Sunday, December 28, 2014

Frees, Freeze, Frieze

Frees – third person present verb form of Free.
Freeze – lose enough heat to turn from a liquid into a solid.
Frieze – a wide, architectural and/or decorative band that runs horizontally along a wall beneath the ceiling or roof.
If cold weather causes your paint to peel, then you might say a freeze frees the paint from your frieze. I mean, you MIGHT say that...

Sunday, December 21, 2014

Taro & Tarot

Without a T at the end – tropical plant whose edible root has a surprisingly high nutritive value.
With a T at the end – prophetic playing card with no substantive value at all.

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Ewes & Use

As in, "I can utilize the wool from those female sheep."

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Deference & Difference

As in, "These aren't exactly homophones, but they're very similar and easily confused. So show a little respect and be sure you can tell them apart." :)












And, please remember, they are not to be confused with:

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Forth & Fourth

As in, "After the first three butterflies emerged, the fourth came forth."

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Straight & Strait

Which direction did the boat sail between two outcroppings of land?
Strait.
Ba-dum-bum.

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Gnu, Knew, New

This one goes out to Yvonne Treis, who emailed me recently to suggest it (possibly because she knows I like doing the animal ones best). In other words, she asked for this new post because she knew I'd want to draw the gnu.

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Links & Lynx

As in, "You really shouldn't chain up a wildcat."

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Vain, Vane, Vein

Oh, man, I can't think of a sentence that uses all three of these in an interesting way. You?

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Penance & Pennants

As in, "I feel guilty for even knowing that the World Series is on right now."

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Rappel & Repel

With an A and two Ps – a method of descending a vertical surface.
With an E – push apart.

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Lead & Led

With an A – a heavy metal, atomic number 82.
Without an A – past tense of, well, Lead. Oh, sheesh, that's confusing. "Lead/Lead" would be a good candidate for Homographs, Weakly, if I decided to branch out a bit.












And speaking of heavy metal:

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Cornet & Coronet

Keep calm and scabba-dabba-doo-bop. I think Louis Armstrong said that.


Sunday, September 14, 2014

Tighten & Titan



And for those who like their Titans a little more astronomical, and a lot more Proper Noun:

Sunday, September 7, 2014

Creak & Creek

ea – a small, irritating noise.
ee – a small, soothing river.
I might have too much going on in the Creek picture, there. Don't be surprised if I think on it some more and change it one of these days. I feel like it needs the human for scale (so you can tell it's not as big as a river), and the bridge implies permanence (so it's not someone standing beside a puddle). But I don't know, it doesn't quite look right to me. But an aerial view of a river wouldn't work either... I don't know. It is what it is... for now. :)

Sunday, August 31, 2014

Some & Sum

As in, "You need to add some to get sum."

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Beach & Beech

As in, "You may have noticed there was no post last week. Instead, I took a lake-y, forest-y vacation."

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Tic & Tick

With a K – small, unwelcome parasite.
Without a K – small, unwelcome twitch.

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Ad & Add

Two Ds – makes you smarter.
One D – makes you dumber.












Hey, it's my 200th post! And still no book deal! :P

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Bread & Bred

As in, "For thousands of years the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been bred for its use in wine, beer, and bread."

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Baron & Barren

Following up last week's Magnate with his twin brother the Baron. Too bad the Baroness can't bear children.
See what I did there?... :)

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Magnate & Magnet

Yes, if you cornered the market on magnets, you could become a magnet magnate. I guess.
This one goes out to my buddy Abe at Green Light Music & Video in Kalamazoo, who requested this one a couple times already. I finally got to it, Abe!

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Born & Borne

Without an E – birthed.
With an E – carried.

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Verses & Versus

I know, I know. A rap battle would have been the perfect picture for both.

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Chard & Charred

As in, "These leafy greens taste burnt."

Sunday, June 8, 2014

B, Be, Bee

On the left: two Bs.
On the right: not two Bees.
In the middle: that is the question.

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Sew, So, Sow

The one on the right is in honor of us finally getting our garden planted this weekend! Yay!
The one on the left is in honor of my wife Vanessa's sewing blog: Pass/Fail Sewing. Which you should totally check out... if you're sew-inclined.
And the one in the middle might be a guy gesturing "so?" but is more likely a picture of me admitting I have no idea what to draw here.



Sunday, May 25, 2014

Exercise & Exorcise

I was looking up images from The Exorcist to help with my drawing this week, when I came across Viktor Hertz's brilliant pictogram movie posters, and I thought, "Jeez, he's already got this covered, why reinvent the wheel? Maybe he wouldn't mind if I featured his work sometime." Then I noticed the one on the left*, realized it would be perfect for Exercise, and knew I had to ask.
So this week's homophones are brought to you by www.viktorhertz.com where you can get completely lost drooling over all the clever pictographic interpretations of movies, songs, sayings, and more!












*Bonus points if you can guess what movie this is for. Hint: it's not Xanadu.

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Jam & Jamb

With a B – the inside surface of a doorframe.
Without a B – every other use of this word you can think of.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Stake & Steak

As in, "What do you call a cow stuck in a tent?"

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Disillusion & Dissolution

Disillusion – never meet your heroes.
Dissolution – never meet Walter White. (Are Breaking Bad references obsolete already?)
I also want to mention that today the Dexter District Library is hanging 40+ prints from Homophones, Weakly in their gallery on the lower level. This isn't the first time HW has leapt from the blogosphere to a gallery wall – a print of "Complement/Compliment" was recently included in the Visualizing Data exhibition at the Work: Detroit gallery – but this is HW's first ever solo exhibition! Come check it out if you're in the area.

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Dew, Do, Due

I love when I can reuse and tweak bits from old posts. Not only does it make my job easier, it keeps the Homophones, Weakly universe more consistent. And I dew/do/due believe any good grammar geek strives for consistency.

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Heard & Herd

Maybe you heard the herd, or maybe the herd heard you.

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Genes & Jeans

Yes, they do make your butt look fat.

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Mode & Mowed

Mode – (n.) method.
Mowed – (v.) past tense of Mow.
The left side makes sense, yes? Different modes of mowing the lawn? Right. Sure. Perfect. Honestly, I'm just trying to forget about all the snow I shoveled this winter.

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Bold & Bowled

Tell me honestly, would an image of the starship Enterprise have been better on the left?

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Borough, Burro, Burrow

Inextricably linked to New York, I'm sure you could carry the accent for Borough far enough that it would be a homophone for Borrow instead. But this grouping suits my midwestern ears better.


Sunday, March 16, 2014

Son & Sun

I suppose I should have posted this on my son's birthday. Damn, looks like I won't win Father of the Year this year either. Sigh. So let's just say today's post is in honor of finally getting some warm weather around here. I love you, sun.

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Cereal & Serial

As in, "These Lucky Charms are too cold, these Lucky Charms are too hot, but these Lucky Charms are juuuuuust right."

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Foul & Fowl

With a U – disgusting.
With a W – delicious.

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Ceiling & Sealing

As in, "I could spend the weekend sealing the cracks in my ceiling, but I'd rather binge-watch Sherlock."



Sunday, February 9, 2014

Pray & Prey

Do I dare make a snarky comment about religion here?
No, I do not. Look, a snake!


Sunday, February 2, 2014

Groan & Grown

As in, "You can moan and groan all you want, but the grass needs to be mown because it has grown too long."
See what I did there?