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Pronunciation · Words that change with stress

How to pronounce “conflict”

KON-flikt

2 syllables · stress on “KON”

KONflikt
Britishˈkɒnflɪkt
Americanˈkɑːnflɪkt

In short

“conflict” is pronounced KON-flikt: 2 syllables, with the stress on “KON”. The noun dominates in news and academic English, so the verb (to clash or be incompatible) sounds wrong to learners even when it is correct. The version to avoid is kun-FLIKT for the noun.

Say “conflict” in 3 steps

  1. 1Noun: KON-flikt — a disagreement or a war.
  2. 2Verb: kun-FLIKT — to clash with something.
  3. 3Keep the /fl/ cluster clean; do not insert a vowel between f and l.

The version to avoid

Commonly said as: kun-FLIKT for the noun

The noun dominates in news and academic English, so the verb (to clash or be incompatible) sounds wrong to learners even when it is correct.

“conflict” as a verb

Used when conflict means to clash or be incompatible with something.

kun-FLIKT

kənˈflɪkt · stress on “FLIKT”

kunFLIKT

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

2 human recordings

Actual people saying “conflict”, not a synthetic voice. Real speech varies — that variation is what you need to recognise, and what a single model voice cannot show you.

Recordings from Wikimedia Commons by Dvortygirl, licensed under Public domain. Full credits.

Practise it out loud

Reading about a sound does not change your mouth. Say it, hear it back, and fix one thing at a time.

Say it yourself

0/6 practised

Listen first, then record. You get feedback on the individual sounds, the stress and the rhythm — no account needed, and nothing is stored.

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 keyɒo as in hotnn as in noff as in fanll as in lightɪi as in sittt as in tea

More words that change with stress

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

presentPREZ-untrecordREK-ordobjectOB-jiktsubjectSUB-jiktprojectPROJ-ektcontractKON-trakt

Keep exploring

Frequently asked questions

How do you pronounce conflict?
conflict is pronounced KON-flikt, written /ˈkɒnflɪkt/ in IPA. Noun: KON-flikt — a disagreement or a war.
How many syllables are in conflict?
two: KON-flikt. The stress falls on “KON”.
What is the most common mistake with conflict?
kun-FLIKT for the noun. The noun dominates in news and academic English, so the verb (to clash or be incompatible) sounds wrong to learners even when it is correct.
Does conflict change as a verb?
Yes. Used when conflict means to clash or be incompatible with something. That form is pronounced kun-FLIKT, /kənˈflɪkt/ in IPA.

The full sound library

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