Lesson video

Hi there, and welcome to today's spelling lesson.

I'm Mr. Moss.

I love spellings and I'm really looking forward to teaching you.

With you today, you need to bring your looking eyes, your listening ears, and your thinking brains, as well as that something to write with and write on would be great.

And having someone to talk to you or something to talk to you would also be brilliant.

Let's get into today's lesson then.

In today's lesson, we're going to be identifying and spelling homonyms. The outcome will be, I can identify and spell homonyms. Here are the keywords for today's learning.

My turn, your turn.

Homonyms. Homonyms are words that have the same spelling or similar pronunciation as other words, but a different meaning.

They're similar to, but not the same as, my turn, your turn, homophones.

Homophones are words that sound the same but have different spellings and different meanings.

So today we're concentrating on homonyms, but it's important to know also that they're similar to homophones but not the same.

Homonyms look the same but have different meanings, and can be pronounced differently.

They don't sound the same all the time.

So first of all, we're gonna look at homonyms today, and then we're gonna have a go at applying some spelling, some homonyms within a sentence.

Let's get on with looking at these words then, that look the same but have different meanings.

Homophones and homonyms are slightly different.

Remember, homophones, that phone is that sound.

They sound the same.

Homonyms means they look the same.

Homophone is here, meaning homos or homos, meaning one and same from Greek, and phone meaning sound.

So same sound, homophones sound the same, but have different spellings.

For example, I have hour and our here.

Hour with our silent H at the beginning, is 60 minutes, an hour.

And our, O-U-R is that possessive, this is ours.

Homonyms have the same spelling.

Look at these two.

Wave and wave.

It could be I waved hello.

Or it could be the waves of the sea.

They sound the same as well, and they're spelled the same.

They look the same, which is really important, but have different meanings in different contexts.

So homonyms are words which have the same spelling, but multiple meanings.

They look the same.

The word bark is a homonym.

Let's think about the different meanings that the word bark could have.

The dog next door began to bark, woof, woof, woof.

The tree's rough bark provided a protective layer.

So that's the bark of a tree that covers it.

Interestingly here, bark in the dog sentence is a verb.

It's a doing word, isn't it? The dog is barking.

And bark on the tree is a noun.

It's a thing.

So homonyms can also have different word classes, but they're spelled the same.

And in this instance, they also sound the same.

Very confusing, I know.

So let's break this word homonym down then, let's think about its etymology.

The history of this word, where it comes from.

Again, the same as homophones.

The homo part is the same.

The homos part comes from Greek means one and the same, but the nim part means word or name.

So it's the same written word, same looking word or the same name.

It's spelled the same.

So homophones and homonyms, remember are slightly different.

Homophones sound the same.

We have here some examples of hear and here.

Hear as in I hear you, spelled H-E-A-R.

Remember that has that word in a word, ear, you hear with your ear.

And here as in over here, that positional language.

Remember H-E-R-E is also in there, which helps us to remember over there, here, that positional language, they sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings.

And remember, homonyms look the same.

Okay? They're the same words, same name.

Where we get that from Greek homonym, like the words bark.

So true or false, the words hear and here are homophones.

Do you think this is true or false? And then you can justify your answer by selecting the correct justification from A or B.

Pause the video, true or false, and select the correct justification.

Off you go.

Brilliant.

Hear and here, well, if I look carefully at these words, they sound the same, don't they? But they're spelled differently, aren't they? I remember homophones means same sound.

So they do sound the same but are spelled differently.

So it is true.

They are homophones, they're not homonyms, they don't look the same.

They're spelled differently.

And they're homophones because they sound the same but have different spellings.

They are not homonyms. So the word wave is a homonym as well.

Let's think about some different context for this word wave.

I like to wave at my teacher when I come to school.

That's that action of waving.

It's a verb there, isn't it? The wave in the ocean nearly knocked me over.

And that's that noun, that's that wave that might crash against the rocks in the ocean.

So in one hand, W-A-V-E, there is being used in that context for that verb, to wave.

And in the other hand, W-A-V-E, wave there is a noun, isn't it? So they look the same, but in the different sentences, they have different meanings.

The context and position within a sentence tells us the meaning of a homonym.

So choose the correct words to complete these sentences.

I've got some blanks in my sentence and I need you to complete it for me.

I've got only three gaps, but I've got four words.

I've got homonyms, homophones, same, different.

I'll say the sentence.

Are words that have the spelling, but a meaning.

The meaning of a homonym changes depending on the context.

Pause the video.

Fill in that sentences for me now.

Off you go.

Great job team.

So let's have a see how you've done.

I was looking for homonyms are different words, sorry, are words that have the same spelling, they look the same, remember the same word or name, but they have different meanings dependent on the context they're put in.

