Homophones

Homophones (words that are written differently but pronounced in the same way) are a big problem for people learning English: week and weak, no and know (but not now) and many, many others. It is said that with the decline in standards English native speakers also have problems and are making more and more mistakes with such words. Recently I saw that a member of the public had confused the words right and rite (which means a ceremony or ritual) in a message on the BBC’s web site. That was unfortunate but not very surprising. I was, however, very surprised the other day to see that the same mistake had been made in 1992 by the writer John Mortimer in his story Rumpole and the Children of the Devil, where he writes that a child is accused of ‘indulging in devil-worship, hellish rituals and satanic rights.’ Well, human rights are one thing and satanic rights are something rather different. But what the author meant was certainly ‘satanic rites’.

Comments

[Baralbion]

We all make slips. Even Homer nods. But his editors at least should have picked this up.

[Peter Harvey]

I think they should. I have just read a very interesting book (Languages and Communities in Modern Europe, Peter Burke, Cambridge) which has 'defecit' (twice) and 'dipthong' as well as 'canon' and 'later' for 'cannon' and 'latter'. Given the immense amount of work that I have spent on proofreading my own book for self-publication I have little sympathy with professionals who get it wrong to that extent. Does CUP not use spell-checkers?

Spell-check errors (e.g. Janeiro for January and monster for minister) should, nevertheless, be regarded separately from spelling and typographical ones.