Homophones for 11 plus English

Homophones sound the same, but they have different spellings and different meanings. Your ear cannot tell them apart, so the meaning has to. If one has an apostrophe, say it in full: they're is they are. Then use a meaning trick. There has here inside it, so it is a place. A piece of pie. Expand it, then check the meaning.

Try they're: the twins left they are coats. No sense. Try there: there is a place, and coats are not a place. Their means belonging to them. Whose coats? The twins'. So it is their.

The trap is the right sound with the wrong meaning. There is a real word, spelt correctly, so it can look fine. It is wrong here, because it is a place. In a spelling line, check what each word means.

• 5.1Tricky words to learnLearn it in parts, and give it a trick
• 5.3Adding prefixes and suffixesLook at the root before you add
• 5.4Silent lettersLearn the pairs, and find a word that says it
• 5.5Hidden vowels and double lettersSay it in a spelling voice
• 5.6ie or ei, and other rules that bendRule first, then the words that bend it

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