# Why does the pronunciation of "offense" change depending on the context? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 9, 2008, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-pronunciation-of-offense-change-depending-on-the-context/462853 "2008-09-09T21:47:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2008, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-pronunciation-of-offense-change-depending-on-the-context/462853/1 "2008-09-09T21:47:09Z")
If you said, “Michigan has a great offense this year,” you’d pronounce it OFF-ense. If you said, “No offense, but…”, you say “off-ENSE.” Why does this change occur? ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2008, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-pronunciation-of-offense-change-depending-on-the-context/462853/2 "2008-09-09T21:50:45Z")
Because they’re homographs. \*tear \*read \*dove > **[Homograph](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homograph)** > > A homograph (from the Greek: ὁμός, homós, "same" and γράφω, gráphō, "write") is a word that shares the same written form as another word but has a different meaning. However, some dictionaries insist that the words must also be pronounced differently, while the Oxford English Dictionary says that the words should also be of "different origin". In this vein, The Oxford Guide to Practical Lexicography lists various types of homographs, including those in which the words are discriminated b If, when... ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2008, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-pronunciation-of-offense-change-depending-on-the-context/462853/3 "2008-09-09T21:52:21Z")
Yeah but even in those two different contexts the words have roughly the same meaning. “To attack you,” basically. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2008, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-pronunciation-of-offense-change-depending-on-the-context/462853/4 "2008-09-09T21:56:34Z")
“Yes I read it,” and “Did you read it,” have roughly the same meaning. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2008, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-pronunciation-of-offense-change-depending-on-the-context/462853/5 "2008-09-09T22:04:53Z")
It’s worth noting that the differences in the pronunciation of “defense” are, in the English-speaking world, peculiar to North America. e.g. Michigan has a poor DE-fense The Senate approved an increase in de-FENSE spending. In countries like Australia and the UK, the sporting term is pronounced the same way as the military term. Although they also spell it “defence.” ETA: the same probably applies to Offense/Offence, except that in games like rugby and soccer, the more common term is “attack” rather than “offence.” ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2008, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-pronunciation-of-offense-change-depending-on-the-context/462853/6 "2008-09-09T22:29:56Z")
> [@Santo\_Rugger](#): > > Because they’re homographs. This gives a name to the phenomenon, but it doesn’t really explain it, does it? Presumably both usages of “offense” evolved from the same root, after all. Then again, **Argent Towers** , how can _any_ pronunciation be “explained” as anything more than, “that’s how people say it”? I will note that in the US, there can be regional variation as to whether the first syllable of a word is stressed: “UM-brel-la” vs. “um-BREL-la,” or “IN-sur-ance” vs. “in-SUR-ance.” Maybe the sport-related pronunciation of “offense” evolved regionally like that, and then caught on more generally. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2008, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-pronunciation-of-offense-change-depending-on-the-context/462853/7 "2008-09-09T22:31:40Z")
address protest desert ---
**Author:** ![Key\_Lime\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/48db29/32.png) [@Key\_Lime\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Key_Lime_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2008, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-pronunciation-of-offense-change-depending-on-the-context/462853/8 "2008-09-09T22:36:54Z")
Some Canadians say OH-fense, particularly hockey coaches. ---
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-pronunciation-of-offense-change-depending-on-the-context/462853/9 "2008-09-10T01:48:59Z")
The stress usually changes depending on the part of speech. In this case, noun versus verb. Take a look at most of the other stress changes and you’ll see that this pattern is true except for fringe cases like your second example. In your first example, “Michigan has a great offense this year,” offense is used as a noun. “No offense, but…” is a shortened version of a phrase that preserves the accent used for the verb form. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-pronunciation-of-offense-change-depending-on-the-context/462853/10 "2008-09-10T10:39:20Z")
> [@Sleel](#): > > In your first example, “Michigan has a great offense this year,” offense is used as a noun. “No offense, but…” is a shortened version of a phrase that preserves the accent used for the verb form. But why would it use the verb form? The phrase is a shortening of “I don’t mean to cause offense”, where “offense” means “an instance of being offended”. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-pronunciation-of-offense-change-depending-on-the-context/462853/11 "2008-09-10T11:18:32Z")
[deleted - just repeated what **mhendo** said…] ---
**Author:** ![Chief\_Pedant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@Chief\_Pedant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Pedant)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-pronunciation-of-offense-change-depending-on-the-context/462853/12 "2008-09-10T11:36:03Z")
I hear offence and defense with the first syllable accented mostly in sports-related contexts. My assumption is that this preference was popularized by folks more concerned with making it clear about which fence they were referring to than any concern about the purity of language. “Johnny, you gave 110% on DEfence but you didn’t bring your “A” game for OFFense.” ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-pronunciation-of-offense-change-depending-on-the-context/462853/13 "2008-09-10T13:07:30Z")
> [@Santo\_Rugger](#): > > “Yes I read it,” and “Did you read it,” have roughly the same meaning. This is not the same thing. In the first phrase you are using the past tense. In the second, the auxiliary verb “did” is the past tense so the word “read” is the present tense. In this case, the past tense and present tense of the word are spelled the same but pronounced differently. In the OP, the word is used as a noun in both cases. For homographs, it is common for verbs to take the emphasis on the second syllable and nouns on the first: contract produce record I think there was even a thread on that some time back, but I can’t seem to get Search to work at the moment. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-pronunciation-of-offense-change-depending-on-the-context/462853/14 "2008-09-10T13:35:08Z")
\*does (the verb) \*does (the animals)