When you listen to people speaking it is easy to misunderstand if you are not aware of homophones (words that sound the same). This is especially true in standardised tests like TOEIC, TOEFL and IELTS but also in everyday situations as well.
Some common homophones and near homophones are:
| ate | eight |
| blew | blue |
| check | Czech |
| eye | I |
| flea | flee |
| gym | Jim |
| him | hymn |
| in | inn |
| know | no |
| plain | plane |
| right | write |
| sea | see |
| two | too |
| wooden | wouldn’t |
| you | ewe |
Here’s a video that shows just how confusing homophones can be.