# "Digital" and "nuclear" are not nouns.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-and-nuclear-are-not-nouns/373672>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [September 22, 2006, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-and-nuclear-are-not-nouns/373672 "2006-09-22T04:48:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Alistair\_McCello](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/58956e/32.png) [@Alistair\_McCello](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alistair_McCello)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2006, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-and-nuclear-are-not-nouns/373672/21 "2006-09-22T17:07:34Z")

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> [@Excalibre](#):
>
> Do you use it that way? (For those watching: this is a very usual pattern in English, as with, say, “record” the noun and “record” the verb, or “present” and “present”.) Because I don’t know how often I’ve used “install” as a noun, but I’m not certain that I stress the first syllable.

I had never really though about it before, but after **John Mace** mentioned it I realized that all of the IT guys at my office do stress the first syllable when using “install” as a noun.

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**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2006, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-and-nuclear-are-not-nouns/373672/22 "2006-09-22T19:13:02Z")

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[QUOTE=Excalibre]  
Do you use it that way? (For those watching: this is a very usual pattern in English, as with, say, “record” the noun and “record” the verb, or “present” and “present”.) Because I don’t know how often I’ve used “install” as a noun, but I’m not certain that I stress the first syllable.  
[/QUOTE]

No, I say “installation”, but I’ve heard it the other way. I can’t imagine someone saying “I’ll do the in-STALL tomorrow”. Has to be IN-stall.

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**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2006, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-and-nuclear-are-not-nouns/373672/23 "2006-09-22T19:15:52Z")

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[QUOTE=Alistair McCello]  
I had never really though about it before, but after **John Mace** mentioned it I realized that all of the IT guys at my office do stress the first syllable when using “install” as a noun.  
[/QUOTE]

I work in IT and I use “install” as a noun all the time. I had to say it outloud a couple of times to catch the difference in pronunciation. Weird.

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