Who has not had doubts about spelling? And it is that there are homonymous words in Spanish that are similar enough to make us doubt when writing them. This is the case of the homophones undone and undone.
Linguistically speaking, homonymous words are recognized for being the same in their morphology but having different meanings. Thus they are classified into homographs, which have a different meaning but are written the same, and homophones that are pronounced and heard in the same way, but really differ in meaning and with different spelling.
Now, there are many ways to remember how to spell a word correctly; some call these mnemonics, others spelling exercises; Gardner would call it “stimulation of multiple intelligences.” Anyway, it doesn’t matter what they call it, the important thing is that we will present you multiple techniques to memorize the spelling of words, and especially of these homophones.
Instructions for writing waste or waste
In elementary school we were taught that there are two types of words: simple and compound. That is something we all remember. Morphology is part of the grammar of the language, since it is in charge of studying the structure of the minimum units of discourse known as words. His studies have been divided into two natures : lexical morphology and inflectional morphology.
In inflectional morphology, the changes of grammatical content in the structure of words are studied, which affect only syntactic links, such as the agreement between gender and number. On the other hand, lexical morphology deals with the analysis of lexical bases and is classified into compositional morphology and derivational morphology.
However, the study of homonymy is part of both lexical morphology and semantics. The quality of morphological kinship between the words generates confusion when using them; therefore, the technique of analogies by definition helps a lot to dispel doubts regarding the proper use of terms.
This technique consists of expanding your knowledge about the study of the language to be able to link said information to the specific use of the terms; from words that manage to associate with each other. For example, now that you know the definition of homophones, you can associate that information with the use of discard and discard.
How to remember this? Homophones, you can remember it this way:
- Associating its etymology, knowing that it comes from the Greek homós, which means ‘same’ and phōnḗ which became phono and means ‘sound’.
- Also, knowing that there are morphological particles called prefixes. The prefixes are segments that are added before the lexical bases to modify their meanings. Therefore, knowing that there is a prefix in Spanish known as des-, which implies negation, you can already associate that the base that follows it is being negated. For example, Time – Untimely, Do-Undo, Illusion – Disappointment, Encourage – Discourage, Arm – Disarm, Love – Heartbreak, Agreement – Disagreement and so on with words that admit the prefix or negation des-; with which you expand your lexicon exercising in the antonymy.
Morphosemantic analysis of the homophones waste and waste
First of all, it is important that you know that the morphosemantic analysis of words contributes a lot to developing your metalinguistic competence. This is really important in spelling, since as you reflect on the structure of a word you will be able to use them appropriately in different sentences without making a spelling mistake.
Next, we will present a fairly simple and didactic morphosemantic analysis of the homophones we are studying, so that you can broaden your knowledge and apply this technique to other pairs in which you have doubts later.
Waste, according to the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy, implies the action of “discarding waste”, something that no longer has value or that no longer has the same functional value as before. For example, in the following statement: Keeping organic waste of vegetable origin in a container in the patio of the house is the first step in the preparation of compost. Here you may notice that “waste” refers to food waste.
This term is derived from the verb to discard, therefore, although it begins with the syllable des-, it is not a prefix. Therefore, in this case it is incorrect to place an intermediate -h- if it is used in this sense, for what we have already explained. In short, taking as a point of support the meaning of the term and its origin, we can associate its spelling in the discursive context in which we want to use it.
On the other hand, the participle of the verb undo: undone, has a very different meaning. Undone, in the sense of dissolved or decomposed, it must take the intermediate -h-, because in its morphological structure there is a prefix attached to a lexical base.
Prefix: Des-
Base: Make from Latin Facer
undo > undo
As we explained before, the prefix un- implies a negation. Therefore, this means that something that was already made, composed or mature has decomposed, rotten, corrupted, broken or broken. Thus, analyzing its base etymologically, it comes from the Latin facer, which in Spanish became hacer, the h should always appear.
What do you need to write waste or waste?
- The first thing you need to improve your spelling is to cultivate the habit of reading. Although it sounds trite, it is true, only frequent reading will help you expand your vocabulary and use words with better fluency.
- Secondly, and it will also seem obvious to you but it is really necessary, you will only learn to write by writing. This means that as you write and rewrite the term in which you have raised doubts, you will be able to fix its proper spelling in your memory. You can practice this when you write in a WhatsApp chat, in a text message, while commenting on social networks and even writing a poem or song. So you can go practiced and fixing the image in your memory.
- Finally, what you will need most is perseverance and patience. Especially if you do not have adequate reading and writing habits, it will cost you a little more than those who do. However, looking for information on the Internet regarding the etymology of words also helps you exercise reading from metalinguistic reflection, as well as consulting the dictionary frequently.
Tips for writing waste or undone
- There are many spelling exercises you can do to improve your spelling skills. For example, you can write ten sentences that have the word undone and ten more with the word undone.
- Also, you can consult five famous phrases or poems with these terms on the Internet, so that you can create the reading habit. For example, like when Leon Trotsky called the socialists “waste of history” or when Sister Juna Inés de la Cruz said in one of her erotic poems that her heart was “broken in her hands”.
- Finally, we encourage you to tell us about other famous phrases, poems or songs with which we can help the readers of this post to differentiate the homophones studied and thus be able to make significant associations to the terms to better memorize their spelling.
Ok, surely you have a joke or anecdote that you want to tell us with these terms… Share with us that we are eager to show the world that spelling is not a boring and meaningless rule, but rather that it is part of our daily lives.