Context

This is a guide for how to stress the right parts of words in English: specifically focusing on a really common pattern involving words with 2 syllables.

What's The Pattern?

Whilst there are plenty of exceptions (see below), many 2-syllable words follow the following pattern:

So, these 🏠 nouns & adjectives often have a 'HIGH-low' pitch pattern ... 

... whereas for 🏃🏾‍♀️‍➡️ verbs the pitch of the voice goes 'low-HIGH'.

Have you seen the other resources?

If you haven't read my article about this stress pattern and how to make it an unconscious habit, click here.

If you'd like to learn how to do it really naturally, I can coach you through it in this video, which is part of a whole series on how to be 'selectively lazy' in your English speech.

Otherwise, let's jump straight to the audio examples.

verbs with 'low-HIGH'

connect, collect, perceive, forgive, forget, survive, surprise, suppose, suggest, succeed, prevent, demand, respond, pretend, agree, affect, create, behave, relate, degrade, inform, rely, depend

These are individual words that can be used in multiple forms – verbs, nouns or adjectives – but without any changes to the spelling.

For example, 'object' can be a thing (noun), or it can be an action: to object to something.

There is no change in spelling in such words... but the stress can shift to signify the change in meaning.

And if we look at 2-syllable examples of such words, we can see the same stress pattern playing out:

I have to ob.JECT (v.) ... what's this weird OB.ject (n.) on the table?

You see that OB.ject follows the usual HIGH-low noun pattern? And vice versa for the verb form?

This is really common!

Here are some more examples of this:

The number of cases de.CREASED (v.)   over time – but no one could agree on the cause of such a rapid DE.crease (n.)

I won't  sub.JECT (v.)  you to any more horrible details – let's change the SUB.ject! (n.)

I sus.PECT (v.) that the police are still looking for their main SUS.pect. (n.)

The whole company was PRE.sent (adj.)  to see a celebrity pre.SENT (v.)  the award. The winner received a trophy and a PRE.sent (n.)  wrapped in a small box.

And here's a list of some more, where the word stress shifts according to the usual stress pattern:

Tips for creating your own examples

WARNING: The section below gives you exceptions to the pattern.

I've done my best to simplify & organise the information, but there's a good chance it will seem overwhelming when you first look through it.

Here's my advice:

– Read through it a couple of times to get a general idea

– Then download some audio and listen without any written content

– There's no rush: start with simply one of the audio tracks, and listen to it for as long as you need before moving on

– This way, your practice feels less like dry studying, and more like satisfying training & exploration

– Check out this article for more advice on how to bring your training to life, and make the learning stick

Okay, are you ready?

Let's go!

summary of exceptions

Below there are two main types of exceptions:

1. 'Simple' exceptions: these are words which stand alone.

Unlike the 'stress switch' words above, like 'the OB.ject' vs. 'to ob.JECT', the simple exceptions don't change form at all.

For example, 'suffer' is always a verb.

I've categorised the examples by stress – all of which break the pattern detailed above.

2. 'Unchanging stress' exceptions: these words CAN change form. But what's different about them is that the stress does not change when they do so.

e.g. "the a.DDRESS" and "to a.DDRESS"

All 'unchanging' examples will never change stress, even when the form (meaning) of the word changes. This is what makes them different to words like 'the OB.ject' vs. 'to ob.JECT' detailed above.

But unlike the 'stress switch' examples above, where all words follow the pattern, the unchanging stress exceptions below do sometimes break the pattern.

1. simple exceptions

Here are some exceptions that are standalone words (word form doesn't change). Because they each have only 1 grammatical form (no 'stress shift'), I've called them 'simple' exceptions:

SIMPLE VERB EXCEPTIONS: HIGH-low

suffer, enter, manage, utter, borrow, gather, mutter, wander

SIMPLE NOUN & ADJECTIVE EXCEPTIONS: low-HIGH

Nouns:  domain, guitar, suspense, cartoon, saloon, typhoon, lagoon

Adjectives:  Succinct, alive, alone, afraid, aware, immune, intense

2. 'unchanging stress' exceptions

Sometimes, there are words which do have multiple meanings or forms, but the stress doesn't change at all.

This means that they only follow the pattern half the time.

For example, the verb 'to address' uses a low-HIGH pitch pattern:

"I a.DDRESSED him formally"

This means the verb form follows the usual pattern: it 'sounds like a verb'. 

But this word is an exception with 'unchanging stress', which means the noun form 'sounds like a verb' too!

"send me your a.DDRESS"

No change!

So the noun form is the exception here: it has the same feel of the verb form, because of its low-HIGH stress ... it's only context that will tell you which form the speaker is using.

Below are some more like this, where the stress does NOT change when the form changes. I've categorised them by stress pattern, with exceptions highlighted in orange.

VERB exceptions (unchanging HIGH-low pattern)

The following are verbs that do not follow the usual pattern.

Remember, the HIGH-low pattern is most commonly found in nouns and adjectives. However some verbs have a HIGH-low stress too.

This seems to be fairly common. Check out these verbs:

He started to CO.mment about his experience

Could you AC.tion this tomorrow?

The gangs have started to TRA.ffic people across the border.

My application is being PRO.cessed.

Because the stress of these words is 'unchanging', their noun and adjective forms will fit the usual pattern:

his CO.mment was pretty offensive

Do you fancy watching an AC.tion film tonight?

I'm stuck in TRA.ffic at the moment.

It's a simple PRO.cess.

Here are some more examples of words whose stress doesn't change, and therefore whose verb form breaks the pattern:

NOUN & ADJECTIVE exceptions (unchanging low-HIGH pattern)

Now you'll see 2-syllable nouns & adjectives that break the normal pattern.

This time, remember that the low-HIGH pattern is most commonly found in verbs.

But again, there are exceptions: some noun and adjective forms have a low-HIGH stress just like their verb counterparts:

Can you send me your a.DDRESS (n.) please? 

I watched a re.PEAT (n.) of the full game on Sunday night ...

I try and keep my belongings se.CURE (adj.) when I'm on the train.

And once again, because the stress of these exception words is 'unchanging', their verb forms will fit the usual low-HIGH pattern:

I think I a.DDRESSED it to the wrong house.

Why do United always re.PEAT the same mistakes?!

Please se.CURE your belongings in the overhead compartments.

Here are some more quick examples of 'unchanging stress' exceptions, where this time the noun/adj forms break the pattern:

other exceptions

This is a random one, and I can't find any more like it: 

I wasn't feeling very con.TENT (adj) ...  The CON.tent (n.) of the article was embarrassing.

If 'content' followed the usual pattern, the stress would be the same for both noun and adjective (seeing as those two grammatical forms tend to share the HIGH-low pattern).

But instead, the adjective form sounds like a typical 2-syllable verb with its low-HIGH pattern.

Finally, very occasionally there are words like research, complex or impact – where there is variation in stress patterns.

This isn't a regional accent thing, or a 'mispronunciation' thing: you see both stress patterns in the dictionary for such words, and you can hear the variation in YouGlish entries too.

That type of word is pretty rare, though.