There are many two-syllable words in English that can be pronounced in two different ways.
There are two categories for these word pairs:
• There are those which keep the same general meaning, but which change from noun to verb when the stress moves from the first to the second syllable; or
• Those which change their meaning completely — most of them change from noun to verb, but a few change to an adjective!
Import
Noun: IMport
• Chocolate is an import from Switzerland.
Verb: imPORT
• Switzerland hopes to import more chocolate.