Homophones Worksheet

Choose the right one and write it in

Each row gives a sentence with a gap and two similar-sounding words in brackets. The child writes the correct one on the line.

Five to twelve rows a sheet, drawn from a bank of ten pairs and shuffled, with the answers on a separate page.

Why homophones need their own sheet

Because reading aloud cannot fix them. The words sound identical. The ear gives no signal whatsoever, so a child who has been told to sound it out has been handed a method that is guaranteed not to work on this particular problem.

The only route is meaning. Their belongs to them, there is a place, they're is two words squeezed together. That has to be understood rather than heard, and it has to be checked in a sentence, which is what this sheet does.

The sentence is doing the work, not the pair

A child can recite the rule for there / their / they're and still write the wrong one in their own writing, because knowing the rule and applying it mid-sentence are different things.

So the useful part of this exercise is that the choice happens inside a real sentence with a real meaning. Ask them to say why for two or three rows — "it's the place one" — and you will find out quickly whether the answer came from understanding or from a coin toss.

The contraction test

Worth teaching alongside, because it settles half the pairs on its own.

Any word with an apostrophe in this family is two words joined: they're is they are, you're is you are, it's is it is. Read the sentence with the full two words in place. If it still makes sense, the apostrophe version is right; if it does not, it is the other one.

"They're going to their house over there" passes the test on the first word and fails on the other two. That is a rule a child can apply mid-sentence, which is more than most spelling advice manages.

Sizing it

Rows from 5 to 12, a worksheet title, an instruction line, optional Name and Date fields, and the answer key toggle. A4 or US Letter.

After the sheet

Have them find the pair in something they wrote last week. A homophone corrected in their own writing sticks in a way a worksheet does not, and by upper primary most children have a favourite one they get wrong every time.

Print at 100% on A4 or US Letter.