What's up? No episódio de hoje, falo sobre aquelas palavrinhas do inglês que podem ser pronunciadas de duas maneiras: com ênfase na primeira sílaba, ou com ênfase na segunda. Tudo depende do uso. Ouça já!


Transcrição
What's up? This is the new episode of the Inglês Online podcast.

Thanks for all the comments at the iTunes store and if you haven't yet left a comment for this podcast please do so: the more comments for the Inglês Online podcast, the more people will find out about it and listen to the episodes.

Thank you for telling your friends, your neighbours, your family and keep listening.

So here's what I want to talk about today: the pronunciation changes in words that can be nouns or verbs. Here's an example: the word i-m-p-a-c-t. IMpact, or imPACT. Have you noticed that there's a difference? Words like IMpact, or imPACT. INcrease, or inCREASE. OBject or obJECT.

One is a noun, the other is a verb. With the noun, the stress is placed on the first syllable: OBject. With the verb, the stress is placed on the second syllable: obJECT.

So which one is IMpact? It's a noun, like in this sentence: The behavior of parents has such a big IMpact on a child.

Now let's use the verb imPACT - here's an example: Your donation will impact our organisation's results. Your donation will impact the results. As a noun again: your donation will have an impact.

So in order to help you get used to this, let me give you a string of short examples with both IMpact and imPACT. Ready? Here they go: low-impact exercises are easier on the body. Our CEO's speech had no impact on employees. Recession has had a huge impact in our economy and lots of shops are now closed.

Now, technology will continue to impact our lives in the future. Loss of vision will usually impact someone's independence. Plot twists generally impact the way a story unfolds.

So, in case the difference in pronunciation doesn't come naturally to you - how are you gonna know? How are you going to learn this? Well, I suggest you do what I've done and get a move on with your listening. You could sit down and do focused activities to try and memorise, or internalise, the different ways to pronounce impact - but listening to comprehensible English as much as you can is, hands down, bar none, without a shadow of a doubt, the most efficient, fastest way for these things to become natural to you.

Let's take another one: progress. I said PROgress, which is the noun. By the way, it's PROgress in the UK. Technology has brought a lot of PROgress to our lives. We've made a lot of PROgress on our reports. PROgress is a good thing.

Now, listen to this: as they got to know each other better, their relationship proGRESsed. Mary didn't speak any French last year but she has since proGRESsed to an intermediate level. This disease usually proGRESses through various stages.

Here are a few others: there was an INcrease in sales last year. The purpose of our courses is to inCREAse knowledge in our staff. Don't inSULT me! Sorry, what I said wasn't meant as an INsult. You need a PERmit to park your car in this area. We can't perMIT this behavior in our school. I'm studying a few different SUBjects now. We can't subJECT our employees to poor working conditions.

So, tell me: have you noticed the different pronunciations of these words before? Do you say them right most of the time? Is this new to you? Can you give me a few examples of how you'd use them? Let me know in the comments, and talk to you next time!

 

Key terms

pronunciations of progress, increase, object, etc.

Vocabulário

get a move on with = comece logo a fazer

hands down = definitivamente

bar none = de longe (neste caso)