd - ode
cop - cope
full - fool
shut - shoot

Commonly confused consonant sounds
(minimal pairs)

B - P
B - V
L - R
S - Z
S - Sh - Ch
J - Y
S - Th
T - Th
D - T

berry - very
belief - believe
glass - grass
seal - zeal
seat - sheet - cheat
jewel - yellow
closing - clothing
true - through
needed - waited

Next time you hear someone speak, try to listen out for either homophones and minimal pairs. Try to discover the similarities and differences and decide which is which. 

In context it normally is pretty clear which of the two you or the speaker wants to communicate. However, if you don’t know the partner of either a specific homophone or similar pair yet, it can be confusing.

Therefore, keep watching films and series, read books and listen to music in English as much as possible. This is the best way to gain new vocabulary.

Questions, doubts, still unclear?

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