The Homonym Error
The Homonym Error ("Hom")
The homophonic error is all too common. Homophones are words that sound alike, but which have quite different meanings. For example, "whose" and "who's" sound alike, but the former is an adjective ("I don't know whose these are."), while the latter is a contraction ("I wonder who's ["who is"] going to go?"
Other common homophonic confusions include
- affect/effect
- too/to/two
- an/and
- its/it's
- their/there/they're
- were/where
...and many others. As simple as these are, homophonic errors will have a deadly impact on your grade. You must learn to use homophones correctly.
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