Homophones
Homophones are words that sound exactly the same but are spelled differently and mean different things — there, their and they're, or hear and here. Sounding them out cannot help, so each one has to be learned by meaning.
Homophones sound the same but are spelled differently. The pairs children get wrong most, each with the meaning, a memory trick and example sentences.
Practice these words
SpellCrush practice reads each word aloud, uses it in a spoken example sentence, and then asks your child to spell it — with instant feedback and a hint if they get stuck.
Two honest caveats. Practice is word-by-word: there is no mode yet that shows a sentence with a gap and asks which spelling fits, which is the format homophones really want. And the no-signup session runs a fixed set of sample words rather than the words on this page. Read the sentences below together first, then practice the spellings.
The ones that cause the most trouble
Each of these has a page with the meanings, a memory trick, example sentences and a fill-in-the-blank exercise.
There is a place, their means belonging to them, and they're is short for they are.
Your means belonging to you; you're is short for you are.
To points somewhere, too means also or more than enough, and two is the number 2.
Its means belonging to it; it's is short for it is or it has. The apostrophe never means ownership here.
Who's is short for who is or who has; whose asks who owns it.
Affect is almost always the verb, the doing word; effect is almost always the noun, the thing that happens.
Then is about time, what happens next; than is for comparing two things.
The rest of the common homophones
These do not need a page each — one line covers them.
| Pair | What they mean | Memory trick |
|---|---|---|
| hear / here | hear = to listen; here = this place | You hear with your ear, and ear is hiding inside hear. |
| know / no | know = to have knowledge; no = the opposite of yes | Know keeps a silent k from Old English cnawan, the same silent k as knee and knife. |
| write / right | write = to put words on paper; right = correct, or not left | Write starts with the same silent w as wrist and wrong. |
| where / wear | where = in what place; wear = to have clothes on | Where has here inside it, and both are about place. |
| peace / piece | peace = calm, no fighting; piece = a part of something | A piece of pie: pie is the first three letters of piece. |
| break / brake | break = to snap or smash; brake = the pedal that stops a car | A brake is on a car, and car and brake both have an a. |
| flour / flower | flour = the powder for baking; flower = the bloom on a plant | Flour is ground from grain, and both flour and ground have a u. |
| principal / principle | principal = the head of a school; principle = a rule you believe in | The principal is your pal. |
| meet / meat | meet = to come together; meat = food from an animal | You eat meat, and eat sits inside meat. |
| tale / tail | tale = a story; tail = the part at the back of an animal | — |
| steal / steel | steal = to take what is not yours; steel = the strong metal | — |
| bare / bear | bare = uncovered; bear = the animal, or to carry something | — |
A dash means there is no memory trick worth having. Inventing a weak one is worse than learning the pair by sight.
How to actually teach them
Teach one pair at a time, and teach it in a sentence. A child who can recite that their means belonging to them will still write "over their" the next day, because the definition and the act of writing are not connected. A sentence connects them.
Then give the memory trick, and make sure it names a mechanism. The apostrophe in they're stands for the missing a of are — that is a reason, and reasons survive. Rhymes without reasons do not.
Finally, mix the pair together in practice. Drilling their ten times and then there ten times teaches nothing about choosing between them; the choice is the whole skill.
Keep going
Frequently asked
What is a homophone?
A homophone is a word that sounds exactly like another word but is spelled differently and means something different: there, their and they're, or hear and here. Because they sound identical, reading a sentence aloud will never tell you which spelling is right — the meaning has to be attached to the spelling.
Why are homophones so hard to spell?
Every other spelling strategy a child has been taught depends on sound. Sounding out a word, stretching it, listening for syllables — none of it separates two words that sound the same. Homophones are the first words a child has to learn by meaning rather than by ear, which is why they keep causing errors long after the rest of spelling has clicked.
What is the best way to teach homophones?
Always in a sentence, never as a word list. A child who learns their as a word in isolation has learned nothing usable; a child who learns 'the girls left their coats' has a picture to hang the spelling on. Pair each sentence with a memory trick that names a mechanism — their has heir inside it, and an heir owns things — rather than a rhyme.
At what age do children learn homophones?
The common sets (to/too/two, there/their/they're, your/you're) are introduced around 2nd and 3rd grade, once children are writing sentences rather than single words. The harder pairs, affect/effect and principal/principle, arrive in middle school and stay difficult into adulthood.