Homonyms…

Have you ever gotten confused using a word which has so many different meanings depending on the context, especially if you didn’t know which meaning was applied to each context? Well, I have… I’m talking about the Homonyms: words which have the same spelling and pronunciation, but have different meanings.

Let’s talk about a Spanish homonym that paid my attention: MONO

According to the Spanish Dictionary RAE (Real Academia Española) mono means:

1- A nice person;

2- A nice thing;

3- Monkey;

4- Overalls; and so many more… please check http://dle.rae.es/?id=PeswonB|PevMcDo

I chose this word because the other day I was chatting with a Spanish friend of mine and she used mono in almost every two sentences and it paid my attention because I asked myself: how is it possible that with a word we can say so many different things?

Like the English word COOL

According to the Cambridge dictionary cool means:

1- cold, referring on temperature;

2- good, referring to agree to something;

3- calm or weaker;

4- fashionable or attractive and many more, please check https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/cool

My curiosity went far and searched for Portuguese and Norwegian homonyms, such as:

In Portuguese there are SALTO, which means both

1-high heels and

2-to leap,

and BANCO, which means both

1-bank and

2-bench, etc.

Please check both links: https://www.dicio.com.br/salto/; https://www.dicio.com.br/banco/

In Norwegian there are VÅR, which means both

1-our and

2-spring,

and MÅL, which means

1-goal or

2-to measure or

3-language, etc.

Please check both links: https://ordbok.uib.no/perl/ordbok.cgi?OPP=v%C3%A5r&ant_bokmaal=5&ant_nynorsk=5&begge=+&ordbok=begge and https://ordbok.uib.no/perl/ordbok.cgi?OPP=m%C3%A5l&ant_bokmaal=5&ant_nynorsk=5&begge=+&ordbok=begge

I tried this approach with my own language, but since, to be honest I don’t speak so much Italian I needed my time hehehe… but I made a research and I found words such as: CAPITALE, which is

1-a sum of money or

2-a city;

FINE as

1-aim or

2-end; etc.

Please check http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/ricerca/capitale/ and http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/tag/fine/

But how is it possible to not get confused anymore? Is practicing and training 24/7 for 365 days per year enough?… In my case, five languages? Well! Mission Impossible or Possible? We will see!

Does it happen to you too?