Wow, yes there are a number of ways these words can be used and pronounced. Live, pronounced "liv" is the verb Ex: "They live in a house" Live, pronounced "lahyv" is an adjective Ex: "The wire is live" Lives, pronounced "livs" is a verb Ex: "He lives in a house" Lives, pronounced "lahyvs" is a noun Ex:"How many lives were lost?" I'm not sure if this makes sense, but if all else you can turn to dictionary.com. I'm sure their example sentences are much better than mine. Plus they'll have definitions that will make better sense. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/live?s=t

When it's a verb, we use the short vowel, like in the word "big" -- I live in America. My friend lives in Canada. When "lives" is the plural of "life" we use the same vowel sound (long vowel sound like in "time"). -- A cat has nine lives. When "live" is an adjective, as in "live broadcast" we use the long vowel sound again, as in "time". I hope that helps!