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Homonyms

Yam, jam (minimal pair that particularly trips up native Spanish speakers)

Zeugma

Syllepsis


Synonyms (not exactly the same, but hey, this is the letter 'Z'!)

^ Those guys need to walk into a bar.

Alone, together (antonyms)

A Zeugma walked into the bar and the opportunity of a lifetime....


Bow (and arrow)

Bow (to your superiors)


Homographs

I can't find a consistent explanation of the difference between zeugma and syllepsis. Hrm. What's your take?

Carpet, rug (synonyms)

I'd never even heard of Syllepsis until about an hour ago! It does seem indistinguishable from Zeugma in the examples I've seen, but it's possible that it might have a wider application, maybe in a technical grammatical sense. The zeugma-type examples seem to come under the heading of 'semantic syllepsis'!


Dust

Dost (Old English, 'dost thou think....')


Homophones

I pronounce these slightly differently.

Evening, nighttime (synonyms). Signing off; see you around the planet!

Last edited by Carpeta on 05 Sep 2020, 11:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

^ Goodnight, Carpeta!

Four

Fore!


Homophones

Last edited by DeepHour on 06 Sep 2020, 10:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Great, grate (homophones)

Hole

Whole


Homophones

Idol, idle (homophones)

June

Dune


Homophones, but not in many parts of the USA, I suspect...

Are you pronouncing the "d" like a "j"? These make a minimal pair for me, not homophones.

Ketch, catch (homophones, sometimes)

When combined with the British pronunciation of the 'long u' sound, as in words like 'duty', the 'd' does sound indistinguishable from a 'j'. Not so in most US accents, where it sounds like 'doody', or so it seems to me. Never really thought much about this before. You get a similar thing with vowel sounds in words like 'news' - British 'nyews', US 'nooze'. I think that British pronunciation of the vowel sounds makes it seem as if there's a 'y' preceding it - 'duty' > 'dyooty', which is effectively a 'j-' sound. Or so it seems to me!