Transcript 0:00 [upbeat music] Hello, this is Z from EZE: The English Zone, 0:18 a podcast where you can learn, practice, and improve your English the EZE way. Welcome back to another episode. Welcome back to another topic. Today's topic, today's episode is about 0:34 speaking and pronunciation. More specifically, it's about stress and intonation, the pronunciation of 15 words that are pronounced differently or 0:52 the stress, the stress on the word changes based on, uh, the form of the word, whether it's a noun or is a v- or a verb. So most of these words have the same meaning or close meanings as a noun and as a verb. 1:11 And some of them have slightly different or completely different meanings, as I will point out as I explain them. 1:19 Of course, because of the function of each word, a noun or a verb, the meaning slightly changes, too, because of the function as well. 1:27 So it's not 100% the same meaning as a noun, as a verb, but the pronunciation is different. So same word, different pronunciation. Number one, produce. 1:44 See, produce as a noun, we pronounce it as produce. The bananas and the milk are in the produce section. Produce. But as a verb, we say produce. 2:01 So produce, produce. And the meaning is a little bit different. Like we say, "They haven't produced new movies because of the lockdown." So produce as a noun, produce 2:19 as a verb. Number two, decrease. Decrease. There's a huge decrease in car sales in 2020. As a verb, decrease. Decrease. 2:37 Traffic accidents have decreased in 2020 because there have been fewer cars on the road these days. Number three, import. As a noun, import. 2:52 They bring a lot of cheap imports from East Asia. Import. But as a verb, we say import. Import. The car dealership has imported 200 cars this week. 3:09 To bring in from outside, outside of your country. And the opposite is export. Export. As a noun, we say export. We can't have exports of these products because of the new border regulations. 3:27 We can't have exports of these products. As a verb, export. We exported wen- $1 million worth of clothing to the Middle East in the past two years. 3:45 Number five, discount. Discount. As a noun, we say discount. "Hey, you need to go to JCPenney. They have huge discounts on all items." As a verb, discount. 4:03 Discount. If you have a membership with us, then you qualify for a discounted price. For a discounted price. Number six, refund. Refund. "Sorry, you cannot get a refund after 30 days." 4:22 As a verb, refund. Refund. "Then you have to refund me. It's been only 29 days." Seven. Number seven, permit. Permit. Like permission, right? 4:37 In the US, you can't drive with a permit. You have to have someone else with you who has a driver's license. So as a... The permit is, is like permission. The ab- uh, the, the ability to drive. 4:53 The, the permission to, to drive a car, but the permit is before the driver's license. 5:00 So if when you pass the test, the written test, you get a permit, but the permit, it does not allow you to drive alone, especially if you're under... If you're 16 to 18. So permit. As a verb, we say permit. 5:18 Permit. And permit means to allow, just like permit the noun. As a verb, permit. We only permit VIP members at this time. We apologize for the inconvenience. 5:36 Eight, insult. Insult. Like to say something rude that hurts someone's feelings or reputation or something that's just rude. That was an insult to her profession. 5:54 She knows what she's doing. As a verb, insult. Don't insult me in front of my friend just because I can't dance. I'm talking about me. I can't dance. [laughs] But no, I'm not talking about me. 6:11 This is just an example, but no, I, I can't dance anyways. Number nine, protest. Protest. The stress is on the first part of the word. 6:23 So most of these words actually, as nouns, the s- they, the stress is on the first part of the word, so protest. And I wanna also explain something. 6:36 Uh, in English, in American English or British English or Australian English, in English language, the stress is always on the strongest vowel, on the biggest vowel, the biggest syllable in the word. 6:49 So wherever, whether it's a noun, it's a verb, wherever the biggest vowel is, that's where the biggest stress, that's where you stress the word. So protest, protest. That's the biggest vowel. 7:08 The protest lasted all day and made it to downtown. As a verb, protest. Protest. People began to protest against the mask mandate in some places. 7:24 Number 10, progress. Progress. You have made a lot of progress in your English skills since we last talked six months ago. Good job. Good stuff. Good job. 7:41 As a verb, progress. Progress. Developing, moving forward, making improvements. Our performance has progressed steadily in the last six months, and if we continue like this, 7:57 we will start making profit soon. 11, rebel. Rebel. As a noun, rebel. The rebels crossed the river and took over the town. That's not good. As a verb, rebel. Rebel. 8:15 To go against rules or some policies or laws in a certain area or a country, so you go against it. You can even use it for children, like my child rebelled when I said, "You can't do this." 8:31 So that means he went against me and did it anyway, or he did things I didn't like. So rebel. The people continued to rebel against the new president's law. Number 12, as a noun, invite. Invite. 8:50 They didn't send us an invite, but they invited us by phone. So they didn't send a letter, an invite, but they invited them by phone, and that is invite. As a verb, we say invite. 9:08 They, they invited us anyways, but they didn't send us an invite. 13, desert. Desert. You can't survive in the Sahara Desert without experience or guides. You will die. 9:26 As a verb, desert. Desert. And usually, we use, as a verb, we use it, we say deserted. Deserted. And deserted means alone, uh, empty, like there's not a lot of people. 9:41 So downtown was completely deserted during the lockdown. There was no one there, and all the stores, bars, and restaurants were closed. So desert, deserted. Deserted. 9:55 And there's another word, but that's a different word. D-E-S-S-E-R-T. You know, dessert, the sweet, sweet things that you eat after dinner or after a meal, 10:08 or you go to a restaurant, and after you eat, they're like, "Would you like some dessert?" That's a different word, and it's a different spelling and different word, so it does not come, does not belong to this category. 10:19 But D-E-S-E-R-T as a noun, we say desert. As a verb, we say desert. Number 14, redo. Redo. R-E-D-O. 10:36 A redecoration of a room or building. I think we would like a, we would like a total redo of the tiles in the living room. It's not like what we discussed and agreed upon. I'm sorry. We want a redo. 10:54 As a verb, we say redo. Redo. To do something again or differently, like to remodel. We need to redo the whole design, which, which will take another two weeks. And the last one, conduct. Conduct. 11:11 The meaning of conduct as a noun and as a verb, uh, is, can be different, but here especially. So conduct as a noun, the manner or behavior in which a person behaves. 11:26 The manner in which a person behaves, especially on a particular occasion or in a pr- part- particular context, so like in a specific, uh, occasion. His, his conduct during the presidential campaign 11:43 was not very presidential, or his conduct in the interview was very unprofessional manner, behavior. As a verb, conduct. Conduct. 11:58 Conduct means to organize or carry out something, to do something, like, uh, like an interview or research, study, conducting research. So conduct, conduct. 12:14 We have conducted three interviews with the president so far this month. They have conducted a lot of studies on COVID patients. Many patients test positive, and they don't even have any symptoms. It's weird. 12:29 So that's why they are trying to conduct more studies to find out what's going on. And that brings us to the end of this episode. There are more and more words 12:46 like this, but these are the ones that came to mind that I thought were important, and so I wanted to share it with you. And if you like this podcast, if you like this episode, please 13:01 share it with your friends on social media, on WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. Send it as a text to your friends so that they can also learn English the easy way. And remember 13:16 that I'm also on Instagram, theenglishzone_. Follow me on Instagram, send me a message, send me a voice, and I'll be super happy to answer your questions. And 13:30 if you send me a voice asking a specific question about a specific word or certain questions about English learning, I will include it. I will share your voice or answer your questions in the next episode. 13:46 [outro music]
