Homophones 03

"Carrot" and "caret" are good examples of homophones, but would you ever mix up the two? Perhaps Bugs Bunny might.

Homophones often come about because of the way in which the English language borrows words from other languages. Sometimes a pair of homophones might exist because their pronunciation has changed over time. Take, for instance, "night" and "knight". Although these words are now homophones, the word "knight" was once pronounced differently. Where we tend to say that the k in the word is "silent", in the past it was pronounced (as were the g and the h, too)! A few hundred centuries ago, "night" and "knight" were not homophones at all.

Ready for the final homophone joke? What did the pawn say before going to bed? 'Night, knight! Get it? Knights and pawns are chess pieces!

If you enjoyed our first two English quizzes about homophones, try our third and final quiz and become a homophone genius!