Noun and verb stress pairs
About a hundred English words change meaning with stress alone: the noun stresses the first syllable, the verb the second. You PREsent a PREsent, but you preSENT it. The unstressed syllable also reduces to schwa, so both the rhythm and the vowels change.
Accent
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The words
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Words that lose a syllable
Chocolate, comfortable, vegetable: fewer syllables than the spelling suggests. Hear the real count.
Schwa sound words
The most common sound in English, hiding in every unstressed syllable. Learn to hear the schwa.
US vs UK stress shifts
Adult, garage, ballet, cafe: the stressed syllable moves between accents. Hear where it lands.
-ary and -ory endings
Necessary, laboratory, secretary: Americans keep a full syllable that the British swallow.
-TION words
Nation, education, question: the -tion ending and where the stress always falls. Hear the rule.
-SION words
Decision, mission, television: -sion is sometimes ZH, sometimes SH. Learn which is which.
Keep practising
Browse every practice list, hear two accents back to back on Compare, or test your ear with the listening quiz.