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Do you like getting presents?
Are you afraid of presenting?
What about presenting presents?
Today we're looking at word stress and why it's so important when you're speaking or also when you're listening.
Are you ready? Let's get started.
Welcome to the Coffee Break English show.
So I'm Nick. And I am Annabelle.
How are you doing, Nick?
I'm really good. Yeah, I'm really good.
I'm looking forward to this lesson.
What about you? How are you?
Yes, I'm looking forward to it because you mentioned there is a stress, but what is exactly stress and why is it important in English?
Yeah, so stress is very important when we want to show the meaning of a word because we put a lot of the meaning in a sentence on those important words in the sentence.
So it can really help your listening and your communication.
Okay, so what exactly are we going to be covering in today's episode?
So today we're looking at syllable stress.
So we'll cover what is a syllable and we'll look at some general rules that we can apply when we talk about word stress.
So they are with two -syllable nouns, two -syllable verbs, and how some words change meaning depending on stress.
Okay and you mentioned syllables many times.
Exactly what is a syllable and can you give like some examples?
Yeah absolutely so my name is Nick so this is nice and easy because Nick has one syllable.
Okay so a syllable is a sound that has one vowel in it at least. Okay.
It can have a consonant so my name is a few consonants and a vowel so Nick.
Okay. What about your name?
So my My name is Annabelle, so I'm guessing it's a -na -belle, three syllables.
Exactly. Okay, so we are looking at two syllable words, nouns and verbs.
Yeah, so we're looking at nouns and verbs that have two syllables in them.
Okay. And the good news is that there are some general rules that we can apply here that help us understand which syllable to stress.
Awesome, so shall we start?
Yeah, let's get started.
So, number one, we'll look at two -syllable nouns.
OK. Now, the rule here is 90 % of two -syllable nouns.
OK. I like numbers, especially if it's 90%.
There's a nice strong number here, so we can be pretty sure that two -syllable nouns will be stressed on the first syllable.
Oh, OK. Yeah, I see.
There are obviously some exceptions, but this is when we're learning new words, we can be pretty sure that if it's two syllables, it's a noun, it'll be the first syllable.
OK. Do you have some examples?
Yeah, let's look at a few clear examples.
So, the first one is table.
OK. So, for this, what if like you say it, then I repeat it and then maybe like at home, they can repeat after me?
Yeah, that sounds great.
So, can you repeat it again, please?
Table. Table. OK, so table.
Yeah. The stress is in the first syllable, so table.
Brilliant. Next one, music.
Music. Exactly. Next one is doctor.
Doctor. Yeah. And picture.
Picture. Yeah. So obviously, I'm giving a lot of emphasis on that sound.
And maybe when we're speaking fast, you don't hear it quite as clearly as that.
But certainly when we're speaking, we can hear that strong sound on table.
Okay, not yet. On to the next rule.
So we've looked at nouns and there's quite a strong rule, quite an easy rule to follow with 90%.
But with verbs, with two syllable verbs, it's 70%.
It's still quite high, but yeah.
We need to be a little more careful, but we've still got that nice rule that we can follow.
And here, the rule is that two syllable verbs are stressed on the second syllable normally.
Okay, so the nouns, the stress is on the first syllable, but with verbs it tends to be on the second syllable.
Exactly. So some examples.
So like before, if I say the first word, I want you to repeat it, and you can say it more naturally than me.
Relax. Relax. Yeah.
Decide. Decide. Compare.
Compare. And believe.
Believe. Excellent.
Excellent. Great. So we've looked at the two syllable rules for nouns and for verbs.
Now let's see how that works when we have a word is the same as a noun and as a verb, but it kind of changes a bit the meaning.
Now I see what you mean, like the stress is important because like depending on where the stress is, we are going to have a noun or a verb, right?
Exactly. And sometimes these words have a similar meaning and sometimes it's quite different, so it does make a big difference in our communication.
Yes, let's look at some.
So, well, the one that we used at the beginning of the show was the word present.
Okay, so a present, it's a noun and it means a gift, something that you give to someone.
Whereas, if I say present, it's a verb.
and here it means to show or to talk about something and to present the Coffee Break English Show.
Okay I see. So present is a give and present it's the verb, is to show.
So we can see there's a difference in meaning there.
Not yet. Absolutely.
And here you can present someone with a present.
Ah yes, lovely. Lovely.
The next one, we've got a record. So a record, well, this could be various things.
It could be in music, like the disc.
It could be a document of some kind, or it could be like the world record, like the fastest mile or something.
And then we have to record. Okay.
Ok. So what we are doing right now is we are recording this episode of The Coffee Break English Show.
Ok, so record and record. Exactly.
So what happens there with that sound, with record, you can hear it's really open, strong air sound, whereas with record it's a very short sound and we don't really hear that sound very strongly.
Ok, yes. The next one, a contract.
OK, yeah. That's the noun because of the stress.
Exactly. And that is a legal document.
But the verb form is very different.
So if I say to contract, this means to get smaller, to shrink and to minimize.
