6 Minute Vocabulary - Homophones

This is the BBC . This podcast is supported by advertising outside the . This is a download from BBC Learning English to find out more . Visit our website . Six minutes from BBC Learning English , hello and welcome to Six Minute Vocabulary . I'm Neal . And I'm Sophie . Hi , Neal . I've got a question for you . OK , what's black and white and red all over ? What's black and white and red all over ? I don't know that . Go on . Tell me a newspaper . Oh , I see . So it wasn't the color red , but red as in the past form of red white paper , black writing and the red all over . means people read it . Very good . Sophie , you should go into comedy . I'm not too sure about that , Neal . I'm sorry for the bad joke , everyone . But words that sound the same but have different meanings is actually our topic for Today Show . That's right . Homophones , words that sound the same , but have different spellings and different meanings . Let's listen to Mark and Jane Marks just had an accident in the kitchen . And here's a question for you to think about while you listen . What has Mark got on his jeans ? What's wrong , Mark ? You look really angry . What's wrong , Jane ? Can't you see I've got flour all over my jeans ? You've got a flour on your jeans . I didn't know you liked pretty things . Oh , not a flour , Jane . Flour , look . Oh , Mark , you're making me a birthday cake . Oh , so that's Mark and Jane . And we asked you what Mark had got on his jeans . And of course , the answer was flour . The kind of flour you use to make bread and cakes and flour is spelt f l o u r . Jane thought it was a different kind of flour . F l o w e r the brightly colored and sweet smelling plant you might have in your garden . That's right . Flour f l o u r and flour f l o w e r r homophones . Words that sound the same but have different spellings and different meanings . Now homophones can be difficult to learn and the reason is because they sound exactly the same . That's right . And here are some more examples . Male m a i l meaning letters and parcels . You send in the post and mail m a l a the opposite of female . And here's another one . Right r i g h t the opposite of left and right . W r i t e like write a letter . Here's one piece p e a c e when it's quiet and calm and peace . P i e c e a part of something . A piece of cake . Mm . And one more tail t a i l the long narrow part that sticks out to the back of an animal's body and tail t a l e a kind of story . What's your favourite fairy tale now . Well I really like the emperor's new clothes . I think it's really relevant still today , even for grown ups . It's a great story . Oh , six minutes from BBC Learning English and we're talking about homophones . That's words which are spelt differently and have different meanings but sound the same . And now it's time for a quiz . I'm going to read a sentence with one of the homophones from today's show . Try to spell the word correctly as you listen and Sophie will tell you the answers afterwards . Good luck . Are you ready ? Number one , Ben gave his girlfriend a flower for Valentine's Day . Oh . Now , how do you spell flower there ? Unless she wanted to bake bread , he gave her a flower . F l o w e r correct . Well done . If you got that one right . Number two , the dog is wagging its tail . How do you spell tail ? This is part of an animal's body . So it's t a I l and well . If you got that one at home , finally the postman put the letters on the table on the right , how do you spell write the tables on the right , not on the left . So it's ah i g h t well done to everyone at home who got those . Right . And that almost brings us to the end of the program . But before we go , here's today's Top Tips for learning vocabulary . Homophones are difficult to spell correctly when you hear them because they sound the same . So if you think a word might be a homophone , read or listen to the words around it very carefully . That will help you get a better idea what word it is and how to spell it . There's more about homophones at BBC Learning English dot com . Join us again for more six minute vocabulary . Goodbye .