In English
Examples:
- (1)
- bear (verb) – to support or carry
- bear (noun) – the animal
In (1) the words are identical in spelling and pronounciation (i.e. they are also homophones), but differ in meaning and grammatical function.
- (2)
- sow (verb) – to plant seed
- sow (noun) – female pig
(2) is an example of two words spelt identically but pronounced differently. Here confusion is not possible in spoken language but can occasionally occur in written language.
Read more about this topic: Homograph
Famous quotes containing the word english:
“To write or even speak English is not a science but an art. There are no reliable words.... Whoever writes English is involved in a struggle that never lets up even for a sentence. He is struggling against vagueness, against obscurity, against the lure of the decorative adjective, against the encroachment of Latin and Greek, and, above all, against the worn-out phrases and dead metaphors with which the language is cluttered up.”
—George Orwell (1903–1950)
“Middlemarch, the magnificent book which with all its imperfections is one of the few English novels for grown-up people.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)