weigh and weight

Can you state the difference between these two used as verbs?

Only 'weigh' can be used as a verb, 'weight' is used as a noun.

No but I can give some examples how I would use them.

In a crime story you might hear, "Weight his feet with concrete so he sinks to the bottom of the lake."

Weigh the bag of potatoes before you charge me for them.

weigh (v. tr.): to determine the weight of ("Weigh the bag of potatoes.")

weigh (v. intr.): to have a certain weight (He weighs 165 pounds.)

weight: to make heavier ("Weight his feet with concrete.")

weight (v. tr.)

What about weigh as " to think or ponder" by the way is it usually used?

Yes: to weigh the evidence, to weigh the options

hi there deborah, could it be possible for you to help me grasp what others in this forum are talking, when they refer to the "cot, caught" difference in pronounciation? I mean I need to hear it. is there any way that you can search for a link where it's pronounced or can you record your voice with such differences?

I don't know of any links for sound clips of the cot/caught thing, but as in my dialect they are homophones, I don't know what the heck the different is either... :)

rich7, I'll have to echo american nic's post. Sorry.

rich7,

Go to m-w.com. Type in 'cot' and the meaning of the word will appear along with a speaker sign. Click on it to listen to the pronunciation. You can do the same for 'caught'. You'll see that they are not homophones after all (at least according to Meriam Webster dictionary).

"Weight his feet with concrete so he sinks to the bottom of the lake."

Yeah. In that case, WEIGHT is a verb.

finally, thanks bummer. I know now what people mean when talking about the cot, caught merger and you're right, according to the webster dic. they are definetly not homophones.

"Cot" and "caught" are homophones for some but not for others. Here's the difference in (most dialects of) Commonwealth English. The vowel in "cot" is short and more open than the long vowel in "caught". In AusE & NZE "cot" is pronounced /kOt/ & "caught" is pronounced /ko:t/ (using X-SAMPA). However, in North American English the vowel in "cot" has merged to the vowel in "psalm" and therefore has lengthened and has become unrounded. Thus in some North American (generally eastern) dialects the vowel in "cot" is unrounded and more open than the rounded vowel in "caught". Then, on the other hand, in other North American (generally western) dialects "cot" and "caught" are homophones so are both pronounced with the vowel in "psalm".