Frequent (pronunciation)

The pattern of shifting stress in words that look identical but belong to two separate word classes is common between nouns and verbs (see below). But this is not the only shift in stress that occurs in English. Frequent has a different stress depending on whether it is an adjective or a verb.

• The adjective frequent, 'often', has the stress on the first syllable, which sounds like 'free': 'FREAK-went' (IPA: /ˈfriːk wənt/).
• The verb 'to frequent', 'to go [somewhere] often', 'to visit habitually', has the stress on the second syllable: 'free-KWENT' (IPA: /fri ˈkwɛnt/). This is sometimes seen in such phrases as "an ill- (or little) frequented street", meaning one which very few people use.

These two words can lead to the homographs frequenter. Beware of these!

• The noun 'a frequenter', 'free-KWENT-er' (IPA: /fri ˈkwɛnt ə^r/) is derived from the verb 'to frequent', and means 'someone who habitually visits': "As he became more depressed, he became a frequenter of seedy bars"; "Determined to become an actor, she was a frequenter of theatres and cinemas."
• Frequenter, 'FREE-kwent-er' (IPA: /ˈfriː kwɛnt ə^r/), can be the rather ugly comparative form of the adjective frequent. You are urged to use the construction 'more frequent', or indeed 'more often' or 'oftener'.

Frequent and frequenter do not appear in Quirk's list of some 57 "words having end-stress as verbs but initial stress as nouns in Br[itish] E[nglish]," and the word classes involved are verb and adjective, rather than verb and noun. Nevertheless they belong in AWE's category:shift of stress.