The meaning of a homonym changes depending on the context.

Remember, they're different to homophones because homophones sound the same but have different spellings, not the same spellings.

These words are all homonyms. These are words which have the same spelling, but multiple meanings.

It's also possible for these words to sound different.

That's why they're not homophones all the time because homophones would sound the same.

Homonyms can have the same spelling, but also be pronounced differently dependent on their context.

So here I have bright, bat, and this is the interesting one, tear or tear.

Tear might be as in you are crying, or I might tear something.

But it's spelled the same, so it's a homonym.

So a tear formed in the corner of his eye, she has to tear the paper in half.

They're spelled the same but pronounced differently here and have very different meanings.

Tear, T-E-A-R there, sounding like tear is that noun, that tear in your eye and tear also spelled, T-E-A-R, is a verb, isn't it? So be careful.

Homonyms as well as looking the same can also sound different.

Can you think of different meaning, sorry, for the words bright and bat, I've helped you with tear or tear.

How might bright have different meanings? How might bat have different meanings? Pause the video and have a think now.

Great.

I had loads of amazing conversations there and people putting those words into different contexts.

Let's think about the word bat.

It could be the bat that's a nocturnal animal that uses echolocation, but it could also refer to the action of batting something away.

Or it might even refer to a bat that you might use in a sport like a cricket bat.

So remember, homonyms can have the same spelling, but different meanings dependent upon the context they're used in and their position within a sentence.

So let's have a read of some words.

My turn, your turn, bank, bat, match, fair, bow or bow, and tear or tear.

Also, we could have lead or lead.

These words are all homonyms. Sometimes homonyms sound the same and sometimes they don't.

The final three here, if we look at these carefully, they can be pronounced differently.

I could say I use the bow and arrow, or I could bow in front of someone and they're spelled the same.

A tear trickle down my cheek or I had to tear something.

And lead could be that material that used to be used in piping, or it could be lead, I use the lead to walk my dog.

They're all homonyms. They're spelled the same but can be pronounced differently.

Remember, this isn't always the case for homonyms, though.

There's only one way of me pronouncing the word bank.

So unlike many of our other rules that we've used when looking at suffixes or other spelling rules, there are no patterns for homonyms. We can't generate any rules.

Homonyms can be nouns, verbs, or adjectives as well dependent on the context they're being used in.

Remember, we looked already at tear and tear.

Tear is that noun and tear is that verb.

It's a doing or being word.

It's placed within the sentence and the context of the sentence will inform us as to the meaning of the homonym.

I travelled by train.

I am going to train hard today.

Look at these sentences for me.

Can you spot the homonyms in either sentence? Remember, homonyms are those words that look the same but have different meanings.

Pause the video.

Have a go at doing that now.

Great job team.

So let's look carefully.

We are looking for a word that looks the same.

Okay? And might even sound the same, but not all the time, but will have a different meaning.

I travelled by train.

Yeah, I'm going to train hard today, which means you're going to do something, you're going to work hard perhaps in the gym to get fitter.

So train here is our homonym.

It's spelled the same, but in each instance it has different meanings.

And remember, homonyms can be adjectives, verbs, or nouns.

Let's consider then the word class of each of these words.

I travel by train.

I am going to train hard today.

What is the word class of train in each sentence? Is it a verb, adjective or a noun? Pause the video and see if you can figure it out.

Brilliant.

Yeah.

In my first sentence here, train is a noun.

It's a thing that you are going to travel by.

In my second sentence train here is a verb.

Okay? It's a doing or a being word.

You do it who you are and the word is a verb.

So it's something you are doing.

The word train can be both a noun and a verb.

And remember, it depends on the context and position within a sentence.

So it's a homonym.

Now have a look here for me.

True or false, homonyms can have different word classes? Is this true or false? Think about the learning we've just looked at and then you can justify your answer.

A says the word train has only one meaning.

B, the word train can be both a noun and a verb, it depends on the context.

So again, true or false, and select the correct justification.

Homonyms can have different word classes.

Pause the video.

Off you go.

Great job team.

Some brilliant reasoning going on there.

So homonyms can have different word classes.

That is true.

And let's think about our justification here.

Let's think about that word train.

We know that it can be both a noun and a verb because I can train, it's something I can do.

It can be a being or a doing word, a verb.

But also I can get on a train and go somewhere.

That train will be a noun.

It's a thing, isn't it? So my correct justification is the word train can be both a noun and a verb depending on the context.

So homonyms can have different word classes.

We know they can be adjectives, nouns, or verbs.

So I'd like you to have a go now at spotting the homonyms for me.

I'll have a go first.

To show respect, you must bow.

And there the context is informing us is how we would pronounce that homonym.

I wouldn't say it's to show respect you must bow, it's bow.

