I collect a particular type of word. They are multi-syllable words, in English, which are verbs if the stress is on one syllable but nouns if the stress is on a different syllable. For example, prod-UCE is a verb, meaning to create something, whereas PROD-uce is a noun, meaning apples, lettuces etc.

They are all multi-syllable word. I’m not collecting single-syllable words whose meaning changes depending on how they are pronounced (e.g., “now I read the books I read when I was a child”, or “we lead the world in production of lead”, or “a tear in his muscle lead him to shed a tear”).

It seems to always be the case that the noun form has the stress at the front, whereas the verb / adjective / other forms have the stress later. I’m particularly interested in any opposite examples.

Below is my collection. Pls let me know of others!

Word	Meaning 2	Meaning 1
Produce	PRODuce Noun: typically farm outputs	proDUCE verb: to create
Escort	EScort Noun: somebody you hire	esCORT Verb: to take somebody somewhere
Compound	COMpound Noun: thing made of several parts	comPOUND Verb: to exaccerbate
Record	RECord Noun: documentation of something, or physical sound recording	reCORD Verb: to document something
Consort	CONsort Noun: somebody who accompanies, or a group (e.g., a consort of viols)	conSORT Verb: to operate together
Collect	COLLect Noun: prayer for the day in Anglican churches	coLLECT Verb: to bring together
Fragment	FRAGment Noun: a piece	fragMENT Verb: to split into pieces
Progress	PROgress Noun: a development	proGRESS Verb: to develop
Recess	REcess A break or a niche behind	reCESS To put behind
Converse	CONverse The opposite	conVERSE To talk
Second	SECond Unit of time, or to come second in a race	seCOND To move a person temporarily, say, from one department to another

Others:

Pervert, project, reject, object, subject, permit, present, extract, desert, defect, import, export, refuse, process, incline, commune, torment, proceed (I recently heard a non-native English speaker talk about using the pro-CEEDs from selling his house.) Some are nice sets with related meanings: insert, extract, recall, implant; and fragment and segment. Lots being with ‘con’ : contract, construct, convict, content, conscript, confine, convert.

Those are all two-syllable words. Here’s an interesting three-syllable one: envelope. It follows the same pattern: the noun has the stress at the front (EN-velope) whereas the verb has the stress on the second syllable (enVELope: actually pronounced ‘en-VEL-up’. See below about pronunciation nightmares).

Obviously sometimes, the noun & verb are related (you produce your produce; a reject has been rejected; if you rebel, you are called a rebel; you present a present). But other times they’re unrelated, e.g., a legal contract doesn’t involve something shrinking (contracting).

Some cousins:

• Perfect. PERfect is an adjective (flawless), but perFECT is a verb (to make something flawless).
• AUGust is a noun, but auGUST is an adjective.
• CONtent is a noun, but conTENT is an adjective.
• INvalid is a noun, but inVALid is an adjective.
• Contrary is a weird one. CONtrary means ‘opposite’ (like playing musical scales on a piano in contrary motion: one hand plays it rising while the other plays it falling), whereas conTRARy describes a person who often disagrees /takes an opposing view. I think they’re both adjectives.

I recently discovered a word which can be a verb, noun or adjective(!). It’s ‘abstract’. An ABstract is the summary atop a scientific research paper; a painting can be ABstract; and one can abSTRACT the essence of something (rather like extract, or to summarise).

• There are some words in which the consonant sound changes depending on whether it’s a noun or a verb, though the stress is in the same place. For example, abuse. The noun has an s sound (‘child abuse’), but the verb has a z sound (‘to abuse a child’ – rhymes with ‘ooze’). Similarly, an excuse has an s sound but to excuse oneself has a z sound. Refuse is the same.

In three-syllable examples, the noun-forms still all have the stress on the first syllable:

Aggregate	AGGregate: small stones that go on a path	aggreGATE to bring together
Attribute	ATTribute A characteristic	aTTRIBute to consider as caused by something
Estimate	ESTimate An informed guess	estimATE* to make an estimate
Alternate (cousin!)	alTERnate (adjective) Every other one (‘we eat on alternate Sundays’)	ALternate* to take turns

* Maybe here, the stress in the verb is sometimes at the front and sometimes at the back(?)

There are some three-syllable words where the meaning changes depending on whether how we pronounce the last bit. For example:

• Aggre’gate’ is a verb, meaning to pull together. Aggre’gut’ (when we don’t pronounce the last bit like ‘garden gate’) is a noun, meaning the sum total (3-nil on aggregate).
• Dele’gate’ is a verb, meaning to give somebody else a task. Dele’gut’ is a noun, meaning person at a meeting.
• Estimate is like this too: estim’ate’ is a verb, meaning to guess, but esti’mut’ is a noun.
• Gradu’ate’ is a verb, but gradu’ut’ is the person who graduates.
• Associ’ate’ is a verb, but associ’ut’ is a noun.

Those words have cousins which are verb / adjectives:

• Articul’ate’ is a verb, meaning to pronounce something, whereas articul’ut’ is an adjective, meaning able to express themselves easily.
• Consumm’ate’ is a verb, meaning to formalise a marriage, whereas consumm’ut’ is an adjective, meaning skilled and accomplished.
• Appropri’ate’ is a verb (to take), but appropri’ut’ is an adjective.

In short, be kind to non-native English speakers! This too will also help appreciate what they’re dealing with.