Is there any other language besides English in which?

Question

Is there any other language besides English in which there are words that SOUND exactly the same but are spelled differently? AND have completely different meanings?

Examples in English: tow and toe -- blue and blew -- aloud and allowed -- to, too and two --

It gets so confusing for foreigners learning English, I know, but I am wondering if this is common in other languages where you might think you are saying one thing, when in fact you are saying something entirely different.

Anyone have any examples for me? If this is not the case, please tell me in which language you have knowledge of this.

Thank you for your help!

Answer 1

in French
mère(mother), mer(the sea), maire(mayor)
sel(salt),selle(saddle)
tante(aunt) tente(toile de tente=tent)
amande(almond), amende(a fine)
vert(green) verre( glass) vers(towards)
faire(to do) fer(iron)
près(near) prêt(ready)
aire(area) ère(era)
eau(water)haut(high)
foi(faith)foie(liver)fois(time)
there are many other..

Answer 2

French: has a host of them: here are a few:

quand - when: Caen - name of a city
mer - sea: maire- mayor; mère - mother
et - and; ai - (I) have; est - is
à - to; a - (he) has
c'est - it is; ses - his/her/its
ce - this; se - himself/herself/itself
AND
cul (backside) - and "q" - the letter "Q"

In other languages the question of different spellings with the same sound does not arise all that often as many languages are spelt phonetically so 2 words of the same sound would probably also have the same spelling; in Turkish this gives rise to the following magnificent example:

karı severim hele donsuz olursa: which can mean either:

I love snow, especially if there is no frost
OR
I love women, especially if they have no knickers on....

Answer 3

Both Chinese and Japanese have even more homophones than English. One of the difficulties in translating Japanese works is knowing that you're going to have to leave some of the subtleties out because of all the homophones in Japanese.

Answer 4

sure, chinese (Mandarin, because my mom and father are from China). yet i do not recognize too a lot. yet i can comprehend plenty. and that i recognize slightly Spanish (I stay in California), French (it really is reserved for jokes), and German (that comes from reading a e book the position there have been German words with translations. and that i can't teach you, through the undeniable fact that is a large "problemo" for me.

Answer 5

I've heard that Cantonese has so many different characters that can sound the same, but have different meanings.

Answer 6

in I guess traditional chinese there are six different meaning for the following word depending on the vocal tone

ma- mother, cookie, stupid, ice, horse, and I forget the other word.

in spanish
como- I eat
cómo- what

esta- this
está- you are, he is, she is

also in Italian there are many of the same words that have muliple meanings

Prego=5 different meanings I know one of them means your welcome

e or è= more than one meaning

Answer 7

There are homophones in Spanish, for example. cocer "to boil" and coser "to sew". But you have to admit, American/English is a very difficult language. 'PH' that sound like 'F' and silent 'GH' and things of the like. So many flipping rules.

Answer 8

French: voix/voie; foi/foie; ete (accents on e's)/etait (accent on first e). Lots of other examples.

Answer 9

Yes, every language has such words.