✍️ Grammatical homophones: tips to stop mixing up a/à, et/est, son/sont

Your child understands the text, has ideas, knows the lesson… and still loses marks in dictation for a simple accent. « Il va a l'école », « les voisins on un chien », « papa et parti »: these mistakes have a name—grammatical homophones. They’re little words that sound exactly the same but have completely different jobs in a sentence.

The good news: you don’t fix this by telling a child to "pay more attention." You fix it with a replacement test—the same quick check every time, taking just two seconds and giving the right answer. Here are the tricks for each pair, from CE1 to CM2, with a table to display and sentences to try out tonight.

Grammatical homophones: why listening isn’t enough

When your child writes « a » instead of « à », it’s not a vocabulary mistake. They hear the same sound, and nothing in that sound tells them which to choose. If they rely on their ear, it’s just a coin toss—which is why you see the same word right at the top of the page and wrong at the bottom.

The only thing that separates these words is their role in the sentence: one is a verb, the other is a little invariable word or a determiner. But explaining "nature and function" to a CE1 child in the middle of a dictation doesn’t work. That’s where the trick comes in: instead of analysing, you swap the word. A verb can be put into another tense; a little invariable word can’t. The sentence either sounds right, or completely ridiculous—and children are very good at spotting the ridiculous.

These replacement tests are real memory aids: short, always the same, easy to whisper. That’s exactly the spirit of The Big Book of Memory Tricks, which gathers this kind of memory tip for all of primary school.

« a » or « à »: the « avait » trick

a (no accent) is the verb avoir in the present tense: you can swap it for avait. à (with accent) is a little invariable preposition: it can’t be replaced by a verb.

• « Léo a un chien » → « Léo avait un chien »: the sentence still works, so you write a.
• « Léo a mangé sa soupe » → « Léo avait mangé sa soupe »: this also works when avoir is used to form a compound tense.
• « Léo va à la piscine » → « Léo va avait la piscine »: that’s nonsense, so you write à.

For younger children, you can use an image: the little hat on « à » stops it from working, so it’s never the verb. It doesn’t replace the test, but it helps them remember.

« et » or « est »: the « était » test

Same logic, different verb. est comes from the verb être: swap it for était. et links two words or ideas: swap it for et puis.

• « Ma sœur est prête » → « Ma sœur était prête »: so you write est.
• « Prends ton cartable et ton manteau » → « Prends ton cartable et puis ton manteau »: so you write et.

The double test is really handy when checking work. If neither works, it’s often because the child has split the sentence wrongly—and that’s where the real mistake is hiding.

« on » or « ont », « son » or « sont »: the same habit

These two pairs work just like the previous ones. One is a plural verb, which you put into the imperfect; the other is a little word you swap for another.

• ont = verb avoir in the plural → swap it for avaient: « Les voisins ont un chat » → « Les voisins avaient un chat ».
• on = subject pronoun → swap it for il: « On part demain » → « Il part demain ».
• sont = verb être in the plural → swap it for étaient: « Ils sont en retard » → « Ils étaient en retard ».
• son = little word that goes with a noun → swap it for mon: « Range son cahier » → « Range mon cahier ».

Grammatical homophones from CE2 to CM2

Once the first four pairs are solid (allow a few weeks, not just days), you can add the next ones. They usually come up in CE2 and CM1, and keep appearing in dictations right through to CM2. The principle stays the same: one replacement word per homophone.

« ce » or « se »

If you can change the person and say me (or te), it’s se, placed before a verb: « il se lave » → « je me lave ». Otherwise, it’s ce, which goes with a noun and can be swapped for un: « ce livre » → « un livre ».

« ces » or « ses »

ses tells you who owns the things: you can swap it for mes (« il cherche ses chaussures » → « je cherche mes chaussures »), and you can add « les siennes ». ces is for pointing out: you can add -là after the noun (« regarde ces chaussures-là »).

« sa » or « ça »

sa goes with a noun: swap it for ma (« sa trousse » → « ma trousse »). ça is a pronoun: swap it for cela (« ça marche » → « cela marche »).

« ou » or « où »

If you can say ou bien, no accent: « du lait ou bien du jus ». Otherwise, the accent shows a place or a time: « où est mon stylo ? », « le jour où il a neigé ».

« la », « là » or « l'a »

If you can say ici, it’s là. If you can say l'avait, it’s l'a: « il l'a pris » → « il l'avait pris ». Otherwise, it’s la: « la fenêtre », « je la vois ».

“leur” or “leurs”: the ‘lui’ mnemonic trick

This is the pair that trips children up the longest, often until CM2 (age 10-11). There are two cases to tell apart:

• leur next to a verb (before, or just after as in « donne-leur »): it’s a pronoun, you can replace it with lui, and it never takes an s. « Je leur parle » → « Je lui parle ».
• leur before a noun: it goes with the noun and agrees with it. If the noun is singular: leur (« leur maison »). If the noun is plural: leurs (« leurs jouets »).

The phrase to remember: « Si je peux dire lui, leur reste tout nu. » (If I can say ‘lui’, ‘leur’ stays bare.) No s, ever, next to a verb.

These little words are cousins of the invariable words to memorise: the same short practice sessions work for both. And for children at the end of primary, our CM2 homophones page lets them practise directly.

The table of grammatical homophones to display above the desk

Print out this table and stick it near the rough notebook. It’s the tool your child checks while rereading, until the day they no longer need it.

Exercises on grammatical homophones: 12 sentences for tonight

Dictate these sentences, or have your child copy them out, choosing the correct word. Each time, your child should say their test out loud before writing: the test is what matters, not getting the right answer by chance.

1. Dad (a / à) prepared the snack.
2. We’re leaving (a / à) eight o’clock.
3. My sister (et / est) is already in the car.
4. Take your swimsuit (et / est) and your towel.
5. The neighbours (on / ont) have a new dog.
6. (On / Ont) Are we going to the park after lunch?
7. His friends (son / sont) are late.
8. She puts away (son / sont) schoolbag.
9. I can’t remember (ou / où) I put my keys.
10. Do you prefer milk (ou / où) or juice?
11. In the evening, he (ce / se) brushes his teeth.
12. The teacher reads them (leur / leurs) a story.

Answers: 1. a (had prepared) — 2. à — 3. est (was) — 4. et (and then) — 5. ont (had) — 6. On (He goes) — 7. sont (were) — 8. son (my) — 9. où — 10. ou (or else) — 11. se (I brush myself) — 12. leur (she reads to him/her, so no s).

To go further, the printable CE2 dictations use these homophones in real-life situations, with a proofreading grid. And our article on how to prepare a dictation shows how to organise your week without spending all your evenings on it.

Making these tips stick long-term

A child who understood the test on Saturday might have forgotten it by Tuesday: that’s normal, and it’s not a lack of effort. What really helps a tip stick is to review it briefly and often: the next day, a few days later, then the following week. Two minutes is enough each time, with just two or three sentences to check.

Another useful habit: when writing, a child’s attention is all on their ideas. Suggest a focused reread, hunting for just one thing at a time: first the “a”s, then the “est”s. When tackled separately, each tricky bit is much easier to manage.

If you’d like all these tips in one place, The Big Book of Memory Tricks gathers them by subject, ready to open five minutes before a test. Homophones sit alongside plenty of other memory tips, for both French and maths. For conjugation, which causes a lot of these mix-ups, our article on tips for remembering conjugations is a great companion to this one.

A test, a whisper, a reread: that’s all it takes for “a”, “et”, “on” and their friends to stop costing marks. Start tonight with just one pair, and let the habit grow.