Spelling & Vocabulary Enrichment [ 13 ]

13- ] Spelling & Vocabulary Enrichment .

Homonyms .

A- ] Homonyms : can be subdivided into ‘homographs’ and ‘homophones’ . ‘Homographs’ are words which are written in the same way but have different meanings and may have different meanings and may be pronounced differently . Compare ‘bow’ in ‘He took a bow’ at the end of the concert .’ and ‘He was wearing a bow tie’ .

-‘Homophones’  are words with different meanings which are pronounced in the same way but are spelt differently , e.g. ‘bow’ as in ‘he took a bow’ and ‘bough’ , ‘the bough of a tree’ .

B-] Here are some more examples of ‘homographs’ with differing pronunciations:

- I ‘live’ in the north of England . – Your favorite rock group is singing ‘live’ on TV tonight .

- I ‘read’ in bed each night . – I ‘read’ War and Peace last year .

- The ‘lead’ singer in the group is great . – ‘Lead’ pipes are dangerous .

- The ‘wind’ blew the tree down . – ‘Wind’ the rope round this tree .

- I ‘wound’ my watch last night . – He suffered a terrible ‘wound’ in the war .

- Some students at Oxford spend more time learning to ‘row’ well than studying . They stood in a ‘row’ and had their photo taken . – They shared a flat for ages until they had a ‘row’ over money and split up .

- I know the ‘use’ of this tool . – You must know how to ‘use’ words as well as their meaning .

- They lived in a large old ‘house’ . – The buildings ‘house’ a library and two concert halls as well as a theatre .

- The ‘sow’ has five piglets . – The famers ‘sow’ the seeds in spring .

- ‘Bathing the baby at night may help it to fall asleep . – No ‘bathing’! [ a sign ]

A very large number of words in English are homographs or homophones . If a word that you read or hear in English seems strange in its context , it may well be because it is not being used in the sense that you are familiar with . Use your dictionary carefully to check for extra meanings .

C-] Here are some of the many examples of homophones in English :

air / heir	aloud / allowed	break / brake	fare / fair
faze / phase	flu / flew	grate / great	groan / grown
hoarse / horse	its / it’s	lays / laze	mail / male
meat / meet	mown / moan	our / hour	pale / pail
pane / pain	pair / pear / pare	peal / peel	place / plaice
practise / practice	pray / prey	raise / rays	read / reed
rein / rain	right / rite / write	sale / sail	scene / seen
sight / sit	so / sew	sole / soul	some / sum
steak / stake	tea / tee	there / their /they’re	through / threw
tire / tyre	toe / tow	waist / waste	wait / weight
weak / week	weather / whether	whine / wine	would / wood

Onomatopoeic words .

Onomatopoeic words are those which seem to sound like their meaning . The most obvious examples are verbs relating to the noises which animals make , e.g. cows ‘moo’ and horses ‘neigh’ .

A-] If the vowel sound in an onomatopoeic word is short , it usually signifies a short , sharp sound . If it is long , then the word usually signifies a longer , slower sound . Compare ‘pip’ which is a short sound with ‘peep’ which is a long sound .

B-] Certain combinations of letters have particular sound associations in English :

- ‘gr-‘ at the beginning of a word can suggest something unpleasant or miserable , e,g, ‘groan’ [ make a deep sound forced out by pain or despair ] , ‘grumble’ [ complain in a bad-tempered way ] , ‘grumpy’ [ bad-tempered ] , ‘grunt’ [ make a low , rough sound like pigs do , or people expressing disagreement or boredom ] , ‘growl’ [ make a deep , threatening sound ] .

- ‘cl-‘ at the beginning of a word can suggest something sharp and /or metallic , e.g.

‘click’ [ make a short sharp sound ] , ‘clang’ [ make a loud ringing noise ], ‘clank’

[ make a dull metallic noise , not as loud as a clang ] , ‘clash’ [ make a loud , broken , confused noise as when metal objects strike together ] , ‘clink’ [ make the sound of small bits of metal or glass knocking together ] . Horses go ‘clip-clop’ on the road .

- ‘sp-‘ at the beginning of a word can have an association with water or other liquids or powders , e.g. ‘splash’ [ cause a liquid to fly about in drops ] , ‘spit’ [ send liquid out from the mouth ] , ‘splutter’ [ make a series of spitting sounds ] , ‘spray’ [ send liquid through the air in tiny drops either by the wind or some instruments ] , ‘sprinkle’

[ scatter small drops ] , ‘spurt’ [ come out in a sudden burst ] .

