House x 2, Minute x 2...

Hi Kids,

Hope you had a good week and you’re not yet climbing walls or pulling out your hair.

Today I would like to take a look at some words that are pronounced differently depending on whether they are used as a noun, adjective or verb.

Take a look:

house

minute

appropriate

tear

refuse

deliberate

intimate

Now you may or may not be familiar with both pronunciations.

Let’s go through them with example sentences. Try to read them out loud, and then you’ll see how differently they sound.

My house is just down the street.

These libraries house an astonishing number of books. [house = how zzzz]

Give me a minute, won’t you?

These minute details the artist incorporated into the painting are really something, wouldn’t you say? [minute = my newt]

I don’t think your behaviour is appropriate.

You didn’t need to go and appropriate all the projects for yourself. That was greedy. [appropriate= appropree ate, as in I "ate" an apple]

Please don’t tear that page. [tear = tare]

He shed a tear at hearing the sad tale. [tear = teer]

Will you refuse a dying man’s request?

The refuse at the back of the shop stinks to high heaven. [refuse = ref use]

That act of vengeance was deliberate.

The jury might deliberate for an hour or a day; it’s anybody’s guess. [deliberate = deliber ate, as in I "ate" an apple]

This is an intimate family friend. I would trust anything she says. [intimate = intim it]

Do you mean to intimate that I was in the wrong? [intimate = intim ate, as in I "ate" an apple]

Well, how did that go? For most of them, it’s quite possible that you’re more familiar with one form than with the other. Depending on what you read, you might not come across the other, less common forms. But they are still perfectly good words in their own right, and you can expand your vocabulary!

Try and stretch your sentences this week, making use of both forms of the words in the list.

And that list is not exhaustive. Got any more you can think of? Write me in the comments with your examples. Remember, here we’re interested in different pronunciations depending on the part of speech, and not pronunciation by country (for instance the British vs. North American pronunciation of tomato).

Cheerio and enjoy your week.

Know someone who would enjoy these tips on vocabulary and grammar? Ask them to check out PerfectlyWriteKids.com.