Stress in two-syllable words

  • Many two-syllable nouns and adjectives have stress on the first syllable.

E.g: • Nouns: artist, driver, sister, women, children, etc. 

        • Adjectives: friendly, famous, lovely, harmful, etc.

→ There are some exceptions: asleep, alone, hotel, guitar, mistake, machine, etc. These adjectives and nouns have stress on the second syllable.

  • Many two-syllable verbs have stress on the second syllable.

E.g: remove, dislike, become, escape, forget, relax, enjoy, etc.

→ There are some exceptions: cancel, copy, answer, enter, offer, happen, open, etc. These verbs have stress on the first syllable.

Listen to the audio and practice some two-syllable words.