Words that look and sound the same but aren’t
We’ve all seen them. Maybe even slipped up a little and confused one for the other in an important piece of writing we’ve had to submit, in a test or in a resume — yikes. This article is here to shed a little light on the interesting case of homophones. The word is Greek in origin, with “homo” meaning “same”, and “phone” meaning “voice”. These are words that have the same pronunciation, even identical looking spelling, yet with very distinct meanings. We’ll go through some of the most notorious ones here:
Artist vs. Artiste
This is one of the most challenging pairs because their respective meanings are also very similar. We see the first word “artist” very often. It’s an umbrella term used to refer to people who create art. And as art is as varied as it is in form and medium, people who are painters, sculptors, illustrators and more are also known as “artists”.
“Artiste” refers similarly to creative types of the public performance variety. This includes people like dancers, singers, actors and musicians. You can see how the two terms confuse many due to their overlap in definition, as a dancer’s performance or a musician’s song is also referred to as a work of art.
Affect vs. Effect
Another pair that’s often confused. In the context of ordinary, non-jargon related usage, the shorthand to remembering the difference between the two is that “affect” is mostly used as a verb, and “effect” mostly used as a noun.
“To affect” means to influence or cause a change in someone or something. An example sentence would be: my interest in working overseas affected my decision to pick up a foreign language.
“Effect” as a noun is used to describe the result of a certain thing, such as when the labels of medicinal drugs contain warnings for potential side effects such as drowsiness.
Then vs. Than
I’ll be frank, this is one that I’ve personally abused for years. “Then” is used as an indicator of time. For example, first you melt the chocolates, then you add the marshmallows.
“Than” is for comparison. Japanese-style pancakes are much fluffier than American-style pancakes. And they are also served with a lot more cream than anywhere else!
Stationary vs. Stationery
“Stationary” refers to the state of being immobile or unchanging, such as in the case of stationary exercise bikes in the gym.
“Stationery” refers to writing materials like pens, staplers, erasers that you would find on a work desk or in a pencil case.
Complement vs. Compliment
“Complement” is commonly used as a term referring to things that go well together. For example, the curtains were chosen specifically to complement the wallpaper. This word is often used with positive connotations in regards to a good matching of certain things.
“Compliment” is a nice thing one says to another, as a form of praise or expression of admiration. You could perhaps compliment a foreign language learner on their native-level pronunciation of said language. This word is also commonly seen as “complimentary”, such as in the case of complimentary water or amenities in hotels. Those cases mean free of charge.
How many of these have you slipped up on before? Be honest! And be sure to check out our list of English language courses if you would like to straighten out some of these common homophone mistakes with a professional language teacher!