Homophones
I learned English as a child and although there aren’t many parallels between the language of Shakespeare and Portuguese, they both have homophones, and what tricky little things they are. From beach and its mean variation, to two or too or to, all of them are traps waiting to catch me. If for a distracted native speaker homophones can present some challenges, for a Brazilian they’re down right daunting. I mean, how big is a feat if it’s only a couple of feet? I could go on all day.
Writing in a second language can be challenging, but never boring.
Even worst for me though are words that aren’t even homophones, but their spells are different for only one letter. I’m the master of writing though instead of thought, and the word processor won’t help me with that. If I misspell and there aren’t any words just like my mistake, I’ll be fine, Word will get it for me, it won’t only tell me, “You’re wrong,” with its red underlining, but it will teach me the right spelling. Usually however I simply write something else, a word that exists, but with a meaning far from my intentions, like slime instead of slim.
My boasting older daughter, who is in eighth grade HONORS ENGLISH, loves to edit my work; every little misspelling is a comic relief for her. She stares at me and says, “Mom I love your writing, it’s so funny,” and most times she isn’t talking about the content, unfortunately.
Well, I didn’t submit this post to her candid scrutiny. I decided instead to exercise my right to make mistakes, so dear reader if you see something off, please let me know, I believe you are much nicer than my teenage daughter.