Give me some homographs

Are you familiar with homographs ? They are words spelt the same but with different meanings. Among them, there are some words which, in addition to having different meaning and the same spelling, they are pronounced differently.  Yes, you have heard right. Homographs are but one of the countless quirks of English ! Here I bring you a small selection of them:

1. Read [ri:d] : Infinitive (to watch at written material). 

    Read [red]: The past and participle of the verb 'read'.  

   E.g. I usually read [ri:d] adventure novels but last week I read [red] a romantic novel and I loved it. 

2. Wind [wɪnd]: Air in motion.

    Wind [waɪnd]: To take a curving direction.

    E. g. The wind [wɪnd] blows hard just where the road winds [waɪndz]. 

3. Wound [waʊnd]: The past and participle of the verb 'wind' 

    Wound [wʊnd]: An injury or to inflict an injury.
E.g. He had wound [waʊnd] some wire and he got a small wound [wʊnd] as a result.

4. Minute ['mɪnɪt]: 60 seconds.

    Minute [maɪ'nju:t]: Very small, either in size or in importance.

 E.g. After thinking for a minute ['mɪnɪt],he realized that was but minute [maɪ'nju:t] problem. 

5. Row [rəʊ] (British) or [roʊ] (American): A line of seats or people, or move a boat in a      river using some sticks. 
    Row [raʊ]: An noisy argument.
E.g. In the front rows [rəʊz] of the theatre there was a big row [raʊ] because of the seats  assigned. 

6. Bow [bəʊ] (British) or [boʊ] (American): The tool or gadget to shoot arrows.

    Bow [raʊ]: To bend your body to greet someone showing respect and courtesy.
    E.g. Robin Hood used to bow [baʊ] his enemies before using his bow [bəʊ].

7. Polish ['pəʊlɪʃ] (British)  ['poʊlɪʃ]: A thing or person from Poland. 

    Polish ['pɒlɪʃ]: To make something smoother by rubbing it. 

    E.g. The Polish ['pəʊlɪʃ] guy polished ['pɒlɪʃt]my nails perfectly well.

8. Tear [tɪə] (British) [tɪɚ] (American): Drops of water emerging from your eyes when you   cry or weep.
   Tear [teə] (British) [teɚ] (American): To pull something apart into pieces by force.

    E.g. You'll burst into tears [tɪəz] when I tear [teə] your skin.

9. Dove [d˄v]: A bird of the pigeon family.

    Dove [doʊv] (American): The American irregular past of the verb 'dive'.

    E.g. The man dove [doʊv] into the water to save the dove [d˄v].

10. Live [lɪv]: To inhabit or dwell in a place. 

      Live [laɪv]: Something happening at the moment in front of people. 

      E.g. Today, we will be able to see how beggars live [lɪv] in the street on live [laɪv] TV.

11. Lives [lɪvz]: Third person singular of the verb 'live' (inhabit or dwell).

     Lives [laɪvz]: The plural of 'life', the period or amount of time of living existence of an individual

     E.g. My cat lives [lɪvz] a happy live and much more in we take into account that cats are said to have nine lives [laɪvz].

12. Stress shifts: Some homographs simply change the stress depending on whether they are nouns or verbs. Here you have some examples:

NOUNS	VERBS
Subject [‘s˄bʤəkt]	Subject [səb’ʤekt]
Research [‘rɪs3:ʧ]	Research [rɪ’s3:ʧ
Import [‘ɪmpɔ:t]	Import [ɪm’pɔ:t]
Conduct [kɒnd˄kt]	Conduct [kən’d˄kt]

Well, did you enjoy these homographs ? As you have seen, homographs make English even a more special language. Feel free to comment !