Learn how to pronounce the words CONTEST and CONTENT with this American English heteronym pronunciation lesson. Heteronyms are words that are spelled exactly the same. They just have a different pronunciation and a different meaning.
Pronunciation:
Nouns: ˈkɒntɛst ˈkɒntɛnt
Verbs: kənˈtɛst kənˈtɛnt
Definition:
contest: a noun meaning a match; a verb meaning to argue
content: a noun meaning subject matter; verb meaning satisfied
Transcript:
It’s Jennifer from Tarle speed with your question of the week. I’m finishing up my heteronym series and I have two sets of words for you today with the same pattern. We have content which is a noun meaning subject matter or content a verb meaning satisfied and contest which is a match or competition. And contest to argue.
So if I could get my board correct here. Here are the words. I wrote this a little bit differently today because we’re going to take a different approach. I want you to think just about the word stress today not so much about the individual sounds.
A general rule with heteronyms is that we stress syllable number one in nouns and adjectives and we unstressed syllable number two. We stress syllable number two in verbs and we unstress syllable number one. A stressed syllable is louder longer and higher in pitch and the unstressed syllable this is just as important is lower softer and shorter. You will see.
When we have words that start with the letters c o n for syllable number one when we stress it we’re really going to pronounce the vowel and we’re going to say con. However, when that syllable is unstressed we’re going to use the short uh sound and say Kun. That’s a great general rule of thumb.
So let’s give these words a try. We have content which is the noun and contest. So let’s stress syllable number one in content and contest. content contest.
Now if we’re using these as verbs we can say content and contest content contest. Now let’s give all of those a try.
Let’s try the nouns first. content content content contest contest contest and now for the verbs content content content contest contest contest.
So I’m going to do the noun first and then the verb. We have content content contest contest.
And now for a few sentences: I hope you are content with the content of my channel. I really hope you are give me a thumbs up if you are. And then for contest we have, the team will contest the winner of the contest.
So give it a try I know people are going to notice the difference let me know what you thought about this new format and if you have any requests I have a great weekend everybody take care!