Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Words with same spelling but pronounced differently.

There are certain words in English that are pronounced differently with different meanings. Four examples of these are 'row', 'refuse', ‘lead’ and ‘minute’.

1 'refuse' is pronounced as 're fius' and 'rare fius'.

When it is pronounced as 'refuse', it means ' to say that you will not do or accept something'.

e.g. They refuse to help their selfish neighbour.

When 'rare fius' is the pronunciation of 'refuse', it means 'rubbish'.

e.g. The residents there do not dispose of their refuse properly.

2 'row' has two pronunciations, that is 'row' as in 'arrow' and 'row' as in 'rowdy'.

In the former pronunciation, it means ' a line of things or people'.

e.g I sat in the eighth row when I was watching the movie.

When the pronunciation is the latter, it means 'quarrel'.

e.g. They had a row just now over very trivial things.

3 ‘lead’ can be pronounced as ‘lid’ or ‘led’.

When ‘lid’ is the pronunciation, it means ‘to control a group of people’.

e.g. A capable man was chosen to lead the new organization.

When it is pronounced as ‘led’, ‘lead’ means ‘a kind of dark-grey poisonous metal’.

e.g. The patient suffered from lead poisoning.

4 The two pronunciations for ‘minute’ is ‘minit’ and ‘my newt’.

When pronounced as ‘minit’, ‘minute’ has the meaning of ‘one sixtieth part of an hour’.

e.g. It took him one minute to write to sign the agreement.

When ‘my newt’ is the pronunciation, ‘minute’ means ‘very tiny’.

e.g. Bacteria are minute creatures.

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