Keepin’ cool! Seems the smart thing to do here in Southern
California where our temperatures are staying in high nineties into the three-digit
figures with humidity levels varying – no rain -- so I just take it slow, an’
the livin’ is easy …..
Do jazz aficionados ever wonder about the names of some of
today’s talent? Here’s a taste from Barcelona
-- Andrea Motis, with a sultry voice singing a classic George and Ira Gershwin
tune, “Summertime.” Later she plays a
moody muted horn. She’s joined by The
Joan Chamorro Quintet and Scott Hamilton featuring his sax solo, others with
guitar and piano. Album: Live at
Jamboree - Barcelona
All this easy livin’ as I hide out from the heat has my mind
indulging itself with all sorts of thoughts.
One of which is that I’ve noticed
I have a homophone problem with a couple of words. I know these two words well, their meanings and
their differences, never mix them up when I'm consciously writing them, but sometimes when I’m rapidly, more automatically writing a thought containing either
of these words, they end up spelled incorrectly. I don’t understand why that happens, but I
usually catch the error when I proof-read before publishing.
Homophones are words that sound the same but have different
meanings and may be spelled differently, too…..two…..to.
In
my case, their is no reason why there use should be mixed up. Get it?
(Interestingly,
to me, is that in the sentence above for the first time I noticed my Word program just automatically
self-corrected the first “their” to the correct “there”, so I had to change it
back to the incorrect spelling to make my point, but the “there” did not get
corrected to “their”. Go figure!)
This reminded me again of just how challenging learning our
English language can be for others.
This is only one of the complications learning English can present.
This is only one of the complications learning English can present.
Just for fun, as I was thinking about this, I came up with
some other homophones. Then I borrowed a
few more such words from the Oxford-Royale website you can visit by clicking HERE.
By, Bye, Buy
Course, Coarse
Ewe, You
Flew, Flue
Great, Grate
Here, Hear
Eye, I
No, Know
Made, Maid
Peace, Piece
Raise, Raze, Rays, Rase
Red, Read
Red, Read
Steak, Stake
Write, Right
Feel free to add any more homophones that might come to your
mind.
Are there other word glitches you discover when you edit what you write?
Are there other word glitches you discover when you edit what you write?
I often make errors with "there" and "their" although I'm not sure why. Hope your weather moderates soon.
ReplyDeleteMaybe there’s something going on in our brain connections we don’t know about.
DeleteI turned off all the autocorrect stuff in Word immediately. It was too annoying, and it was often erroneous. It also fails to recognize so many words!
ReplyDeleteAs far as the Musical Part of your post, I'm not a jazz fan--it's not melodious enough for me. I don't listen to music all that often; I find it distracting as my brain insists upon following along closely.
I did hear some interesting bits of music from a band called "Dirty Projectors" on NPR the other day. Might be a new find for me.
Can appreciate jazz isn’t to everyone’s taste. I don’t automatically care for all music labeled as jazz, but then that’s true for me of music in all the other genres. Much of the jazz I do enjoy is intriguing to me when a melody is played by different instruments and then spontaneous variations are produced. There are a number of artists whose music mixes various genres so they can’t be placed in traditional categories which is said to be becoming more prevalent.
DeleteThat's a very nice rendition of Summertime - and funny you should write about words as Ramana and I wrote on oxymorons this week. Words are great fun - you hit on one the grammar police on Facebook bitch about daily - there, their and the typically added they're. Puzzle books with word games are a fave of mine.
ReplyDeleteI only left they’re off because it’s a contraction, but qualifies as a homophone on the Oxford list. Interesting several of us are coincidentally thinking of word fun.
DeleteOh am I glad I was born here. We have one of the hardest languages to learn and even we can be fooled.
ReplyDeleteWe do have an advantage learning it from the time we’re born
DeleteBlew, Blue
ReplyDeleteGood one, Gigi!
DeleteIf I'm listening to non-news radio, it is to jazz or classical music. Of course, like other people, I don't care for some jazz forms or for some classical music (please don't bring a clavichord or chanting into my presence).
ReplyDeleteI do dislike having to correct autocorrect.
Cop Car
You once queried about women in jazz, so thought you might find this young gal in Barcelona another good example. Heard a discussion recently that jazz continues to be much more prominent in Europe than its become in the U.S. Perhaps the increased popularity mostly musically simplifified forms in much of pop genres reflects what has occurred in our overall U.S. culture.
DeleteYour memory outstrips mine, Joared. I've no memory of having asked. Thanks for the reminder and for the good example.
DeleteCC
That's a great version of Summertime. The words that trip me up most are ones with tricky combinations of consonants, like embarrassment and harassment.
ReplyDeletePerhaps such glitches will eventually cease.
DeleteMy brain feels empty right now, I know I have a few faves. As to Summertime, my sister (who is way younger than I and lives in Ireland) were asked to perform at a hotel about 6 years ago and were we surprised when we realized our party piece was the same - Summertime, so we harmonized and Ella Fitzgeralded it (scat) and had a marvellous time and so did our audience :) Lovely memory.
ReplyDeleteI love this version!
XO
WWW
I know the empty brain feeling. That’s why I weaseled out to a listing of web link words instead of coming up with them on my own. Thinking there might be others like me, not in the mood for straining their brain, I didn’t ask readers for a specific number and even offered an alternative topic on which to comment. See — it worked for you.
DeleteLoved your story about you and your sister harmonizing and scat singing Summertime. You had fun and so did the audience! Wonderful memory! Thanks for sharing.
I thought a homophone was in the horn section.
ReplyDeleteOh-h-h-h-h.....live and learn.
DeleteSee, Sea
ReplyDeleteYes! Thanks for stopping by.
DeleteIt's / Its; Affect/Effect; Breath/Breathe; Ensure/Insure; Advice/Advise; Stationary/Stationery; Peace/Piece.
ReplyDeleteAutocorrect when transcribing Indian words can result in some bizarre situations if allowed to escape editing.
Pretty good with the majority of them, but there are vowel phoneme sounds different from one another in U.S. spoken English for affect/effect, breath/breathe and a consonant phoneme in advice/advise — so they aren’t homophones. Maybe they’re pronounced differently in India or with UK King’s English. :-)
Delete