Homonyms.  These are the words in English that are pronounced the same, but are spelled differently and have different meanings.  Homonyms exist because the English language evolved from many languages and cultures.  As a result of this, and because there were no formal spelling rules for a very long time, people spelled words the way they sounded.Here are some common homonyms and their meanings in modern English.

Add & Ad: Both are abbreviations of other words. For example, add is short for addition, while ad is short for advertisement.

Affect & Effect: Perhaps there is no single couple that confuses speakers more than these two. Native speakers even struggle with this one. Affect means to change, while effect is the result of the change.  One way to remember this one is the simple phrase “cause and effect” which you will see very frequently.

Bald & Bawled: Bald is the word for those of us who have no hair.  Bawled means to cry uncontrollably.  So, if you're like me, you bawled like a baby the minute you went bald.

Flour & Flower: Flour is that white powder that we use to make bread, and a flower is that rose you gave your teacher on the first day of school.

Bare & Bear: Bare means to show or to be completely naked. A bear is that mean old furry creature that likes to eat tourists in Yellowstone.

Fill in the blanks with the correct homonym:
When you make a carrot cake, be sure that you use (1) ____________ and not a pretty (2) _______________ from the garden.
Did you see that (3)  ______ man crying?  I swear he must have (4) _________ for over an hour!
I was watching an (5) ____ on television the other day.  It said that if I (6) _____ bleach to the washing machine, my clothes will be brighter.
Working hard can (7) _____________ your personality.  The cause and(8) _______________ of hard work is wealth, status, and success!
(9) ______ your soul to your preacher, but never show your (10)  ________  body to a (11) _____________ in the forest!

Answers:  1. Flour,  2. Flower,  3. Bald,  4. Bawled,  5. Ad,  6. Add, 7. Affect,   8. Effect,   9. Bare,  10. Bare,  11. Bear