It’s been a while since I last mentioned the spelling problem posed by homophones, but I didn’t forget about it. I’m working my way through the alphabet, clarifying the distinctions between words that sound identical, but are spelled differently. These words will not be caught by spellcheckers; you just have to learn them.

If you’ve missed my previous posts on this topic, here are the links, alphabetically:   A    B    C     D

eaves/eves

Eaves are the overhanging lower part of roofs. Eve is short for evening, and usually refers to the night before a holiday or event.

Dad hung strings of lights from the eaves on Christmas Eve.

elicit/illicit

Elicit is a verb meaning to draw out or evoke. Illicit is an adjective meaning illegal or morally prohibited.

Using torture to elicit information is illicit behavior.

ewe/you

I’d venture to guess that no English speaker has ever mistakenly written ewe when he meant the pronoun you, but I suppose someone might not realize that the word for female sheep was spelled ewe.

Did you see the ram and ewe with their lambs?

eye/I/aye

I is the first-person pronoun, of course. Eye is the body part, and aye means yes or yea.

When the time came to vote, I looked the chairman in the eye and said, “Aye!”

 

There are just a few E homophones, but too many F’s for me to easily combine them!

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