Stress can turn one spelling into two words. For 'present', where does the stress fall when it's a noun (a gift)?

When "present" functions as a noun meaning a gift, the stress falls on the first syllable: PRE-sent. This shift in stress lets the same spelling serve two different grammatical roles — noun and verb — with pronunciation alone signaling which one is intended.

As a verb meaning to give or show something, "present" shifts its stress to the second syllable, pre-SENT, following the exact same pattern seen in record/record — noun stress first, verb stress second — rather than staying identical in both forms.

This stress-shift pattern is remarkably consistent across dozens of English noun-verb pairs, including permit/permit, contract/contract, and object/object, making stress placement one of the more reliable (if subtle) grammatical signals in spoken English.