How to pronounce long words in English

When the end of a long word ends with the same letters that form a shorter word, the pronunciation of these letters inside the longer word is usually not the same as the pronunciation of that shorter word.
Examples:
  1. Man + age = manage.
  2. Home + ward = homeward.
  3. Lace palace
  4. Age baggage
  5. fort comfort
  6. table comfortable

Rules for Word Stress

  1. Each word has one stressed syllable.
  2. There must be a vowel in the stressed syllable.
  3. Nouns with two syllables are usually stressed on the first syllable
    1. Present
    2. Export
    3. China
    4. Table
  4. Adjectives with two syllables are usually stressed on the first syllable. Devil Hey! One of these is not an adjective.
    1. present
    2. Slender
    3. Clever
    4. Happy
  5. Most verbs with two syllables are stressed on the second syllable
    1. present
    2. export
    3. decide
    4. begin

Nouns or Verbs?

There are many two-syllable words in English whose meaning and class change with a change in stress. The word present, for example is a two-syllable word. If we stress the first syllable, it is a noun (gift) or an adjective (opposite of absent). But if we stress the second syllable, it becomes a verb (to offer).

More examples:

For each word, make two sentences to show the different forms of the word. Example 1. Exports are imortant for the country's economy.
We must export more goods.
Read more about changing the meaning by stress

  1. exports (noun) export (verb)
  2. imports (noun) import (verb)
  3. contract
  4. object
  5. perfect
  6. produce

parts of speech

Verbs and nouns have different stress patterns. usually the verb is more stressed at the end.

  1. separate (adjective) separate (verb)
    Separate these pieces and put them into two separate piles.
  2. Estimate (adjective) estimate (verb) Can you estimate the cost of this project and send the estimate to me by post.

When the form of a long word changes, the pronunciation often changes too. Eg: To estimate (vrb) and Estimate (noun)