homonyms

[duran7963]

My son is in college in the Dominican Republic and he is being told that the words (our,are) are homonyms.

My son corected the professor in saying that they are not and she insisted that the sound the same.

Can you please clarify..

Thanks
Gracesinda Duran

[Barb_D]

It will depend on where you live. In some places, "our" sounds more like "hour" and in other place "our" and "are" will sound the same. For me, "our" and "are" are usually the same.

[SoothingDave]

I'm with Barb. They are homonyms in my accent.

[5jj]

They are definitely not in my accent, though I suspect that at times the difference is not as great as I imagine

[emsr2d2]

Technically, they're not homonyms in BrE. However, a large number of the population pronounce "our" as "are" unless they are being particularly careful with their enunciation.

I did have to run through a few phrases in my head (and out loud) before coming to that conclusion. "Do you want to come to our house?" definitely sounds more like "Do you want to come to are house?"

When I teach, I'm always careful to pronounce it so that it rhymes with "hour" though.