More Pet Peeves and Great Coincidences

My son, who is in second grade, is learning about homophones in his writing and reading class this week.  I find it amusing and a little irritating (okay, more than a little) that this second grade concept still eludes numerous persons of the adult English speaking persuasion.  Today, I was reading an article about a woman that was told by a Victoria’s Secret employee she could not nurse her baby in the fitting room and instead should nurse in the alley behind the store (and yes, this is another topic that infuriates me, but alas we shall leave it for another day).   As I was reading the article, I came across the following quote that was taken from the woman’s Facebook post, “I have to blast Victoria’s Secret for telling me I wasn’t aloud to nurse my very hungry, fussy son in their fitting room after I spend a fair amount in their store.”

This quote of course, immediately redirected my annoyance from that of the breastfeeding in public issue to that of homophones (i.e., a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning and spelling).  Flour/flower, be/bee, sun/son, pray/prey, to/too/two are just a few examples. 

So for Ms. Ashley Clawson, the wronged mother from Victoria’s Secret and all others that need reminding, here is today’s homophone lesson.

Aloud: audible, not silently

Allowed: (past tense of allow) to let happen, to permit

And in case you want to expand your knowledge a little further (not farther, just in case you were wondering).

Homonyms are words that share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have entirely different meanings.

The man turned left and left his neighborhood. 

The first left in this sentence is being used as a direction, the opposite of right and the second left in replace of the word departed.

Homographs are words that are spelled the same, have different meanings, and are often pronounced differently.

Bass (the fish), bass (the instrument); lead (the metallic element), lead (to guide); wind (a gust of air), wind (to wrap in a series of coils)

Perhaps at this point you think I am hypercritical.  Perhaps I am.  But my children will surely know their (not they're or there) homophones, homonyms, and homographs.  It is just one more example of this mom's mommytary madness!