Row your boat and don’t pick a row with me

They refuse to throw away the refuse

In English, a word may spell the same but pronounced differently. In the above sentence, the first ‘refuse’ is pronounced as ‘ri fius’ whereas the second one is pronounced as ‘rare fius’.

Here are further examples of this group of words.

1 He wound his watch on his left hand which has an untreated wound.

[The first ‘wound’ is the past tense of ‘wind’ which is pronounced something like ‘wine’ except the end sound. It means to twist the spring in a watch. The second ‘wound’ is pronounced as ‘woo won’t without the t sound]

2 The boy who is sitting in the third row had a row with his best friend.

[The first ‘row’ is pronounced as ‘roe’ but the second one is pronounced as ‘row’ as in ‘brow’.

3 Lead present in water will lead to poisoning if consumed.

[The first ‘lead’ is pronounced as ‘led’ whereas the second one is pronounced as ‘lid’]

4 Those who live near the sea can see live fish swimming here and there in the water.

[The first ‘live’ is pronounced as ‘live’ as in ‘alive’ but the second one is pronounced something like ‘leave’]