English pronunciation tips | 20 common 'word stress' mistakes

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:

even.

The stress is on the first syllable.

The second one is:

event.

The stress is on the...

second syllable.

So, listen to them again:

even

event

Let's go on to the second pair.

Two words...

How do you say these two words?

Okay! The first one is:

also

The stress is on the...

first syllable,

whereas the second one is:

although

The stress is on the...

second syllable.

Listen again:

also

although

Okay! Next one...

Say these two words to yourself.

How do you say them?

Okay! The first one is:

analyse

The stress is on the...

first syllable,

whereas the noun is:

analysis

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

second syllable.

Listen:

analyse

analysis

Okay! Pair #4.

Two very similar looking words...

How do you say them?

The first one is:

competent

The stress is on the...

first syllable.

The second one is:

component

The stress is on the...

second syllable.

Let's go to the next pair.

The first one is:

economy;

second syllable:

economy

But, the adjective is:

economic

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:

voluntary

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

first syllable.

The second one is:

volunteer

So, the stress is on the...

third syllable.

Surprisingly!

Listen again:

voluntary

volunteer

Here's our Pair #7.

Have a go yourself.

The first one is:

desert

The stress is on the first syllable,

whereas the second one is:

dessert

The stress is on the...

second syllable.

Listen again:

desert

dessert

That brings us to Pair 8.

How do you say these two?

Very similar looking words!

Okay! The first one is:

purpose

First syllable,

whereas the second one is:

propose

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':

pur-ps

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

the second syllable,

 and it has its full sound:

pose

pro-pose.

So, listen again:

purpose

propose

Okay! This is our last pair.

Have a go yourself.

Right! The first one is:

undermine

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

last syllable:

mine,

whereas in the second one,

the stress is on the second syllable:

determine

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:

determine

So, listen again:

undermine

determine

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:

laboratory

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

first syllable:

laboratory

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:

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

third syllable:

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Listen to the difference again:

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

Make sure you check out my other pronunciation lessons on my online course at

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Thank you for watching, and goodbye for now.