Heteronyms and homonyms

Below is an article appearing in the Star worthy of taking note of:-

THE STAR'S MIND OUR ENGLISH Friday December 7, 2007
Sounds the same, sounds different
By STEPHEN KAU
ONE way to expand your vocabulary is to be aware of how often you use heteronyms and homonyms in your written work. I say “written work” because you probably use heteronyms and homonyms frequently in your conversations without realising you are doing so.
Heteronyms are words that have the same spelling but different meanings because of different pronunciations.
Examples include “bow” and “live”.
The former can mean an item of clothing worn on the head/below the chin, or a weapon to launch arrows with, when pronounced as “boe”. Or it can mean a respectful gesture of bending your body at the waist, or the front of a vessel, when pronounced “bau”.
The latter means to exist to do whatever with your life when pronounced “lif”, and means immediate, as in live telecast, when pronounced “lyv”.
Some heteronyms, as in the aforementioned examples, have clearly different sounds.
A few other heteronyms, however, have pronunciations that are so close to each other that you need to speak concisely (and listen intently) to pick up the difference.
And speaking of “close”:
It means to shut when pronounced with a lower tone as in “klohz”, and it means to be near when said with a higher cadence as in “clohs”.
Homonyms, in contrast, have the same spelling AND the same pronunciations but different meanings depending on the context of their usage.
A good example: “Time flies like an arrow but fruit flies like a rotten banana.”
In their respective cases in the sentence, the “flies” and the “like” are pronounced the same, but they clearly have different meanings. Otherwise, the sentence doesn’t make sense.
The first “flies” is a verb, the second is a noun (as in the plural of “fly”, the pesky insect).
The first “like” is an adjective meaning similar, and the second is a verb meaning to prefer.
There are more homonyms than there are heteronyms, as I’m sure you know, for English has a myriad of same-spelling-same-pronunciation words that mean different things, including “mean” itself.
Give yourself a pat if you can list 10 heteronyms and 20 homonyms.
Stephen Kau is a writer who lives in Sydney, Australia.