How do you say 'close' and 'wind' in English? Homographs explained

‘Close’ is a homograph - a word which has different pronunciations and meanings (as exemplified above), but the same spelling in each case.

‘Close’ meaning near, or not far, is pronounced /kləʊs/. But ‘close’ the verb, meaning the opposite of ‘open’, is pronounced /kləʊz/.

Here's a quick Pronunciation Challenge...

Record yourself saying the following phrases out loud. Then watch the video to check your pronunciation.

• There was a really close finish in the race.

• At the end of your work day, you should close your laptop down.

• Gemma lives really close to the park.

• Could you close the door behind you as you leave?

Can you hear - and feel - the difference in how the ‘s’ in 'close' is pronounced in these sentences?

One of our learning community commented:

"Videos like this are very useful! As the two 's' sounds usually don't alter the meaning in German words, our ears aren't trained to hear the difference, and I was already in my 30s when I found out that prize and price are supposed to be pronounced differently for example. 📷 And even here the two versions sound almost identical to me, but now I can make sure to pronounce both meanings right. ^^"

If we say 'The wind whistled through the trees', how do we pronounce 'wind'? It's clear from the structure of the sentence that it's a noun, and the vowel we need in this case is the short /ɪ/ sound. So 'wind' as a noun rhymes with 'tinned' and 'grinned' (both of these 'ed' words have just one syllable...).

But in the phrase 'wind the handle to make it start', 'wind' is a verb. For this word, the vowel is the /aɪ/ diphthong - pronounced exactly like the word 'eye'.

wind /wɪnd/ → noun: the air that moves

wind /waɪnd/ → verb: to twist or turn

Same spelling, but different meanings and pronunciations.

If you're interested to find out more about how the International Phonetic Alphabet can help you feel more confident speaking English, you can download our free pronunciation guide to the Six Key Features of International English Pronunciation.