Pronunciation · Academic and IELTS words

How to pronounce “comparable”

KOM-puh-ruh-bul

4 syllables · stress on “KOM”

KOMpuhruhbul

Britishˈkɒmpərəbl

Americanˈkɑːmpərəbl

In short

“comparable” is pronounced KOM-puh-ruh-bul: 4 syllables, with the stress on “KOM”. The verb compare stresses its second syllable, and the adjective comparable moves it to the first. The two words look related enough that the shift feels arbitrary. The version to avoid is kum-PAR-uh-bul — borrowing the stress from the verb “compare”.

Say “comparable” in 3 steps

1Stress the first syllable: KOM-puh-ruh-bul.
2This is a different pattern from compare — do not carry that stress across.
3The second-syllable version is heard from some speakers, but first-syllable stress is the standard reference form.

The version to avoid

Commonly said as: kum-PAR-uh-bul — borrowing the stress from the verb “compare”

The verb compare stresses its second syllable, and the adjective comparable moves it to the first. The two words look related enough that the shift feels arbitrary.

Hear real people say it

Model audio is consistent; real speech is not. Hearing several actual speakers is what makes a word recognisable when someone says it at full speed.

Real speakers

No free human recording of “comparable” exists yet in the public archives we draw on, so the audio above is our model voice. It is accurate for this word — a human clip would simply add natural variation on top.

Practise it out loud

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Say it yourself

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Three speakers per accent

Recordings are used only to generate this feedback and are not stored. Your accent is never penalised: IELTS scores intelligibility, and so do we.

The sounds inside this word

Each links to a full guide with mouth position, audio and drills. If a word keeps failing, the problem is usually one of these.

kk as in key ɒo as in hot mm as in man pp as in pen əa as in about (schwa)rr as in red bb as in bed ll as in light

More academic and ielts words

Same pattern, same fix. Learning them as a group is far faster than one at a time.

entrepreneuron-truh-pruh-NUR questionnairekwes-chuh-NAIR environmentin-VY-run-munt phenomenonfuh-NOM-ih-nun hierarchyHY-uh-rar-kee genreZHON-ruh

Frequently asked questions

How do you pronounce comparable?

comparable is pronounced KOM-puh-ruh-bul, written /ˈkɒmpərəbl/ in IPA. Stress the first syllable: KOM-puh-ruh-bul.

How many syllables are in comparable?

four: KOM-puh-ruh-bul. The stress falls on “KOM”.

What is the most common mistake with comparable?

kum-PAR-uh-bul — borrowing the stress from the verb “compare”. The verb compare stresses its second syllable, and the adjective comparable moves it to the first. The two words look related enough that the shift feels arbitrary.

The full sound library

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