English pronunciation tips | 20 common 'word stress' mistakes

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Are you putting the stress on the right syllable in these 20 common words?

They're quite tricky words.

So, let's make sure you get them right every time.

Hello and welcome everyone> This is Minoo at Anglo-Link.

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Okay! Let's get started on these 20 tricky words.

Starting with Pair 1.

So, here is Pair 1.

Two words that look very similar but sound different because of their word stress.

How do you say these two words?

Right, the first one is:

The stress is on the first syllable.

The second one is:

The stress is on the...

second syllable.

So, listen to them again:

Let's go on to the second pair.

How do you say these two words?

Okay! The first one is:

The stress is on the...

first syllable,

whereas the second one is:

The stress is on the...

second syllable.

Okay! Next one...

Say these two words to yourself.

How do you say them?

Okay! The first one is:

The stress is on the...

first syllable,

whereas the noun is:

So, now the stress has shifted to the...

second syllable.

Two very similar looking words...

How do you say them?

The first one is:

The stress is on the...

first syllable.

The second one is:

The stress is on the...

second syllable.

Let's go to the next pair.

The first one is:

second syllable:

But, the adjective is:

The stress is on the...

third syllable.

Right then! Moving on: Pair 6.

How do you say these two words?

Right! The first one is:

As you can hear, the stress is on the...

first syllable.

The second one is:

So, the stress is on the...

third syllable.

Here's our Pair #7.

Have a go yourself.

The first one is:

The stress is on the first syllable,

whereas the second one is:

The stress is on the...

second syllable.

That brings us to Pair 8.

How do you say these two?

Very similar looking words!

Okay! The first one is:

First syllable,

whereas the second one is:

Second syllable.

So, notice that by just changing the word stress, the pronunciation of the vowel changes as well.

Look at the second syllables.

We have 'pose' and 'pose'.

So, in the first one, the stress is on the first syllable.

So, the 'p-o-s-e' sounds like 'ps':

Whereas in the second one, the stress is on 'p-o-s-e'

the second syllable,

and it has its full sound:

So, listen again:

Okay! This is our last pair.

Have a go yourself.

Right! The first one is:

So, the stress (the main stress) is on the...

whereas in the second one,

the stress is on the second syllable:

And, notice that, because there is no stress on the last syllable, on 'mine' in the last syllable,

the pronunciation has changed to

'min'.

So, a short sound not the complete 'I' sound:

So, listen again:

Okay! The last two words are not in a pair.

But, it's the same word pronounced differently in British and American English.

So, here we have the word:

'laboratory' in British English

with the stress on the second syllable:

But, different in American English, where the stress is put on the...

first syllable:

So, listen again:

British English: laboratory

American English: laboratory

And, the final word... Same thing.

The same word, different pronunciation, because of the word stress.

So, in British English, the stress is on the...

second syllable:

whereas in American English, the stress is on the...

third syllable:

Listen to the difference again:

Well, that's the end of our pronunciation practice for today.

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Thank you for watching, and goodbye for now.