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Another simple day for me. Just watch and learn.
- aural - oral
- discreet - discrete
have same pronunciation but different meanings, therefore, they are homophones, whereas, the following are minimal pairs because they are different in one phoneme,
- ascend - assent
- prescribe - proscribe
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| Venn diagram showing the relationships between homographs (green) and related linguistic concepts Image from Wikipedia |
As for "restful - restive", they are sort of antonyms, meaning they are words of opposite meanings, whereas "flammable - inflammable" are synonyms, meaning they are words of similar meanings.
Lastly, "ingenuous - ingenious", they are different in spellings, different in pronunciation, different in meanings, outside of the minimal pairs region, so, they are just confusing words.
Just in case you wanna meet some faux amis, do check out Culture & Usage: "Lufsig", False Friends & Bad Words.
Vocabulary:
peen
tittle
nurdle
dongle
angina
diphthong
annals
pusillanimous
futtock
coccyx
mastication
kumquat
sexton
dictionaries
brucschetta
charcuterie
gnocchi
quinoa
beignet
endive
anise
gyro
cognac
espresso
prosciutto
pho
paella
bon appetit
aural
oral
ascend
assent
prescribe
proscribe
restful
restive
ingenuous
ingenious
discreet
discrete
flammable
inflammable
homophones
minimal pairs
antonyms
synonyms
faux amis
Resources:
Culture & Usage: "Lufsig", False Friends & Bad Words @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2013/12/culture-usage-lufsig-false-friends-bad.html
13 Words That Sound Sexy But Actually Aren't @ YouTube
http://youtu.be/iTSXGanCd7c
Words You're Probably Mixing Up @ YouTube
http://youtu.be/KC5DSkrhYFM
13 Foods You're Pronouncing Wrong @ YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu9AEX0LHXQ
Homophone @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homophone
Minimal pairs @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimal_pair