For this year’s A to Z Challenge I am writing about words. I hope my posts will interest readers, who are fascinated by words as I am. A few years ago I began to compile a list of homophones. I’m not the only person, who has done this – other lists of homophones are available online. I haven’t found homophones beginning with every letter of the alphabet, so for some letters I am only including anagrams. In my other posts I’ll also include at least one anagram.

Homophones are words, which are spelled differently, but sound the same.

They are popular with crossword compilers, who give clues such as ‘sounds’ or ‘we hear’.

However, as someone who has lived in a variety of places in the UK and visited others, I am aware that regional accents affect pronunciation and one person’s homophones may be two distinct words to another.  For example, people from the south of England do not make a distinction between pore and poor, whereas some in the North and almost all in Scotland do.

My reason for this series of posts is that I have noticed that many people do not always choose the correct spelling for words where the sound may be correct. The use of speech to text software and online spellcheckers perhaps increases the likelihood of spelling mistakes being made or missed.

For example, I have seen sync spelled sink, whet spelled wet (again some people pronounce ‘wh’ distinctly).

I have even caught myself spelling one of the triplets, your, you’re and yore incorrectly.

Anagrams are words using the same letters in a different order. These are also popular in crosswords, with cryptic clues suggesting mixing of letters; the puzzler has to work out which words are to be mixed and which word or phrase is the definition.

In my opinion many misunderstandings between people are due to failure to use words in the same way as one another. Thus learning the meaning of words, how to express oneself and above all how to listen to others, can promote harmony and understanding between people with different backgrounds.

My posts are not going to be preachy. After Easter it will hardly be noticeable that I write from a Christian viewpoint. The Bible begins with God speaking everything into being. (Genesis Chapter 1).  Jesus Christ, who came to earth to show us what God is like and to become our Saviour, is known as The Word. (John Chapter 1) The Holy Spirit’s arrival at Pentecost gave people of all nations and languages the ability to understand what Jesus’ followers were saying. (Acts Chapter 2) So words are important.