She used a bow to play the violin.

So that's that long thin utensil instrument that you'd use to play a violin.

And I wouldn't hear, use the bow pronunciation.

She used a bow to play the violin.

No, she used a bow.

So my homonyms here are bow and bow.

They look the same, but they don't sound the same.

They're spelled the same and have different meanings.

One is that verb to bow and the other is the noun, the bow that you might use.

So I want you to look at two and three for me.

There's two sentences in each, and I want you to figure out which words in there are homonyms. Remember, they're gonna look the same, they might not sound the same, and they're gonna have different meanings.

The evidence might lead to a breakthrough in the case.

The pipes contained a dangerous amount of lead.

That decision was not fair.

I enjoyed myself at the county fair.

Pause the video, reread those sentences and see if you can spot the homonyms. Off you go.

Brilliant job.

So number two is an interesting one, isn't it? It's one of those homonyms where it's spelled the same, but it sounds different depending on how you pronounce it in the context.

The evidence might lead to a breakthrough in the case.

So it's leading to something, it's going somewhere.

The pipes contained a dangerous amount of lead, not lead this time it's pronounced lead, and it's a material, it's a noun.

So we have a verb and noun there.

In number three, that decision was not fair.

I enjoyed myself at the county fair.

They both sound the same here and are spelled the same but have different meanings.

That decision was not fair, means something that's unfair.

I enjoy myself at the county fair.

That's a noun, that's a place you would go to to go on rides.

So here we had lead and lead, and we have fair also as being homonyms. So spelling rules can help us to know how to spell words, but we also need to practise.

And remember, there are no rules for homonyms. So there's no rules that can help us here.

So really we just need to practise spelling some of them and also putting them into different contexts and different sentences is also really helpful.

When we practise, we remember words more easily.

We look carefully at the words.

We think about what might be difficult about them.

We notice how they're spelled and then we become more confident when using them, especially when writing.

There are loads of different spelling strategies that we can use.

And today we're gonna use one of my faves, which is my turn, your turn, 'big letters'.

The 'big letters' strategy.

So the 'big letters' strategy can help us in several ways.

First of all, we have to visualise, we have to look really carefully at the word, placing close attention to any tricky parts in it.

We then repeat copy because we copy the word out, starting really small and then getting larger and we repeat copying it out until we remember it and we get larger and larger and larger.

So I look at my spelling cover, copy, check, and then look, cover, copy, check, but get larger and larger and larger.

Then if we're working on our handwriting, if you use your best cursive handwriting, that's making links between your hand and your brain.

It's that motor memory.

It's helping you remember how to spell that word.

So what are the order of our steps when using the 'big letters' strategy? These are all out of order and I want you to put them in the correct order from one to four, we've got write biggest, look, write small, write bigger.

Think about your comparative and superlative adjectives in use here as well.

Pause the video and put these steps for the 'big letters' strategy in order.

Off you go.

Great job team.

So the first thing we always have to do when looking at spellings is look, okay, it's a really useful thing to do.

Two, we then write small, then we write bigger, and then finally, we write our biggest.

So we look, have a look carefully at the spelling, cover, write, check, and then write bigger, and write biggest.

Remember, we should always look carefully at spellings before we practise them with any strategy that we use.

So I'd like you to choose three words to practise the 'big letters' strategy with, choose words that you found most difficult from the lesson so far.

So I've got bow or bow here because it has those two different pronunciations, I've got lead or lead, and I've got tear or tear, I've chosen three homonyms here that are more difficult homonyms because they can also be pronounced differently whilst being spelled the same.

So I'm gonna have a go at using the 'big letters' strategy here.

The first thing I need to do is to look carefully at the spelling.

Now I know this one could be bow or bow and it's that B-O-W, I then cover it up and I have a go at writing it.

I then check back, oh, I managed to spell that correctly, but I'm not just gonna give up there.

I'm using the 'big letters' strategy, remember? So I'm gonna cover it up again.

Have a look at my original small one and write bigger and write bigger again.

And finally, write my biggest getting bigger each time.

Remember, this is our 'big letters' strategy.

So I'd like you to pause the video now.

You could use the words bow or bow, lead or lead, or tear or tear.

Or you could pick three other spellings from today's lesson.

Pause the video, use our 'big letters' strategy.

Off you go, practise three words.

Brilliant job team.

How did you do? Did you manage to spell your words correctly? And more importantly, did you have fun doing it? Why don't you share your favourite word that you practised using the 'big letters' strategy with those around you? Or show it to me now.

Also, check your work.

Do you have any corrections to make with your spellings? Pause the video, share your learning, and make any corrections now, off you go.

So onto our final learning cycle then, which is applying spellings within a sentence.

Let's read the following words.

My turn, your turn.

Woman, woman, women, women.

