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:
“The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road.
A reeling road, a rolling road, that rambles round the shire.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“Bourbon’s the only drink. You can take all that champagne stuff and pour it down the English Channel. Well, why wait 80 years before you can drink the stuff? Great vineyards, huge barrels aging forever, poor little old monks running around testing it, just so some woman in Tulsa, Oklahoma can say it tickles her nose.”
—John Michael Hayes (b.1919)