How to Pronounce Finance: Fi-nance or Fai-nans
If the word finance and finanza respectively were to be translated to English, it would give the finance with the verb sound which is the FINE-ANCE.
How to pronounce finance
I would ask you what part of speech finance fall to. Finance can either be used as a verb or a noun. Finance noun means the money used in investing or at hand to run the affair of your personal needs, government, or corporations.
Finance, as a verb, is the act of studying the investment or studying the money at hand for investment. Getting the correct pronunciation of finance depends on the context in which it is used. If it would be used in the context as a verb or noun. The stress put on the verb finance differs from the stress that would be put on finance in noon because they will mean two other things.
According to the oxford dictionary,
Finance, (especially British English) (usually North American English financing) [uncountable]
Finance (for something) money used to run a business, an activity, or a project 1
Finance for education comes from taxpayers.
E.g., the project will only go ahead if they can raise the necessary finance.
Financing, [uncountable] the activity of managing money, especially by a government or commercial organization 2
The Minister of Finance
The finance director/department
A diploma in banking and finance
The world of high finance (= finance involving large companies or countries).
Finances [plural] the money available to a person, an organization, or a country; the way this money is managed 3
Government/public/personal finances
It’s about time you sorted out your finances.
Moving house put a severe strain on our finances.
The firm’s finances are sound.
Most people don’t understand the rudiments behind the word’s origin, which is why the word is pronounced anyhow by different people.
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Finance with the sound FIN-ANCE is the noun, while finance with the proper FINE-ANCE is the verb. They both sound differently. To use the verb or the noun depends on the context in which it has been used. Suppose you are talking or referring to the money used to run the affair of something or the cash at hand. In that case, you use the pronunciation with the sound FIN-ANCE, while if you are talking about how the matters are being managed using investment, you use the accent with the proper FINE-ANCE.
Using the English dictionary as an example, it talks about finance differently.
Pronunciation
(IPA): /ˈfaɪˌnæns/
Plural Finances
The management of money and other assets.
The science of management of money and other assets.
(Usually in plural) Monetary resources, especially those of a public entity or a company.
Who’s really in charge of a democracy’s finances?
Translations (management of money and other assets)
French: finance
Translations (the science of management of money and other assets)
Translations (monetary resources)
Verb
(Finances, present participle financing; past and past participle financed)
To provide or obtain funding for a transaction or undertaking; to back; to support.
His parents financed his college education.
He financed his home purchase through a local credit union.
Synonyms
(Provide or obtain funding for) fund
Translations (to obtain or provide funding for a transaction or undertaking).
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If you look into the English dictionary meaning of finance under the part of speech verb, you will notice it emphasizes action, which is ‘funding.’ If we look well into the finance proscriptions above, we will see if it should be pronounced that way; the pronunciation will be FINE-ANCE, which is the verb pronunciation of finance. It has become controversial between the Americans and the British regarding the correct pronunciation of this word. Even in French or Italian, if the phrase finance and Finanza were to be translated into English, it would give the finance with the verb sound, which is the FINE-ANCE.
So I would say the correct pronunciation of finance is the one with FINE-ANCE. Still, suppose the context required the difference in which may be, for example. In that case, you say, ‘I have my finances’ I would suggest you use the noun pronunciation as FIN-ANCE because, in that context, the word finance serves as the name of a thing which follows the NOUN definition is the ‘naming word.’
