# Single-syllable words with the most spellings. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 15, 2019, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-syllable-words-with-the-most-spellings/841774 "2019-10-15T04:12:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Calavera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calavera/32/70_2.png) [@Calavera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Calavera)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-syllable-words-with-the-most-spellings/841774/21 "2019-10-15T17:28:40Z")
I was curious so i looked up some videos. A surprising number of people, (to me) are saying “arr shucks”, never noticed that before. If I did hear it before I guess I was just assuming that they were saying “ah shucks”. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-syllable-words-with-the-most-spellings/841774/22 "2019-10-15T18:22:03Z")
> [@Calavera](#): > > How else would you pronounce it? They definitely do in my mind (My inner and outer voice is RP English). I’m pretty sure I’ve heard pretty much every American accent saying things like “awesome” and “aw shucks” and they sound the same. For me, oar/ore/or/Orr are pronounced similar to the beginning of Oregon and Orlando and awe/aw are pronounced similar to the beginning of Australia and Austria. Very different. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-syllable-words-with-the-most-spellings/841774/23 "2019-10-15T18:48:13Z")
> [@Calavera](#): > > How else would you pronounce it? They definitely do in my mind (My inner and outer voice is RP English). I’m pretty sure I’ve heard pretty much every American accent saying things like “awesome” and “aw shucks” and they sound the same. Uh, you’d pronounce the ‘r’? Like millions of native speakers of English do? ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-syllable-words-with-the-most-spellings/841774/24 "2019-10-15T18:48:38Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Map of the “pen-pin merger” — the southern US: > [Phonological history of English close front vowels - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_English_close_front_vowels#/media/File%3APin-pen.svg) I can’t work out how else to pronounce Jim and gem. They sound exactly alike to me. I almost put ‘jam’ on the list. Funny story- Mr.Wrekker was out of state on a fishing trip in Wisconsin. He needed ice for his icechest. He went in to pay for it and told the clerk “I want some of that ‘ice’ out there” The clerk took offense, it took her an uncomfortable (for BigWrek) few minutes work out he wasn’t saying ‘ass’ ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-syllable-words-with-the-most-spellings/841774/25 "2019-10-15T19:02:22Z")
> [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](#): > > Uh, you’d pronounce the ‘r’? Like millions of native speakers of English do? Actually, I might be being unfair on Calavera here. In the dialect of the north east of Scotland, “Far’s at?” means “Where’s that?” and “Fa’s at?” means “Who’s that?”. It’s a distinction that would be audibly clear to all Scottish people, even if they don’t know what it means. However, I have discovered that some English friends can’t hear the difference, which I found very interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-syllable-words-with-the-most-spellings/841774/26 "2019-10-15T19:38:07Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > I can’t work out how else to pronounce Jim and gem. They sound exactly alike to me. I almost put ‘jam’ on the list. Do you pronounce the peanut butter “Jif” the same as the name “Jeff”? ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-syllable-words-with-the-most-spellings/841774/27 "2019-10-15T19:39:01Z")
Quay, cay, key- I’ve had to direct unbelieving southeast Georgia high school English teachers to the dictionary over these. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-syllable-words-with-the-most-spellings/841774/28 "2019-10-15T20:46:35Z")
Rose, rows, rhos, roes is my fave for this sort of thing. Here’s a [page](https://people.sc.fsu.edu/~jburkardt/fun/wordplay/multinyms.html) that lists a lot of such things. For 5 and 7 they get intro really odd stuff. (If you have to explain a word …) The six one is more or less okay: air, are, e’er, ere, err, heir. I would quibble with “e’er” (presumably from “ever”) since if one allowed elision there’d be a ton more options. E.g., “roas’” from “roast”. One would need an awkward “common elisions” rule. But if listen to people you’ll hear “roas beef” often enough. ---
**Author:** ![Karen\_Lingel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karen_lingel/32/18649_2.png) [@Karen\_Lingel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karen_Lingel)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-syllable-words-with-the-most-spellings/841774/29 "2019-10-15T23:54:25Z")
your, you’re, yore, UR ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2019, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-syllable-words-with-the-most-spellings/841774/30 "2019-10-16T00:08:10Z")
