Confusing Words & Common Mistakes

As always, I'm your host Dane, and you can find me on Instagram and TikTok at Englishwith Dane. Today's episode is about potentially confusing words, words that maybe sound the same but are spelled differently, que suenan igual, pero se scriben de manera distinta, and words that look the same but sound different. Don't worry, you don't need to remember any of that, and this is going to get interesting, so let's do it. You are listening to episode 146 of English with Dane. Hit it.

Okay, we have officially started the show, so let's go through this list I have here with a bunch of different homophones and homographs. That's what we call them, by the way. Homophones, if they sound the same but are spelled differently, think phone equals sound, right? Phone equals sound. So homophones because they sound the same. Then we have homographs, graphs as in graphic. So it's something visual. Homographs are words that look the same, so are spelled the same, but sound different.

But again, you don't need to remember that, don't worry. Let's go through the list and you'll see what I mean. First, we have minute and minute. Minute and minute. Same spelling, but sound different, so homograph. We have minute as in the unit of time, minuto, and then minute as in very small, minúsculo, minute details, small, insignificant details. Next up we have wind and wind. Again, same spelling but different sound, so homograph. Wind as in viento. Our beach day was ruined by strong winds.

And then wind as in enrollar or dar cuerda. Roads, caminos o calles, can be winding, which I'm assuming comes from the verb to wind, a winding road that tiene muchas curvas. Next up we have horse and horse. Same sound but different spelling, so it's a homophone. The first one is the animal, horse, H-O-R-S-E. While the second one is an adjective which means ronco o ronca, spelled H-O-A-R-S-E. Yes, if you think about it, I guess that un caballo ronco would be a horse horse. I'm tired, okay?

My feet hurt, my voice is hoarse. Then we have axes and axis. They sound really similar but are spelled differently. So homophone. Axes, spelled a X-E-S, is what you use to chop wood, cortar madera, to chop wood. So un hacha, well, achas because it's axes in plural. Then we have axis spelled a XIS con I, which means eje. The earth revolves on its axis once every 24 hours. They sound really similar, but the S sound is a bit different.

Axis and Axis. What comes to mind, lo que me viene a la mente, what comes to mind when I hear Axis is World War II, the Axis powers, Nazi Germany, Italy, and Japan mainly. By the way, if you like history and history documentaries and stuff like that, they are a great way to practice. I recommend watching The World at War or World War II in HD, which is really cool because they added color and it's incredible to see. It makes it so much more real in a way. Okay. Next. Him and him.

They sound the same but have different spellings, so homophone. The first one is him like él. They gave him a present. Easy. Then we have him spelled H Y M N, which is a religious song or poem of praise to God. So what people sing in church. It's a national anthem. We use the word anthem. So we don't pronounce the N in that last one. Him and him. Next up, bass and bass spell the same but sound different, so we have a homograph.

Bass is the instrument with four strings, el bajo, and also los graves when talking about music. Turn up the bass, puede ser suele al bajo or suele a los graves. Then there's bass, which is a type of fish, lubina. Next up is ring and ring. They sound the same but have different spelling, so homophone. The first ring, R-I-N-G, can be what you put on your finger, no anillo.

Or also what your phone does, lo que hace tu móvil, when someone calls you, what your phone does when someone calls you, right? It rings. But then there's ring with a W in front. So W-R-I-N-G, which means to squeeze and twist something. Apedar y girar, to squeeze and twist something, like what you do to a wet cloth or rag, right? A wet rag or wet towel or someone's neck, perhaps. If you weren't a cop, I'd wring your neck. Hey, hey, let's take that down. No, no, no, excuse me.

Then there's tear and tear, spelled the same but sound different. So homograph. Tear as in lagrima and tear as in to break or to pull two pieces apart. If you're playing a sport and someone pulls your shirt, tirado camiseta, it could tear. You tear a ligament or a tendon. You can tear a piece of paper, etc. Tear. T E A R. Then we have close and close. Close and close. Spell the same but sound different. Homograph. Close as in cerca. I live really close to the train station.

And then close as in cerrar. Don't close the door. It's that s sound again. It's voiceless, so you don't need to engage your vocal cords for the first one, those guardas vocales. You don't need to engage your vocal cords for the first one. Close. Because you can say sss close. But that second s sound is like that mosquito sound, for which you do have to activate your vocal cords. Close. Z. Alright, one more. We have lean and lean. Same spelling and same pronunciation. This is a homonym.

Yes, a new one. So when they have the same spelling and the same pronunciation, but different meanings, they are called homonyms. H-O-M-O-N-Y-M-S. First we have lean as in to lean against a wall, maybe. Recostarse or apoyarse in Spanish. Don't lean on that wall because I just painted it. Then there's lean when talking about a person's physical appearance. Lean means thin, skinny, or with low body fat percentage, let's say. Lean meat, for example, is meat that doesn't have much fat.

Lean also has athletic connotations, right? Like his body is lean because he is a runner, for example. Alright, let's shift gears for a second and talk about a common mistake that I've heard several people make recently. And then an interesting little phrasal verb you maybe haven't heard before. The common mistake I wanted to address or talk about happens when we want to say somos ocho, when you're making a reservation at a restaurant, or maybe you're just telling a story or whatever.

The mistake here is saying we are eight, or we were eight, if you're saying éramos ocho. What you want to say is there were eight of us, like había ocho de nosotros if you're translating literally. If you say we're eight, you're saying tenemos ocho años. Don't get me wrong, people will understand what you're saying, obviously, especially in a restaurant context, but that doesn't mean you need to make that mistake. So there were 40 of us at the event. There's going to be 20 of us.

There's going to be 20 of us. But for some reason, theirs has become acceptable despite being ungrammatical. It passes the ear test, no, so to speak. Anyway, there were eight of us is what you want to say, and not we were eight. Alright, before we go, let's finish up with a phrasal verb. The phrasal verb in question is to tag along, spelled T A G and then A-L-O-N-G.

To tag along means to go somewhere with a person or group, but usually when that person hasn't been asked to do so, hasn't been invited. In Spain, we use the fantastic verb of acoplar or acoplarse. It's basically the same thing. You can say something like, I don't know who they are, they just tagged along. Or maybe your friend tells you that he or she is going to go shopping that afternoon, and you say, Oh, do you mind? ¿Te importa? Do you mind if I tag along? Te importa si me acoplo?

Do you mind if you tag along, sir? No problem. Welcome aboard. A tag is an etiqueta, by the way. When you buy something, you have to rip off the tag. And tag is also a game kids play when one person is it, La Lira, and the rest have to escape and not get tagged. If you do get tagged, though, then you're it. Alright, that's it for this episode of English with Dane. I hope you enjoyed it, and more importantly, I hope you learned something.

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