greece · grease
Greece /ɡriːs/ vs grease /ɡriːs/ — homophones. A Mediterranean country and a cooking substance sound exactly the same. Both use the long /iː/ vowel.
🔊 These two words sound EXACTLY the same
/ɡriːs/
A country and a cooking substance — identical pronunciation.
proper noun — the country in southern Europe — 'ancient Greece' · 'Greek mythology' · capital: Athens
mouth shape
long /iː/ — tongue high and forward, lips spread wide — like 'piece', 'fleece', 'peace'
Greece
/ɡriːs/
vowel length
noun or verb — oily or fatty substance — 'cooking grease' · 'grease a pan' · 'elbow grease' = hard physical effort
mouth shape
identical to Greece — /ɡriːs/ — these two words are perfect homophones
grease
/ɡriːs/
vowel length
Spelling spotlight
Greece
the country — spelled with EE
capital G (proper noun) · always capitalised
grease
oily substance — spelled with EA
lowercase g · common noun
Both EE and EA spellings represent the same long /iː/ sound. The difference is only in the letters, never in the sound.
Key difference
There is no pronunciation difference — both are /ɡriːs/.Greece is always capitalised (it’s a proper noun — the name of a country); grease is lowercase (a common noun for an oily substance). Context always makes the meaning clear.
Example sentences
Greece:“We visited Greece last summer — the food was amazing.”
Greece:“Ancient Greece was the birthplace of democracy.”
grease:“There’s grease all over the frying pan.”
grease:“It took a lot of elbow grease to clean the oven.”
Hear it in a sentence
“They spent two weeks in Greece, visiting the islands by ferry.”
“She wiped the grease off the oven tray with a crumpled paper towel.”
Hear it in the wild
Real speech from native speakers — the most reliable way to check a pronunciation, since automated audio can vary by device and browser.
Greece
Hear native speakers say “Greece” in real sentences — news, lectures, and podcasts.
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grease
Hear native speakers say “grease” in real sentences — news, lectures, and podcasts.
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How teachers explain this
Approved tips from the community, sorted by helpfulness
Word families
Greece family ▸
grease family ▸
Related pairs
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