Pronunciation
Words that are spelt the same, but sound different, or sound the same with different spellings
Eight ways to say 'ough'
"The dough-faced ploughboy coughed and hiccoughed his way through Loughborough to the lough"
| dough, as in toe | plough, as in now |
| cough, as in off | hiccough, as in cup |
| through, as in brew | lough, as in cuff |
| borough, as in kookaburra | lough, as in lock |
| *NB - these are UK pronunciations - your mileage may vary! | |
Miscellaneous dualities
| A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum at the army base. |
| They were too close to the door to close it. |
| The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert. |
| The buck does funny things when the does doze. |
| When the boy shouted, the dove dove into the bushes. |
| The entrance to a mall fails to entrance me. |
| I spent last evening evening out a pile of dirt. |
| The insurance was invalid for the invalid. |
| How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend? |
| He led before, and would lead again, if he could get the lead out. |
| A cat with nine lives lives next door. |
| It took a minute to eat a minute meal. |
| She will mouth obscenities unless you stop her mouth. |
| After a number of injections my jaw got number. |
| I did not object to the object. |
| We must polish the Polish furniture. |
| No time like the present to present the present. |
| A farm can produce produce. |
| With a reed between my teeth, I will read what I read yesterday. |
| She was reading a book in Reading. |
| The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse. |
| The row about how to row disturbed the roe deer. |
| On the road, they rowed about who rowed the best. |
| A seamstress and a sewer fell down into the sewer. |
| So the farmer taught his sow to sow. But not to sew. |
| I had to subject the subject to a series of tests. |
| I shed a tear when I saw the tear in the painting. |
| The unionised gas smothered the unionised workforce. |
| The wind was too strong to wind the sail. |
| The bandage was wound around the wound. |
| I wonder whether the wether will be out in this weather? |
I recommend the Rhyming Zone, to
investigate specific words, and OneLook
for a useful dictionary search.
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Contributions to The Langwidge this year:
Sol Squire, David Lawton
And see acknowledgments from previous years