- ‘wh-‘ at the beginning of a word often suggests the movement of air , e.g. ‘whistle’

[ a high pitched noise made by forcing air or steam through a small opening ] , ‘whirr’

[ sound like a bird’s wings moving rapidly ] , ‘whizz’ [ make the sound of something rushing through air ] , ‘wheeze’ [ breathe noisily especially with a whistling sound in the chest , ‘whip’ [ long piece of rope or leather or to hit with one of these ] .

- ‘-ash’ at the end of a word can suggest something fast and violent , e.g. ‘smash’ [ break

violently into small pieces ] , ‘dash’ [ move or be moved violently ] , ‘crash’ [ suddenly strike violently and noisily ] , ‘bash’ [ strike heavily so as to break or injure ] , ‘mash’

[ mke soft or pulpy by beating or crushing ] , ‘gash’ [ a long deep cut or wound ] .

- ‘-ckle’ , ‘-ggle’ , or ‘-zzle’ at the end of a word can suggest something light and repeated , e.g. ‘trikle’ [ to flow in a thin stream or drops ] , ‘crackle’ [ make a series of short cracking sounds ] , ‘tinkle’ [ make a succession of light ringing sounds ] , ‘giggle’

[ laugh lightly ] , ‘wriggle’ [ move with quick short twistings ] , ‘sizzle’ [ make a hissing

sound  like something cooking in fat ] , ‘drizzle’ [ small , fine rain ] .

Binomials .

Binomials  are expressions [ often idiomatic ] where two words are joined by a conjunction [ usually ‘and’ ] . The order of the words is usually fixed . For example :

‘odds and ends’ [ small , unimportant things , e.g. Let’s get the main things packed ; we can do the ‘odds and ends’ later . [ We cannot say ‘ends and odds’ ]

- ‘give and take’ : [ a spirit of compromise , e.g. Every relationship needs a bit of ‘give and take’ to be successful .

A-] You can often tell something is a binomial because of the sound pattern :

- Tears are ‘part and parcel’ of growing up . [ part of / belong to ]

- The boss was ‘ranting and raving’ at us . [ shouting / very angry ]

- The old cottage has one to ‘rack and ruin’ . [ ruined / decayed ]

- He’s so ‘prim and proper’ at work . [ rather formal and fussy ]

- The hotel was a bit ‘rough and ready’ . [ poor standard ]

- She has to ‘wine and dine’ important clients . [ entertain ]

B-] Other times , the clue is that the words are near-synonyms :

- You can ‘pick and choose’ ; it’s up to you . [ have a wide choice ]

- My English is progressing in ‘leaps and bounds’ . [ big jumps ]

- It’s nice to have some ‘peace and quiet’ . [ peace / calm ]

- The doctor recommended some ‘rest and recreation / R and R . [ relaxation ]

- ‘First and foremost’ , you must work hard . [ first / most importantly ]

C-]Many grammar words combine to form binomials :

- There are cafés ‘here and there’ . [ scattered round ]

- We’ve had meetings ‘on and off . [ occasionally ]

- I’ve been running ‘back and forth’ all day . [ to and from somewhere ]

- ‘To and fro’ can be used just like ‘back and forth’ .

- He is unemployed and ‘down and out’ . [ without a home or money ]

- She’s better now , and ‘out and about’ again . [ going out ]

- She ran ‘up and down’ the street . [ in both directions ]

D- ] Your language [ Arabic ] probably has many binominals . Make sure those which look similar in English have the same word order as your language :

- A ‘black and white’ film . – ‘Ladies and gentlemen’ , your attention , please !

- She ran ‘back and forth’ . – There was ‘hot and cold’ water in every room .

E-] Binomials linked by words other than ‘and’ :

- You’ve got your sweater on ‘back to front’ . [ the wrong way ]

- He won’t help her ; she’ll have to ‘sink or swim’ . [ survive or fail ]

- ‘Slowly but surely’ , I realized the boat was sinking . [ gradually ]

- ‘Sooner or later’ , you’ll learn your lesson . [ some time / day ]

- She didn’t want to be just friends ; it had to be ‘all or nothing’ .

- Well I’m sorry , that’s all I can offer you ; ‘take it or leave it’ .

- It’s about the same distance as from here to Aswan , ‘give or take’ a few miles .

       [ perhaps a mile or two more , or a mile or two less ]