In transcribing a recording, you may encounter words that can have different spellings and meanings. You may be wondering on what the correct spelling is and you may get confused as to what the word should be used. So how do you deal with these?
Words that sound alike but have different spellings and different meanings are called Homophones and to be a competent transcriber, one must carefully consider this group of words as this can make or break a transcription project.
To be able to distinguish one word from another, you must be knowledgeable in the English vocabulary and you must know the meanings of each word so that you can take it into context and find out which one is the best suited word.
Here are some of the words that one can get confused and are often misused when it comes to transcribing:
- There, They're and Their
You can notice that these three words are simple to read, but are often the most misused. Especially when you are listening to a recording, one can mistake a "There" for a "Their" or a "They're" for a "There". The best way to deal with this is to understand first and foremost the meaning of these words by stopping first at transcribing and looking them up in the dictionary. Once you have gotten a good grasp of their differences, listen to the recording once again and take each word into the context of what is being said. Then compare which one makes sense the most.
Other homophones that are often misused include the following:
- Right, Write
- His, He's
- To, Too, Two
- Hear, Here
- Weight, Wait
This are just a few of the many homophones that are commonly muddled. Be sure to improve your English vocabulary to decrease the chances of committing this mistake and consult your dictionary as a grammar or a spell checker may still accept a wrongly used homophone.
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