椅子が台所にあった VS いい友達に会った

[damkay]

ok guys i know they mean different things XD, but the verb in both: aru/atta, au/atta, they are pronunced the same ??? pls help me with this.

[Dustin]

As for the pronunciation, they are identical.

There may be a slight pitch difference, but I don't actively study pitch, I only try to acquire it by mimicking Japanese as closely as possible.

This isn't a huge problem for mixing the verbs up, since the context alone should show that you are saying an inanimate object exists, rather than you are "meeting" this inanimate object. The same is true the other way around, you probably wouldn't use the inanimate "exists" verb when you are meeting someone.

Most homonyms are clear from context like this, though it can get tricky sometimes

[chikara]

..... Most homonyms are clear from context like this, though it can get tricky sometimes

It seems to me that a lot of English speakers stress over homonyms in Japanese yet English is full of homophones. Many Japanese homonyms are only such when written in kana because kana is phonetic, eg あった. If written using kanji they are often homophones, eg あった and 会った.

In English conversation most native speakers have little trouble telling the difference between the homophones "to", "two" and "too" or "there", "their" and "they're".

I don't know about damkay-san's native language though.

.... There may be a slight pitch difference, but I don't actively study pitch .....

I'm the same. While I don't yet pick up on pitch accent I am yet to confuse chopsticks (箸) with a bridge (橋) when being offered hashi (はし) in a restaurant.

[damkay]

hahaha yeah the hashi hoshi problem, well ok guys that explanations seems enough for me, in fact, in spanish we have some homoni....that thing, but is very weird and rare, not common