are surnames acceptable for submission? If so, Kuntz Spelling Variations one of which from this list is actually a name in my family tree Spelling variations of this family name include: Kunze, Kunz, Kunzel, Kuenz, Kuenze, Kuenzel, Cuntz, Kuntz, Kuntze, Kuntzel, Kuentz, Kunts, Kundt, Kuent, Kunth, Kunt, Kuhnt, Kuehnt, Kuntse, Kuntsel, Kunstler, Kuents, Kuentse, Cuncze and the most famous spelling of all perhaps of this name, Koontz ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2019, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-syllable-words-with-the-most-spellings/841774/31 "2019-10-16T00:36:06Z")
> [@california\_jobcase](#): > > Quay, cay, key- I’ve had to direct unbelieving southeast Georgia high school English teachers to the dictionary over these. In Sarasota there was a shopping center on the bay called the Quay. We all pronounced it as Qway. The downside of this was that it lead me to misprounced the word in my head until recently. The upside is that we did not confuse it with the many barrier islands - “keys” - around Sarasota. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2019, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-syllable-words-with-the-most-spellings/841774/32 "2019-10-16T15:30:57Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > Many (most?) English people would pronounce all those words [_oar/ore/or/Orr - b_] identically, including “awe”. I certainly would, as I have a [non-rhotic](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/non-rhotic) accent. Without a cite: I would think that due to the sheer number of North American English speakers … native English speakers worldwide for whom oar/ore/or/Orr/awe/aw are ‘perfect’ homophones are outnumbered a good 8-to-1 by native English speakers distinguishing oar/ore/or/Orr and awe/aw. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2019, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-syllable-words-with-the-most-spellings/841774/33 "2019-10-16T15:41:50Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > I can’t work out how else to pronounce Jim and gem. They sound exactly alike to me. For you, to distinguish ‘gem’ from ‘Jim’ … start off by pronouncing ‘Jim’ super-slowly. Linger over that vowel a good three or four seconds. Take careful note of how open your mouth is while saying ‘Jim’. Do it several times. Keep paying attention to your mouth opening. Using a mirror can help. Now, onto ‘gem’: start off saying ‘Jim’ again, nice and slow. Really slow. Only this time, open your mouth slightly wider. Just how wide to go will take some trial and error, and you’ll likely need a non-local English speaker to let you know when you’ve hit the mark. The movements that distinguish vowels are subtle. If you go too wide, it will start sounding a little like a common British version of ‘jam’. Trick is, to you and others who speak/hear your local dialect, an erudite on-the-money ‘gem’, even coming out of your own mouth, will still sound like ‘Jim’ to you. So you, personally, will not get much from the pronunciation change in the short term. After many trials, and perhaps some dedicated phonetics instruction, you’d start to pick up on the difference in the ‘Jim’ vs. ‘gem’ vowels as perceived in much of the rest of the U.S. It takes patience and repetition, though. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2019, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-syllable-words-with-the-most-spellings/841774/34 "2019-10-16T17:57:56Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > Without a cite: > > I would think that due to the sheer number of North American English speakers … native English speakers worldwide for whom oar/ore/or/Orr/awe/aw are ‘perfect’ homophones are outnumbered a good 8-to-1 by native English speakers distinguishing oar/ore/or/Orr and awe/aw. That’s why I wrote “English people”, not “English speakers”. Even in other parts of the British Isles, non-rhotic speakers tend to be outnumbered. It’s largely a “received pronunciation” trait of British English, albeit one that has spread to other areas. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2019, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-syllable-words-with-the-most-spellings/841774/35 "2019-10-16T20:27:39Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > That’s why I wrote “English people”, not “English speakers”. Even in other parts of the British Isles, non-rhotic speakers tend to be outnumbered. It’s largely a “received pronunciation” trait of British English, albeit one that has spread to other areas. FWIW,\* I\* thought you were saying “most English speakers”, too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-syllable-words-with-the-most-spellings/841774.md?page=1)