# Hebrew words - homonyms



## PurpleZebra

Some Hebrew words are written the same but pronounced differently.
Correct me if I am wrong.  (I know nearly nothing  about Hebrew.)
For example, the word for “easy” (kal -- כַל) and the word for “voice” (kol -- כֹל) are both written as “כל” without the accents.

Could you please give me many more examples of pairs of Hebrew words like these? 

Please include the Hebrew writing, the pronunciation and the English translation.
Is there a name for these word pairs?  They are not really homonyms (which are words that sound exactly alike).
I suppose that homonyms in Hebrew exist as well.  Thanks for your help.


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## slus

Hi, first of all, to clear the mixup:
Easy = קל (kal) written and pronounced the same as
Light = קל (kal)

Voice = קול (kol) pronounced the same as 
Every = כל (kol)

Other homonyms are:
Cold = קר (kar)
Pillow = כר (kar)

Spoon = כף (kaf)
Palm (of the hand) = כף (kaf)

Brother = אח (akh)
Fireplace = אח (akh)

Glass (for drinking) = כוס (kos)
Owl = כוס (kos)

But = אולם (ulam)
Hall = אולם (ulam)

Frost = קרה (kara)
Happened = קרה (kara)


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## shalom00

Originally קול and כל were pronounced differently.
Speakers differentiated between כ and ק.


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## Drink

You're also confusing homonyms with divergent meanings of the same word כף (spoon and palm) is just one word with multiple meanings and same with קל (easy and light).


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## Essex1

In my humble opinion (especially when written without vowels):
homonyms are words written the same but pronounced differently ספרי  and  ספרי (my book and my books).
homophones are words written differently but pronounced the same  עת and עט (pen and time).
And then you have words written the same and pronounced the same but with different meanings לנו and לנו (they spent the night and to us).


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## shalom00

From what I can see from a short investigation, there are several definitions of homonyms.
However, one aspect that appears to be common to all the definitions is that homonyms have different meanings.


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## Drink

To be more precise you can use the words "homophones" (pronounced the same) and "homographs" (written the same).

But regardless of what exactly "homonyms" are, they certainly are not when the same exact word happens to have two divergent meanings (like קל and כף). However, sometimes it's actually not clear whether it should count as the "same word" or not.


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## shalom00

One criterion that is used to decide whether two words are "the same" is whether they have a common origin.
Of course, sometimes there is a debate about that as well, but sometimes there is a consensus.


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## PurpleZebra

Thank you all very much for your great contributions on this fascinating topic.

From what you have said, if I may summarize, I believe that "brother" and "fireplace" are 100% homographs because they have separate etymologies, identical spelling, identical vowels and identical pronunciations, namely אָח.

Now, I am looking for semi-homographs;  two words that are different when the vowel symbols are written, but identical when no vowel symbols are written.  “Easy” is written “קל” and “voice” is written “קול” so they don’t qualify because the spelling is different, even without the vowels.

Could you please provide me with many pairs of words that are identical without the vowels but different with the vowels?  Thank you very much for all your help.  It is much appreciated.


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## ystab

There are lots of them. Here are some:

דבר
Davar דָּבָר - a thing
Dever דֶּבֶר - the plague
Dabber דַּבֵּר - speak! (singular masculine)
(And if you consider classical Ktiv Haser, also Dibber דִּבֵּר and Dubbar דֻּבַּר, and all whole roots that have verbs in Binyan Pa'al, Pi'el and Pu'al)

כתב (these are all from the same meaning of the root - to write)
Katav כָּתַב - (he) wrote
Kattav כַּתָּב - a reporter
Ktav כְּתָב - script (handwriting, manuscript)

ספרו
Sappru סַֿפְּרוּ - tell! (plural)
Safru סָפְרוּ - (they) counted
Sifro סִפְרוֹ - his book
Sapparo סַפָּרוֹ - his barber

חברה
Havera חֲבֵרָה - a female friend, a female member
Haverah חֲֿבֵרָהּ - her male friend
Hevra חֶבְרָה - a company, a society
Havra חָבְרָה - (she) joined


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## PurpleZebra

Thank you Ystab and the other Hebrew speakers.  This helps me a lot.


[Off-topic question deleted by moderator: this thread is about homonyms, not about words that share the same root.]


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