Hall vs haul

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Grammarist

Hall and haul are homophones, which are words that are pronounced in the same fashion but are spelled differently and have different meanings. We will examine the difference between the definitions of hall and haul, where these words came from and some examples of their use in sentences.

A hall may be the space just inside the entrance to a house or other building, a large event place or a narrow corridor that leads to other rooms. Hall may also mean a large building where students live in a university or an English country house. The word hall is derived from the Old English word heall, which means temple, court of law or large residence.

Haul means to drag something which much effort, to pull a trailer or other conveyance behind a vehicle. In nautical terms, haul means to abruptly change course. Haul may be used as a transitive verb which is a verb that takes an object, or as a noun. When used as a noun, haul may refer to an item being dragged, a distance covered on a long trek or a quantity of something earned or stolen. The word haul is derived from the Middle English word halen meaning pull or drag.

Examples

Leadwood city officials will soon be conducting business in a brand new city hall building rather than inside the basement of a church or the local fire house as the new structure gets ever closer to completion. (The Leadwood Daily Journal)

That’s the first thing to say about Hamburg’s new concert hall, the Elbphilharmonie, which opened on Wednesday with a concert attended by a veritable wer ist wer of German society, including the Hamburg-born Angela Merkel and the German president Joachim Gauck. (The London Times)

The total haul is about N250 million at the prevailing exchange rate at the parallel market. (The Premium Times)

It may have encountered a spot of turbulence when it scrapped free meals on short-haul routes, but British Airways could be in for storm of bad publicity after its chairman said that it could start charging for meals on long haul flights. (The Independent)