Jim writes:

>  2) The farm was used to produce produce.
>  3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

Most of Jim's notes are actually nothing much more than the method by which
English "transitizes" a noun into a verb. To distinquish between the noun and
the verb form, the pronunciation is changed, as it is in all of these nouns:

     produce
     refuse
     compress
     record
    etc.

These are all active verbs that represent the act of doing something, but
were derived from their noun form counterparts. But this pronunciation shift
isn't as readily possible with the monosyllabic nouns that get changed into
active verbs, such as nail, tape, etc., so they are pronounced the same.

In that, these sorts of transitive verbs follow more or less a regular
pattern. What really makes English hard are the words that look very much
alike but are pronounced significantly differently, such as:

     power mower
or
     four hour tour

Wirt Atmar