Week vs Weak

“Week” (noun) means a period of seven days. “Weak” (adjective) means lacking strength or power. Week and weak are homophones: they sound exactly the same when spoken, but they are spelled differently and mean completely different things.

Yes, “week” functions as a noun in standard English. A period of seven days.

Yes, “weak” functions as a adjective in standard English. Lacking strength or power.

“Week” contains a double “ee” — think of the seven days stretching out in a row; “weak” has an “ea”, the same spelling pattern as “break” and “fail”, both about something giving way.

Here is an example: “I'll see you again next week.”

Here is an example: “She felt weak after her long illness.”

Yes. “Week” and “weak” are true homophones — in standard English pronunciation they sound identical, even though the spelling and meaning are completely different. You can only tell them apart from context, not from sound.

A homophone is a word that sounds exactly the same as another word but has a different spelling and a different meaning. The term comes from the Greek 'homo' (same) and 'phone' (sound). See the LexFizz Homophones hub and Glossary entry for more examples.

Yes — homophone pairs like week/weak are a common source of spelling mistakes even for native speakers, because the identical pronunciation gives no clue about which spelling is correct. Spell-checkers often miss these errors too, since both words are spelled correctly — just used in the wrong place.

Practise week and weak in full sentences rather than as an isolated pair, and quiz yourself with LexFizz's Flash Cards and Quiz exercises. Writing a few of your own example sentences for each word is one of the fastest ways to make the distinction automatic.