It All Sounds the Same to Me! - A Lesson on Homophones

By Marie-Claire Lander

Have you noticed that while some French words have many variations in spelling, they sound the same?

For example, the words un verre, un ver, vers, and vert(s) share the same pronunciation yet have different meanings. That makes them homophones.

Homophones are especially common in French as the letters t, d, and s, when placed at the end of a word, are usually silent.

Check out Patricia’s video on homophones and homonyms, which she turned into a fun story.

Let’s examine the examples mentioned earlier.

Un verre can mean "a glass" or "a drink." The expression boire un verre means "to have a drink." Or, you can say prendre un verre.

On est tous là avec juste l'envie de passer

We are all here just with the desire to have

un bon moment, de boire un verre.

a good time, to have a drink.

Caption 52, Actu Vingtième - Vendanges parisiennes
Play Caption

Le verre also refers to the material itself. It means "glass," as in English:

Nous sommes maintenant chez le souffleur de verre de L'Isle-Adam.

We are now at the L'Isle-Adam glassblower's.

Caption 11, Voyage en France - L'Isle-Adam
Play Caption

Speaking of verre, did you know that Cinderella’s slippers might originally have been made not of verre, but of vair (squirrel fur)?

Some scholars believe the original fable described pantoufles de vair (squirrel fur slippers), which became pantoufles de verre (glass slippers) in Charles Perrault's famous version. No one knows if he made a mistake or simply chose a new material for the slippers in his version of the fairy tale.

From squirrels to worms…. Un ver de terre is an earthworm, a critter that Claire and Philippe remember fondly in their La campagne video.

Alors elle prenait le petit ver de terre dans la main.

So she used to take the little earthworm in her hand.

Caption 71, Claire et Philippe - La campagne
Play Caption

And the poetically named ver solitaire (literally, "solitary worm") is the French word for "tapeworm”!

If the thought of many vers solitaires turns you off (vers being the plural of ver), let’s turn toward vers, an innocuous word that simply means "toward."

In the Actus Quartier video, this young lady is looking toward the future:

Je suis tournée vers l'avenir

I'm looking toward the future

et vers tout ce qu'on va construire...

and toward all that we're going to build…

Caption 40, Actus Quartier - Fête de la rose au caviar rouge
Play Caption

Vers also means "around," "about":

Plutôt vers deux heures du matin.

Instead around two o'clock in the morning.

Caption 60, Adrien - Le métro parisien
Play Caption

Now, for a more colorful version of this homophone, you have the word vert, which means "green."

As you probably know, vert, like most adjectives, takes on masculine, feminine, and plural endings. For more information on adjective agreements, refer to previous lessons.

As mentioned earlier, -t and -s are often not pronounced at the end of a word. So vert (masculine singular) sounds exactly like verts (masculine plural). However, note that vert will become verte when agreeing with a feminine singular noun, and the t in verte will be pronounced!

Donc, on va écrire "vert". Masculin.

So we're going to write "green." Masculine.

Sinon... "verte".

Otherwise... "green" [feminine].

Caption 28, Leçons avec Lionel - Couleurs
Play Caption

Now that you’ve acquainted yourself with homophones, you’ll be surprised how many you'll be able to spot! But if you haven't satisfied your appetite for homophones, click here to learn some more.

Topics Pronunciation Vocabulary

Signup to get Free French Lessons sent by email