homophones which witch

Homophones: which or witch?

A reader left the following comment inquiring about the spelling of two sets of homophones:

“I have trouble with witch/which (and even so, I am not sure I have those right) and weather/wheather [sic]. any good ideas on how to keep them straight???”

I’ve already written a post addressing the difference between weather and whether.

Today, I’ll share some tips to help you remember how to toggle comfortably between the homophones which and witch.

First, We Spell Our Homophones

Spelling is appropriate, since we are discussing witches (Get it? Spelling, as in casting spells). The first step is to memorize the correct spelling of both words:

which
witch


Which witch?

Which witch? These two words sound exactly alike but they are totally different. In short, one of these is a mythological or supernatural individual who casts spells. The other is not a person at all; in fact it is merely a pronoun. How can you remember the difference?

  • Who, what, and where are also pronouns that start with the letters wh — just like the word which as in which pronoun do you like best?
  • Try to remember the phrase itch the witch. Notice that witch (a person who can itch) is spelled the same as itch with a w tacked on to the beginning.

Homophones are challenging for lots of people, but you can find easy tricks to help you remember the difference between words that sound alike but are spelled differently.

Next time someone asks which witch you’ll know exactly what to tell them.

Are there any homophones that give you grief? Got any tricks for remembering the difference between which and witch? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment!

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