Peer, pier, pear and pair: Spot the homophones

By Joyanne James. Can you spot the difference between the sounds peer, pier, pear and pair? In some English varieties such as in Caribbean countries, they are all homophones, while in other varieties peer and pier are similar and pear and pair are similar.

Have some fun with homophones by testing your knowledge with these activities and make sure that you are always ready to spell. Here is a short story that requires you to know the different spellings of words that sound the same.

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This story is about a field trip and requires you to know if peer, pier, pear and pair refer to a place, fruit, set of two things, person looking at something with concentration or person equal to another.

Count the errors made with peer, pier, pear and pair as you read the sentences and check the corrected version right below to see if you spotted all the errors. Feel free to research the sounds and meanings of peer, pier, pear and pair before attempting this exercise. It will be more fun if you have this knowledge with which to work.

Start counting errors – peer, pier, pear and pair

Class Field Trip

This year, we visited the peer down at the peninsular end. We had to pier off with a favourite pear, someone we called a friend. Our teacher was cool, she made a rule for us to wear matching gear. The pair we choose must wear a pier of shoes like the one we choose to wear.

The food we pack must include a snack and a fruit to share with our peer. The pier was a trip for potato chips, some grapes, an apple and a peer. With my peer, I shared a pear and an apple on the bus ride. The trip to the pear was not so near so Miss was our tour guide.

Down at the pair, students squinted to pier at the boats in the distant sea. My pear had a peer of binoculars to share, so my classmates were jealous of me. I saw a girl in the water with a pear of swim wings struggling to stay afloat. As we stood on the peer, I told my pier she probably fell off a boat.

My pier and I raced quickly on the peer up to the lifeguard booth. As we reached there, he was eating a pair and wearing a red and blue suit. When we started to shout the pier fell out his mouth as we startled him. He squinted to pair at the girl out at sea who was struggling to swim.

He ran down the peer with rescue gear and jumped onto a jet ski. As the water cleared the students cheered as he headed out to sea. He brought her to the pier, offered her a pear and all was calm and cool. We left the pier, had to pair off with a peer on the bus ride back to school.

Did you find 20 errors with the words peer, pier, pear and pair? Check the corrected version of the story below to see which ones you’ve missed.

Class Field Trip (corrected version)

This year, we visited the pier down at the peninsular end. We had to pair off with a favourite peer, someone we called a friend. Our teacher was cool, she made a rule for us to wear matching gear. The peer we choose must wear a pair of shoes like the one we choose to wear.

The food we pack must include a snack and a fruit to share with our peer. The pier was a trip for potato chips, some grapes, an apple and a pear. With my peer, I shared a pear and an apple on the bus ride. The trip to the pier was not so near so Miss was our tour guide.

Down at the pier, students squinted to peer at the boats in the distant sea. My peer had a pair of binoculars to share, so my classmates were jealous of me. I saw a girl in the water with a pair of swim wings struggling to stay afloat. As we stood on the pier, I told my peer she probably fell off a boat.

My peer and I raced quickly on the pier up to the lifeguard booth. As we reached there, he was eating a pear and wearing a red and blue suit. When we started to shout the pear fell out his mouth as we startled him. He squinted to peer at the girl out at sea who was struggling to swim.

He ran down the pier with rescue gear and jumped onto a jet ski. As the water cleared the students cheered as he headed out to sea. He brought her to the pier, offered her a pear and all was calm and cool. We left the pier, had to pair off with a peer on the bus ride back to school.

Good job! Try another one of Study Zone Institute’s fun exercises under the categories English, Mathematics, Science, Business and Accounting and Social Studies. Interact with this fun video on synonyms and anonyms on YouTube and remember to subscribe to the channel.

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