Ate, 8 and at

Hi, everyone!
Did you know that there are special words called “homophones”? It has nothing to do with phones, if that’s what you thought. Homophones (омонимы)  are words which have absolutely the same pronunciation but different meanings. For example, if you write that you’re so board, people will misunderstand you, because you’re not a board made of wood from a tree, you’re bored, you’re not interested.

Can you find another example in the picture? I’ll give you a hint  – it also has something to do with trees…

There are also words which have almost the same pronunciation, but still sound a bit different. For example, if you say “I want buy this” – it’s incorrect, because you meant “I won’t buy this”. One sound can make a great difference.

So as not to make fools of ourselves and do everything right, let’s find out a little more about…

Ate, 8 and at

Ate and eight are homophones. This is how we say them: [eɪt]
At: [ət, æt] – то есть это слово произносится differently.

Ate: this is the second form of the irregular verb ‘to eat’ – кушать. Eat - ate - eaten. Ate is the past simple form of “eat”. Ел, съел.
She ate a donut. It was delicious. – Она съела пончик. Он был вкусный.

What did you eat last night?

Пончик в форме number eight – 8.

I have eight pens in my pencil case.
Do you have eight chairs in your apartment?

Ну а at – это preposition – у, около, в. Here are some common expressions with the word “at”:

• At school
• At home
• At nine p.m.
• At the party
• At the top of the page
• At the door

What are some other activities we can do at home?

How do we call this symbol in Russian?

Мы говорим «собака». My email is mmyronova@mail.ru – in Russian, я скажу: mmyronova собака мейл точка ру.

In English, we say: at. So @ = at. Not dog, not puppy. =) my email is mmyronova at mail dot ru.
What is your e-mail address in English?

To sum up:

• Ate, eight: [eɪt]
• At: [ət, æt]
• Ate – съел
• Eight = 8
• @ = at

Thanks for reading =) see you next week!