Don't be afraid of the difficult-looking words above! It's really quite simple: Homophones are words that sound the same, but have different meanings. Heterographs are homophones that also have different spellings. This can be quite confusing in spoken language, because the only way to tell homophones and heterographs apart is by the context in which they are used. The word "homophone" literally means "sounds the same," whereas the word "heterograph" means "written differently." In German, both nouns are neuter: das Homofon (or das Homophon) and das Heterofon (or das Heterophon).

Note too that in German, regional differences in pronunciation can sometimes make a set of words homophones in one region, but not in another. Let's take a look at some German heterographs today.

Monika aß sehr viel gekochtes Getreide.

Monika ate a lot of cooked grains.

Caption 4, Deutsch mit Eylin - Ernährungsformen

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Wenn die Nahrung knapp wird, begnügt er sich mit Aas.

When food becomes scarce, it makes do with carrion.

Caption 26, Die letzten Paradiese - Schätze der Natur: Südtirol

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It's ironic (and a bit disgusting) that the past tense of "to eat" (aß, from essen) sounds the same as the word for cadaver (das Aas). There's a certain logic, however, in the fact that most animal cadavers in the wild tend to get eaten by scavenger animals. When a homophone pair consists of a verb and a noun, you can construct funny-sounding sentences from them, such as: Er aß das Aas. By the way, only humans are referred to with the verb essen ("to eat"), whereas animals always take the verb fressen ("to devour"). And indeed, fressen also has a heterograph.

Das Pferd frisst gerne Äpfel.

The horse likes eating apples.

Caption 38, Deutsch mit Eylin - Pronomen

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Diese Frist kann verlängert werden,

This deadline can be extended

und zwar wieder nur durch einen einstimmigen Beschluss.

and only—indeed once again—through a unanimous ruling.

Caption 19, Brexit-Votum - Merkel warnt vor Spaltung Europas

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The third-person present tense of "to devour" (fressen) is frisst, and die Frist is a deadline or time limit. Der Pferd frisst Äpfel lieber ohne Frist. Nobody likes to be hurried to eat, right?

Er bot den Frauen ein Abkommen an.

He offered the women a deal.

Caption 55, Märchen - Sagenhaft - Die Weiber von Weinsberg

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Oje, das Boot von Opa Wutz hat kein Benzin mehr.

Uh oh, Grandpa Wutz's boat is out of gas.

Caption 16, Peppa Wutz - Sport

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Thus the past tense of "to offer" (bot, from bieten) is a heterograph of das Boot. Using both words in the same sentence, you can say something like: Das Boot bot uns viele Reisemöglichkeiten.

Wenn diese Temperatur so anhält,

If this temperature continues,

frieren die ganzen Seen in der Umgebung, wie ihr auch hinter mir sehen könnt, komplett zu.

all the lakes in the area will completely freeze over, as you can see behind me.

Captions 6-7, Unterwegs mit Cettina - Schlittschuhlaufen

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In this case, the plural of "lake" (der See) is Seen, and the verb "to see" is sehen. In the above example, both words of this heterograph pair are already in a single sentence.

Further Learning
Take a look at these examples of German homophones on Wikipedia and find some examples of the words used in a real-world context on Yabla German. Then see if you can create some German sentences using both homophones in the same sentence. You are allowed to make silly sentences, of course!

In Part I and Part II of this series, we went through a lot of odd German animal names, looking at how the names may—or may not—connect directly to descriptions of the animals. Today, let's conclude our exploration of the wild and woolly world of odd German animal names!

Entschuldige, dass ich dich „Seehund“ genannt habe.

Sorry that I called you "sea dog."

Caption 26, Peppa Wutz, Sport

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The proper English name of the largest rodent in the world is "capybara," and it's formally das Capybara in German. The informal name of the capybara is "water hog," which is also the direct translation of the informal name in German: das Wasserschwein.

Wer ist das größte Wasserschwein auf dem Planeten?

Who is the biggest water hog on the planet?

Caption 98, heute-show Wasserknappheit: Verkauft eure Aktien und investiert in Wasser!

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This is a slang usage of das Wasserschwein, and is not referring to the animal at all! Just as you might tell somebody who is drinking up all of the water to "stop hogging the water," this video is referring to a Swiss company that is exploiting a lot of American water resources as a "water hog."

Schweinswale sollen direkt vor dem Badestrand gesehen worden sein.

Porpoises were reported to have been seen near this swimming beach.

Caption 32, Abenteuer Nordsee: Unter Riesenhaien und Tintenfischen

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The German word for "porpoise" is der Schweinswal, which translates directly to "hog whale" or "pig whale." That doesn't seem to make much sense, but the fact that they have a flat snout, unlike dolphins with their pronounced beaks, may have led to a comparison with pigs in German. And dolphins are in fact classified as toothed whales, although their nearest relative, going back 40 million years, is the hippopotamus!

Some other German animal names with -schwein include:
—das Meerschweinchen (Guinea pig, literally "little sea pig")
—das Seeschwein (dugong, literally "sea hog" or "sea pig")
—das Stachelschwein (porcupine, literally "spike pig")

But the winner for the title of the oddest German animal name must be...

„Eichhörnchen jubilieren nicht“, stellte Frederick richtig, „sie knacken Nüsse, Tannenzapfen, Eicheln und so weiter.“

"Squirrels do not rejoice," rectified Frederick, "they crack nuts, pine cones, acorns and such."

Captions 14-15, Piggeldy und Frederick: Tiere im Winter

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If you translate das Eichhörnchen literally from die Eiche and das Hörnchen, you wind up with either "little oak horn" or "oak croissant"! In fact, the origins of the word Eichhörnchen are uncertain, but the Eiche part probably goes back to an ancient Indo-Germanic word, aik or aig, that means "restless movement," which is certainly an apt description of the squirrel! German squirrels also have tufted ears that look a bit like little horns...

Further Learning
Go to Yabla German and watch the videos listed above to find out more about these animals in context.