Noun vs. Verb Syllable Stress [Finance]           

Read this sentence out loud (or in your head): 

‘Matthew won the contest but I am going to contest the results.’

Did you pronounce ‘contest’ and the second ‘contest’ the same way?  If you did, you made a mistake common to many English learners.  The words ‘contest’ are actually pronounced: ‘Matthew won the CONtest but I am going to conTEST the results.’

Usually, when we turn a verb or adjective into a noun (called ‘nominalization’), we change its spelling.  However, with certain words the spelling stays the same but the syllable stress changes.

For this example, the first ‘contest’ is a noun (meaning ‘competition’) and the second is a verb (meaning ‘to challenge’).  

So the rules for syllable stress for these types of words are:
NOUN version: stress on first syllable [e.g. EX/port]
VERB version:  stress on second syllable [e.g. ex/PORT]
This week let’s look at some words related to finance! Try reading the examples out loud.

1.  Import
Noun: IM/port  [Ex. One of the top imports into the U.S. each year are automobiles.]
Verb: im/PORT  [Ex.  Many U.S. congressmen would like the country to import fewer products.

2.  Export
Noun: EX/port  [Ex. Oil is one of the Middle East’s biggest exports.]
Verb: ex/PORT  [Ex. China has been exporting more and more products each year.]

3.  Refund
Noun:  RE/fund  [Ex.  My computer stopped working, so I will need to get a refund.]
Verb:  re/FUND  [Ex. I’m sorry, but you dropped your computer, so we can’t refund you.]

4.  Increase
Noun:  IN/crease  [Ex.  There has been an increase in revenue since we hired our new product manager.]
Verb:  in/CREASE [Ex. Productivity has increased in the past 6 months.

5.  Decrease
Noun:  DE/crease  [Ex.  Obama’s popularity has seen a decrease since he was elected.
Verb: de/CREASE  [Ex. We need to decrease the number of customer complaints.