Homophones

[arflahgha.livejournal.com]

Does the Russian language contain homophones? You know, words that sound the same, but are spelled differently and mean different things. Sorry if this is a silly question. ^^;

Edit

I changed it since I was corrected by Zhuzh -- that it was not in fact homonyms, but homophones. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Comments

[ex-ex-zhuzh.livejournal.com]

That'd be homophones. Homonyms are identical in sound and spelling, but mean different things. Homographs are spelt the same but sound differently. Yes, the Russian language contains all of those.

[arflahgha.livejournal.com]

Oops. I'm sorry, Homophones. ^^;;;;

[ars-longa.livejournal.com]

Yes, it does.

[http://users.livejournal.com/celsium_/]

There are meny words which are of the same spelling and they sound quite the same, but of the different meanings, for example:
коса - plait(braid, tress); scythe; spit
ключ - key; clue; clef; spring

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

Spelled differently? Well, Russian spelling is quite phonetic compared to English, but it still happens. For example, гриб (mushroom) and грипп (flu). Final consonants are devoiced, so they end up sounding the same.

It occurs much less often than in English, I think.

There are also words that are spelled alike but pronounced differently (due to stress), words that are alike only in one form, etc...

[wolfie-18.livejournal.com]

One word I always liked was мУка/мукА. The former means torment, and the latter means flour. Odd, no?

[yms.livejournal.com]

well... these are homographs...

[aciel.livejournal.com]

'S funny because I'm allergic to flour.

[apredeus.livejournal.com]

проволОчка (delay) - прОволочка (small wire) is my favourite pair. There's even a verse about this pair:
О, помоги мне, мама
Не знаю, как прочесть:
Есть слово проволОчка,
и прОволочка есть!
=)

[arflahgha.livejournal.com]

Thank you guys so much. =)

[lexabear.livejournal.com]

In addition to what others have listed, it also happens sometimes that declined forms can look like multiple words if there exist both feminine and masculine words with the same root. For example, в поле could come from either the word пол or поля.

[yms.livejournal.com]

First of all, there are a lot of pairs with voiced/unvoiced consonants in the end which sound the same: род - рот, плод - плот, съезд - съест, серп и молот - серб и молод :) Etc.
Next, vowels which sound the same when unstressed: привидение - приведение, сидеть - седеть, посветить - посвятить.
There are some other situations, but I don't remember them right now...