Как научиться различать омонимы в разговорной английской речи?

В английской речи, как и в русской, часто встречаются омонимы — слова одинаковые по написанию или произношению, но разные по значению. Но если, общаясь на родном языке, мы сразу понимаем, какой смысл вкладывает собеседник, то говоря на английском, можем запутаться сами и запутать окружающих. В своей статье Рейно приводит примеры английских омонимов и даёт совет, как можно быстро распознать их правильное значение.

«За песчаной косой лопоухий косой пал под острой косой косой бабы с косой». I do hope my Russian is correct, forgive me if I made an error.

I often get asked by students and friends about the spelling and pronunciation of words, something that most native language speakers don’t pay much attention to as we all instinctively know the meaning of a specific word used in context.

In these questions I have had to look at some interesting words recently, the most confusing ones being those which are spelled the same AND pronounced the same but have a different meaning. The academic name for these words: homonyms, which means having the «same name».

An easy example is the word «book». We all know this is something we read or making a reservation.

A few more examples of these words:
Address (to speak to someone) or address (location)
Bark (outside layer of a tree) or bark (the sound a dog makes)
Fair (beautiful) or fair (equitable).

Of course there are many more! Just ask Google!

My advice to understanding these words? Look at the rest of the sentence as there should be context to help you find the correct meaning of the word. If this doesn’t help, try finding alternate definitions for the word.

Happy English reading, till next time!