Grammar Bytes! The Writer's Guide To Grammar

Horrible Homonyms

  Homonyms are probably one of the trickiest aspects of grammar. Homonyms are words that sound exactly the same but have different meanings. (Note: they are also known as homophones.) You see them everywhere.
Here are some classic examples:

There
Their
They're

Your
You're

  I list these specifically because they are the most commonly confused. For instance, "The worn-out athletes gratefully relaxed in there seats."

  "There," is a preposition, whereas "their," which would be the correct term to use, is a possessive. I've seen "they're," which is a contraction, also mistakenly used in place of a possessive.

  Misused homonyms are one of the key cases in which writing fails to communicate. The same differences exist between the homonyms "your" and "you're." One is a second-person possessive, while the other is a contraction of "you" and "are."

  Therefore, to say (as I'm sure you've seen in many stores), "Smile, your on camera," really doesn't communicate anything because there is no reason for a possessive to be used. The correct phrase is, "Smile,  you're on camera."

  It is crucial, with homonyms, to know the correct meaning and/or function of the word. The word, "to," is a preposition, while "two" is a number and "too" is used to describe an excess of something or as a form of "also."

  While "lose" and "loose" are not exactly homonyms, I feel they deserve an honorable mention here because they, too, are confused by many people. "Lose" is a verb whereas "loose" is an adjective. You don't loose your favorite pencil. You lose it. Conversely, you don't have lose change. You have loose change.

  It's also worth mentioning that lose sounds just like loose except for one thing: the s. The s in lose is soft, and the same letter in loose is hard. If it helps, imagine the word loose with a z and you have lose. I realize that the pronunciation of a word doesn't always follow logically with its spelling, but then the English language is derived from many different sources and so there are a variety of phonetic rules in play from one word to the next.

  Next on the list are the words "affect" and "effect." These seem very confusing at first but are quite simply clarified when you remember that "affect" is a verb and "effect" is a noun.

  Examples:
Poems affect different people in different ways.

The effect of the poem recital was clear in the misty eyes of the audience members.
 
  Another easy way to remember the difference is that affect is similar to cause. When confused, think cause and effect and your way will be clear.

  Though it is worth mentioning that effect also has a use as a verb, in special circumstances. To effect awe in a crowd means the same as to inspire awe in the crowd. When you effect something, you are creating an effect.
But, for the most part, affect should be used to describe someone or something having an effect.

  And now we're down to accept as opposed to except. Both can be used as verbs. To accept something is to welcome it, receive it, acknowledge it, et cetera, while to except something is to set it apart or exclude it.

  Examples:
I accepted the gift from my mom.

I excepted the white shirts from the dark ones so they wouldn't be stained in the wash.

  Granted, it isn't terribly common to use except as a verb. We're all a lot more familiar with saying, "We all went outside, except for Timmy." But it's worth knowing.

  Since I can't cover every single homonym in the English language, I'm sticking to the most common mistakes made. I'll conclude this chapter with one of the most irritating (to me anyway) mistakes I see.

Its
It's

  The crucial thing to remember here is that its is possessive and it's is a contraction. I see a lot of people use them in reverse.

  Examples:
The bear lumbered ponderously forward, its nose snuffling at the air for the scent of food.

It's (it is) funny how it seems that a clown can cheer up everyone but himself.

  This last entry brings us smoothly to my next point: the misuse of apostrophes.