Would it sound awkward if I say "assignment" instead of "homework?"
Native speaker’s answer
Rebecca
In short, no, you can use "assignment" and "homework" interchangeably! The only real difference is a slight nuance with "homework" being a more child-like word than assignment and implying a teacher-student relationship. "Assignment" is more of a general word and can apply to anything that one person assigns to an other(s) as a task. Additionally, "assignments" can also take longer than "homework", but there is no hard rule for this use. When a task is given to multiple people (i.e. a class), we can use the plural form of "assignment", but we never use a plural form of "homework". Ex: Your homework/assignment for next week is to prepare a presentation on the topic we discussed today. Ex: Please make sure to hand in your assignments/homework before the deadline.
