Grammatical Function Heteronyms

In the list which follows, all the heteronyms are the result of a word taking on two grammatical roles. An example sentence has been given for each heteronym. Try reading these out loud to spot the pronunciation differences.

Abuse ; When people abuse drugs this is called drug abuse .

; Contest ; To contest the issue they held a contest .

; Convert ; John became a convert after deciding to convert to Judaism.

; Duplicate ; If I need a duplicate I can use the Xerox to duplicate the letter.

; Graduate ; When I graduate I will become a graduate .

; Insult ; You can insult someone by shouting an insult .

; Permit ; The guard will permit you to pass if you show a valid permit .

; Produce ; These factories produce the produce that is shipped abroad.

; Rebel ; A rebel is one who has decided to rebel .

; Transplant ; The doctor won't transplant a heart if the transplant is damaged.

; Use; Please put my typewriter to use because I never use it.

Do you notice anything about the pairs above? In every case one of the heteronyms is a noun and the other is a verb. In most cases, the difference in pronunciation is simply a matter of stress or emphasis. In fact, a deeper pattern emerges if you study which of the syllables are stressed in these sentences. Look at the two-syllable words and you will see that in almost every case the noun is stressed on the first syllable, and the verb is stressed on the second (e.g. noun: CON-test; verb: con-TEST).

Two of the above examples, abuse and use, do not change their stress pattern. The words differ by the pronunciation of the s. In one form (the verb) it is voiced like zzz, and in the other (the noun) it is voiceless like sss.

This sort of heteronym is not confined to noun-and-verb pairs. Here is a list of heteronyms in which one form is an adjective.

Absent ; The boy was absent because he chose to absent from school

; Alternate ; They alternate between using the alternate machine and the main one.

; Aged ; My grandfather is aged ninety-two so he is quite aged .

; Crooked ; I crooked my neck to see the man with the crooked stick.

; Desolate ; Extreme weather may desolate a place making it a desolate place.

; Learned ; Everything I know I learned from that learned old man.

; Perfect ; The overture took years to perfect , but eventually it was perfect .

; Separate; I want you to separate the cards into two separate piles.

A further subcategory of this type of heteronym occurs when two different words have plurals that are spelled the same, but pronounced differently:

Arses : plural of arse ; plural of arsis (musical term).

: plural of ; plural of (musical term). Asses : plural of ass ; plural of as (Roman coin).

: plural of ; plural of (Roman coin). Axes : plural of ax (US spelling) or axe (British spelling); plural of axis .

: plural of (US spelling) or (British spelling); plural of . Bases : plural of base ; plural of basis .

: plural of ; plural of . Ellipses : plural of ellipse ; plural of ellipsis (syntactic omission).

: plural of ; plural of (syntactic omission). Plies : plural of ply ; plural of plié (ballet movement).

: plural of ; plural of (ballet movement). Soles : plural of sole ; plural of sol (French coin).

: plural of ; plural of (French coin). Taxes: plural of tax; plural of taxis (locomotor response to external stimulus).

These Grammatical Function Heteronyms have been separated from so-called True Heteronyms because heteronyms must differ in meaning. In these cases where the only notable difference is their category of speech, you could argue that their meanings are not that different at all.