Coleman 2011

 Words that are spelled the same but pronounced differently OR  Words that are pronounced the same but spelled differently

 Use BY as a preposition meaning “near”. * I live by my best friend.  Use BYE when you are abbreviating Goodbye, or meaning a week off in a sports tournament. * The Bears had a bye last week. * I said goodbye to my visitors.  Use BUY meaning to purchase. I need to buy new pencils.

 Use IT’S as a contraction for “It is”  It’s unusual for there not to be snow this time of year.  I don’t know what the weather is like. Memory Trick: If you can substitute the words “It is” for IT’S, you use the spelling WITH the apostrophe.

 Use ITS as the possessive form of IT.  ***It is unusual to have a possessive form of a pronoun that does not have an apostrophe, but in this case it does not have an apostrophe because the contraction uses it instead.  The school had its annual play in the spring. (“It” is a pronoun that replaces “school”. ITS shows that the play belongs to the school.)

These are not homonyms because they are not pronounced or spelled the same, but they are commonly confused words.  LOOSE is an adjective meaning “not bound”  I have LOOSE change in my pocket.  My tooth is LOOSE! Memory Trick: LOOSE has two O’s, just like GOOSE.

 LOSE is a verb meaning to misplace something.  I hope I don’t lose my wallet.  It is disappointing when the Bears lose.

 LOSS is a noun, meaning a thing that has been lost or something that cannot be found.  The loss of her father was a difficult time for her.  The team would try again the day after their loss.

 MADE is the past tense of the verb “make”.  MAID can mean a female servant, or a young, unmarried woman.  I made lasagna for dinner last night.  I asked my teenage sister to be my maid of honor. Memory Tip: A MAID can AID you with your housework. Replace the K in “make” with a D to get MADE.