It's very different.
Yeah. So, yeah, as you said at the beginning of this episode, stress is very important.
Yeah, it can really change the meaning of the sentence that you're saying.
So I did mention there are quite a few exceptions and we can have a look at them now.
So there are two types of exception to this rule really.
We can look at some nouns and verbs have the same word and in fact the stress doesn't change.
OK. Okay so first let's look at verbs or nouns that are always stressed on the first syllable, okay?
Yeah. So we've got comment.
So I can have a comment.
And you can comment, no?
Exactly! Okay. But here, it's not comment but… Comment.
I can comment. Okay.
So it doesn't change the stress but you can have a comment and you can comment.
Okay. I see. see um the next one we can say is cover so sometimes in this room it can get quite cold and we might want to put a cover on and warm ourselves up and you can also cover yourself okay yes the sound doesn't change the meaning is similar here one is a noun one is a verb but we don't have yet we don't follow that rule that you mentioned it's always going to be on the first syllable.
Yeah, okay. We can have a look at another one.
Well, we've got the word purchase.
Mm -hmm. Again, the meaning is similar here...
Yeah but the noun, what's the noun?
Purchase. Yeah. And the verb.
Purchase, as well. Exactly, and this one sometimes we do hear that mistake because people are using that rule rightly but it's an exception.
Okay. No, I see. And what about the other exception that you mentioned?
Yes so some words always take stress on the second syllable.
Okay. An example could be the word award. Oh because we have the physical object award but we also have the verb to award. Exactly you can award someone an award. Yes and the stress does not change.
Always on that second syllable another good example is the word belief oh I see now this does change a little bit because we change the sound um and we change the spelling but our belief becomes to believe okay yeah so it's always on that second syllable and the meaning again is quite similar here another example could be report yeah so we have a report but we also can't like report something or someone exactly and these words you can see that they're kind of keeping the same idea the same general meaning here so it's not changing completely in meaning but it's changed and not changing in sound
ever well that seems very interesting so thank you very much nick I think at the beginning of this episode, you mentioned that we are going to have a quiz.
Yes, absolutely. And yeah, I think that it's really important to get a bit of practice with this.
No, no. Yes, I know I need it.
And that's because we need to tune into those sounds both for listening and for speaking for those sounds where it's the first syllable or the second syllable.
Yes. So let's do this quiz.
I'm going to give you a sentence with a little space in the sentence where we'll put a beep so you know.
Perfect. And I want you to decide if it's a noun or a verb.
In the first sentence, we've got import or import.
Okay. Okay. Ready? Yes.
Remember, you can pause if you're listening or watching, so you can play along with this.
So the first one, we had to...
our car from Japan.
Okay. So it's we had to, we need a verb after that and we have import or import.
Yeah. The verbs have the stress on the second syllable.
So it's we had to import.
Great. I really liked your reasoning on that.
Excellent. And the context is really important.
Yes. Okay, shall we look at number two?
Yes. So in sentence two we've got the noun present or the verb present.
Perfect. Okay. So, I will...
my findings at the meeting tomorrow.
Okay, I think, at least to me, this is easy because we started with I will, and then there we have the blank.
So again, we need a verb.
Yeah. So, I will present.
Good, yes. Yes. And good pronunciation there.
That's a nice strong present.
Yeah. Excellent. Yeah.
I'm ready for the next one.
Okay. Brilliant. So this one, okay, the first two were a little easier.
Now we've got two words in a sentence.
Okay. So two spaces.
So let's go. The is making.
And the words here are project and project, progress and progress.
Okay. So, can you repeat the sentence again?
The is making. Yeah.
The first one is a noun because we are starting with the.
So, the project. Yeah.
With the stress on the first one because it's a noun.
And then the second one is making.
I guess we need a noun again.
So, it's progress. Again, with the stress on the first syllable.
Brilliant, absolutely.
Two nouns in this one, so yeah.
Yeah, great. So, the project is making progress.
Awesome. So, final one.
Okay, yes. And again we have two words, okay?
And this time the word is record, record. Yeah, so we have two blanks but the words, the options are the same.
Yeah. Awesome. Shall we go?
Yes. So, we need to .
The. Okay, so we need to verb the noun.
So, we need to record the record. Excellent.
Yeah, exactly. And you can really hear those sounds coming through there.
So, record, long, and record, short.
Long on the re and short on the second syllable.
So, brilliant. No, thank you very much. I found this very useful, so thank you.
Great. and thank you very much Annabelle for joining me today.
I've really enjoyed it.
That's all we have time for.
And if you do want more practice with your pronunciation, you can go to this video here and you will find a description.
You'll find the link in the description as well.
And we have a written version of this in a blog article.
The link is on the description.
So don't forget to check it out.
Great. Thank you very much. No, thank you.
And thank you as well for listening or watching.
I think you found this as useful as I did.
So thank you both. Happy copywriting!
You have been listening to a Coffee Break Languages production for the Radiolingua Network.
Copyright 2025. Radiolingua Ltd.
Recording copyright 2025.
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