Err

They're = their = there
Wear = where = ware
We're = weir

Err = fur (for me, although the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary gives both, with the vowel in 'fur' first)

I'm surprised at nette's "we're" rhyming with where and wear. I'm with stormboy. We're and weir rhyme with steer. Were rhymes with fur.

'we're' definitely rhymes with wear and where in australia - my head's abuzz with rhyming and non-rhyming homonyms right now so i can't think whether it's the same in the UK. i would have said yes for your average english accent, at least. anyone?

another few which i'm pretty certain will separate australians and some brits from americans are sure/shore, mare/mayor, draw/drawer, and boy/buoy. for me they rhyme exactly. for you guys no, right?

you're/your/yore/yaw check also all the same.

you/ewe/yew check

...etc.

actually, not homonyms - homophones. but i guess one person's homophone is another person's... heterophone??

#62 -- I think the first time I posted here was with reference to "buoy". I may be the last American alive who makes it a homophone with "boy". Your others in that second paragraph are all distinct for me. Pronouncing "sure" as "shore" is considered substandard rural Southern here.

#64: I enjoyed my cup of tea so much that I'm back for another.

How else is 'buoy' pronounced, if not 'boy'?

BOO-ey. to rhyme with 'phooey'. shudder

Most Americans now make it booey, to rhyme with Pfui! or gooey. A spelling pronunciation that serves to distinguish it from "boy". I used to know a bar in Sag Harbor, NY, called The Black Buoy, which sounded a little odd in my pronunciation. Alas, gone the way of all non-touristy bars in Sag Harbor and environs.

"Buoyant" is in flux. I think it's usually boyant but I've heard boo-yant also.

<blockquote>Quote
<hr>is considered substandard rural Southern here. <hr></blockquote> well, luckily we don't have a 'substandard rural southern' stereotype here. we reserve our prejudices for the northerners, in queensland.

but either way, we all rhyme sure with shore, and it therefore connotes no particular socio-economic background. different pronounciations of vowels like the 'i' in wine and the 'a' in ant do that job quite nicely.

'Booey'? You are surely jesting ...??