Reason 7,346 English is Difficult

I often find myself thinking how lucky I am to have English as my first language. I don’t want to imagine how challenging it would be to learn it. It’s quirky, inconsistent, contradictory, and sometimes nonsensical.

Reason 7,346 English is Difficult:

Content and Content

Yep, I’m talking about two completely different words and meanings. My 9-year-old son learned about the challenge of these two words recently, and what’s great is that he figured it out with very little input from me. He used context, and that’s the unfortunate thing non-native English speakers often lack when attempting to wrangle sense from English words and phrases.

The difference between the two Contents is how you pronounce the “o.” How is anyone going to know that naturally?!

Content (kahn-tent) — a noun that relates to the subject matter of something, the thing-ness of something, the main ingredient, etc.

Content (cun-tent) — an adjective or verb related to someone’s desires being met or appeased

These two words are one of many examples of heteronyms in English — words that are spelled the same, but with different pronunciations and meanings.

What are some examples you can think of?