Homonyms

[imron]

Learn words as a whole and the problem of homonyms basically goes away.

[roddy]

Merging with an earlier topic.

[herradw]

I should have said homophones - even disregarding the tones to some degree ...

I'm thinking of students in the beginning stage of Mandarin learning who don't remember characters/tones very well but are starting to write. When writing they often write what ever character they remember with they same pinyin; e.g. they want to say "wife" and write “期子”。

When listening they might run into a comparable problem and will be thrown off because they associate the wrong character/meaning and consequently don't identify a word or misunderstand the whole phrase.

I'm teaching non native primary school students. So if there's anybody who has helpful ideas for this situation I appreciate you sharing.

Thanks