What does a child have to do to resolve a homophone in the 11+?

Choose the correctly spelled homophone for a sentence. It is one of 41 named English skills in the 11+, in the vocabulary strand, and this page carries 2 interactive exercises that practise it.

What is the trap in an 11+ resolve a homophone question?

Sounding right is not enough: all of these spellings sound the same, so only the meaning separates them. The wrong answers on this skill are built out of that, not out of random numbers, so it is worth naming out loud before your child meets it under time pressure.

What is not part of resolve a homophone in the 11+?

The skill map draws the line here: One homophone distinction at a time. A question past that line is testing a different named English skill, which is worth knowing before you spend a week practising the wrong one.

Which other 11+ skills should we practise alongside resolve a homophone?

The vocabulary strand holds 4 skills that are tested together, and the pages next to resolve a homophone are select an antonym, select a synonym and classify a word relationship. Each has its own exercise and its own link, and none of them needs an account.

How can my child practise resolve a homophone for free?

Use Error Zapper and Homophone Highway, embedded on this page. They are the exercises the skill map attaches to resolve a homophone, they run in the browser with no account to make, nothing is scored, and nothing a child does here is recorded or sent anywhere. Each also has its own link, so you can send one to a child without sending them anywhere else first.

English · Vocabulary

Resolve a homophone

Choose the correctly spelled homophone for a sentence.

Practise it now

Three mistakes are hiding in here. Tap each one to zap it.

It covers most of this skill rather than all of it.

Loading the interactive exercise. Nothing you do here is saved or scored.

A worked example

One question of the kind this skill is tested with, worked all the way through: the reasoning, and what the wrong answers are there to catch.

Same sound, different spelling

Read each sentence aloud and notice which spelling the meaning needs.

Words to sort: They say ___ the coldest night of the year., The city is famous for ___ bridges., I think ___ going to rain., The clock has lost ___ minute hand., ___ been a very long week., The robin fluffed ___ feathers in the cold..
Groups to sort them into: its (belonging to it); it's (it is or it has).

Answer: its (belonging to it): The city is famous for ___ bridges. The clock has lost ___ minute hand. The robin fluffed ___ feathers in the cold. it's (it is or it has): They say ___ the coldest night of the year. I think ___ going to rain. ___ been a very long week.

How you get there

The gap is filled by whichever spelling the meaning of the sentence needs: "The city is famous for ___ bridges." belongs under "its (belonging to it)" and "I think ___ going to rain." under "it's (it is or it has)", which means every item here has exactly one correct group.

Why the other answers tempt

Sounding right is not enough: all of these spellings sound the same, so only the meaning separates them.

If they are stuck, say this

Read the heading in place of the gap and check the sentence still makes sense - expand the short forms to test them.

Now do it live in Error Zapper

Kitchen-table script for parents

Try this together

A friendly mini script for the breakfast table, school run or a quiet two minutes. Read it aloud as written, or make it your own.

Let's try Resolve a homophone. Words to sort: They say ___ the coldest night of the year., The city is famous for ___ bridges., I think ___ going to rain., The clock has lost ___ minute hand., ___ been a very long week., The robin fluffed ___ feathers in the cold. Here comes the question: Read each sentence aloud and notice which spelling the meaning needs. Clue: Read the heading in place of the gap and check the sentence still makes sense - expand the short forms to test them. Thinking: The gap is filled by whichever spelling the meaning of the sentence needs: "The city is famous for ___ bridges." belongs under "its (belonging to it)" and "I think ___ going to rain." under "it's (it is or it has)", which means every item here has exactly one correct group. Answer: I think ___ going to rain. Sneaky trap: Sounding right is not enough: all of these spellings sound the same, so only the meaning separates them. Show me the first move. No rush.

How each of these 2 exercises teaches it

Error Zapper

Three mistakes are hiding in here. Tap each one to zap it.

Proofreading is three separate sweeps, not one hopeful read. Sweep one is capitals and full stops: every sentence has to open with a capital, so "on Saturday" was wrong before you even reached the verb. Sweep two is the sound-alikes, where you test the word by its job: "to" points somewhere, "too" means as well or too much, so "went too the beach" fails the test. Sweep three is spelling, where you slow down on the tricky patterns like i before e. Doing one sweep at a time catches far more than reading the whole thing once and hoping something jumps out.

What to say if they get stuck

Start at the very beginning. Something is missing before the first word even gets going.
One word sounds right but is spelled as its twin. Read the sentence out loud and ask what the word is doing.
One word simply has its letters in the wrong order. Look for the i and the e.

Open Error Zapper on its own page to share it

Homophone Highway

Drive each sentence through the gate that fills the gap.

their, there and they are sound identical, so your ear cannot sort them out. Your eye has to. Use one test per gate. First stretch it: swap in "they are" and read it back, because "they are going to win" works but "they are bags" does not. Then ask if it points at a place or announces something, which is there, the word with here hiding inside it. Whatever is left belongs to somebody, and that is their. Stretch, place, own: run those three in order and you will never guess again.

What to say if they get stuck

Read the gap out loud as "they are". If the sentence still makes sense, take the they are gate.
If you could point at the spot, or the sentence is telling you something is somewhere, take the there gate.
their always owns the next word: their bags, their team, their turn.

Open Homophone Highway on its own page to share it

Related english skills

Classify a word relationshipClassify one pair or group by its semantic relationship.
Select an antonymSelect a word with the opposite meaning in the stated context.
Select a synonymSelect a word with the closest meaning in the stated context.

All english 11+ skills

Questions parents ask about resolve a homophone

Answered from what the skill map records about this skill, not from a template. Every answer here is on the page, and the same questions are the page's FAQ structured data.

: Choose the correctly spelled homophone for a sentence. It is one of 41 named English skills in the 11+, in the vocabulary strand, and this page carries 2 interactive exercises that practise it.
: Sounding right is not enough: all of these spellings sound the same, so only the meaning separates them. The wrong answers on this skill are built out of that, not out of random numbers, so it is worth naming out loud before your child meets it under time pressure.
: Point at the next move rather than explaining the whole rule. Read the heading in place of the gap and check the sentence still makes sense - expand the short forms to test them.
: The skill map draws the line here: One homophone distinction at a time. A question past that line is testing a different named English skill, which is worth knowing before you spend a week practising the wrong one.
: The vocabulary strand holds 4 skills that are tested together, and the pages next to resolve a homophone are select an antonym, select a synonym and classify a word relationship. Each has its own exercise and its own link, and none of them needs an account.
: Use Error Zapper and Homophone Highway, embedded on this page. They are the exercises the skill map attaches to resolve a homophone, they run in the browser with no account to make, nothing is scored, and nothing a child does here is recorded or sent anywhere. Each also has its own link, so you can send one to a child without sending them anywhere else first.

Comprehension, vocabulary, grammar and punctuation are four different problems

A free diagnostic separates them, so practice goes where the gap actually is rather than on whichever one is easiest to set.

Start the free 11+ diagnostic