The weather has been gloomy, dismal, and rainy with greyish skies for the past several days. Having had my fill of this tiresome weather pattern, I've found myself seeking indoor projects that can alleviate my meteorologically-induced funk. My desperation is evidenced by the shelves that I've dusted, closets and drawers that I've scoured looking for items to donate, word puzzles I've attempted and grumpy facial expression that my SO fears may become permanent if the sun does not reappear soon.
The absence of the sun's rays streaming in my windows has also lent itself to my brain searching for stimulation. Reading my beloved newspaper or listening to network or cable news stations reinforces the notion that our nation is focused on a smallish number of news items. If a foreigner scanned news sources for the highlights, he or she could come to the conclusion that our attention is currently directed towards the economy, undeserved corporate bonuses, Afghanistan, health-care reform, the Olympia Snow 'defection', and, lastly, the flu virus.
It is on this last point that my mind became fascinated with the word flu. I realized that by pronouncing the word flu, I could also mean flue or flew. Now I really had my own attention. Becoming bored with cleaning, dusting, and reorganizing, I decided to do some investigation toward personal improvement and began searching for the term that describes words that are pronounced the same but have different spellings.
Certain that readers of this blog will share my immense enthusiasm for learning, I'll share what I gleaned from my quest for knowledge. (Please note that there is some disagreement among sources that should know about that which they claim to be expert.)
Words that share the same pronounciation regardless of how they are spelled are called homophones. Homophones that are spelled differently are heterographs. Examples of common heterographs would be to,two, too OR there, their, and they're.
I hope readers are pleased, too, with my results of finding at least two examples of words they can relate to. There will be further blogs relating their familiar words when they're are ready.
Ahhh. We'll all sleep better tonight!
Ancora imparo