There's a slight difference there remember, woman, women.

Woman, W-O-M-A-N with that word man in, is the singular.

Women is plural.

It's one of those strange plurals, one of these irregular ones because often we add S or E-S as a suffix to show that what nouns are plural.

But I don't say woman's, I say women as my plural.

In both words, the O spelling is making a different sound.

Woman, women.

So it is making a different sound in each one.

Woman here is singular.

She is a strong woman.

One.

Irregular plural here, they are strong women, talking about more than one, plural meaning more than one.

So be careful with these words that O in both is making a different sound.

One has an A-N one has an E-N, our W-O-M-E-N with men is our plural.

And our W-O-M-A-N is our singular.

So with that in mind, let's read the sentences and think about whether we need our plural or our singular spelling of women or women for each sentence, I'll read the sentences to you.

The two laughed at the joke.

Think about that.

The was sat alone on the bench.

The turned around and looked at her child.

So pause the video, select either singular or the plural spelling, the correct spelling to complete each sentence, and say the sentence out loud.

Off you go.

Great job team.

So the first one is the two women.

It's our plural spelling, W-O-M-E-N.

The woman was sat alone on the bench.

If she's alone, it's singular.

So it's our woman spelling singular.

And the woman turned around and looked at her child.

That word her there, okay, is showing that we have our singular.

So remember W-O-M-E-N with men in it is plural, W-O-M-A-N, with man in it, singular.

So we are going to write now a sentence containing some of our focus spellings that are gonna contain some of those words which are homonyms. When we write the whole sentence, we need to do several things at once.

We have to remember the whole sentence, sound out each word, think of our spelling rules.

And remember, there are no spelling rules for homonyms. So just be careful and look out for those common exceptional curriculum words.

And the curriculum words we've looked at today are woman and women, singular and plural.

And, of course, remember our sentence punctuation, capital letters, and full stops.

So just listen to me say the sentence first of all, as the woman ran for the train, a tear streams down her cheek.

As the woman ran for the train, a tear streamed down her cheek.

Bit of a sad sentence.

So we can use some strategies now to help us remember this sentence.

We're gonna march it out, as the woman ran for the train, a tear streamed down her cheek.

Pause the video, march it out now.

Brilliant.

The next one, shouting out, as the woman ran for the train, a tear streamed down her cheek.

Pause the video, have a good shouting it out now, make sure I can hear you.

Wow.

So loud.

And finally, counting the words on our fingers as the woman ran for the train, a tear streamed down her cheek.

Pause the video and count out that sentence as you say it now so you make sure you didn't miss any words.

Off you go.

Great job team.

So I'm gonna say the sentence one more time in a moment when you are gonna have a chance to write it.

Remember to sound out each word, think about this common exception curriculum words, and remember your sentence punctuation, capitals, full stops, any other punctuation that might be in the sentence as well.

Commas, apostrophe, et cetera.

So I'm gonna say the sentence one more time, as the woman ran for the train, a tear streamed down her cheek, pause the video and have a go at writing that sentence for me now, off you go.

Great job team.

Some really careful thinking now about our homonyms. Some great punctuating as well, some lovely presentation and handwriting.

We're gonna check our work now and we can make any corrections as we go along.

As needs to have a capital letter.

The woman, it's a singular, isn't it? So it's that M-A-N spelling there, ran for the train, as the woman ran for the train.

We have a comma here as well, a tear, so be careful.

Remember, train is also a homonym.

It sounds the same as well as looking the same.

And in this instance, we're talking about our noun, train.

But this is here, not tear, but tear.

It's that noun that might come out of your eyes if you're upset, streamed, I think before I was saying ran down her cheek.

But it's the same idea.

It means it's going down that way.

If you wrote streamed or ran, it doesn't matter.

Down her cheek.

Brilliant.

Obviously, you need to have a full stop.

You'll notice one interesting piece of punctuation in this sentence as well, which is this comma here.

We use this comma to separate the subordinate clause.

And our main clause, as the woman ran down the train is our subordinate clause.

A tear streamed down her cheek is our main clause, and we've used that there in our complex adverbial sentence.

So have a look at this sentence.

What magical mistakes have you made? What successes have you had? Do you need to make any corrections? Share those mistakes and successes and make those corrections now.

Pause the video, off you go.

Great spelling today, everyone.

Today we've been identifying spelling homonyms. Remember, homonyms are words that have the same spelling, but multiple meanings.

The meaning of a homonym is dependent on the context.

There are no spelling rules for homonyms. We must learn them by sight and use practise strategies to help us remember them.

Remember also that some homonyms can be pronounced differently as well, whilst having the same spelling.

Keep an eye out for these in your reading and writing.

Keep up the great spelling practise and I'll see you again soon.