Pronunciation · Words that change with stress

How to pronounce “progress”

PROH-gres

2 syllables · stress on “PROH”

PROHgres

Britishˈprəʊɡres

Americanˈprɑːɡres

In short

“progress” is pronounced PROH-gres: 2 syllables, with the stress on “PROH”. The noun is very frequent in exam speech (“making progress”), and the verb is rarer, so learners generalise the verb's stress to both. The version to avoid is pruh-GRES for the noun, which is the single most common stress error in IELTS answers about study or work.

Say “progress” in 3 steps

1Noun: PROH-gres — stress the first syllable.
2Verb: pruh-GRES — to move forward.
3The phrase “making PROH-gres” is worth drilling until it is automatic.

The version to avoid

Commonly said as: pruh-GRES for the noun, which is the single most common stress error in IELTS answers about study or work

The noun is very frequent in exam speech (“making progress”), and the verb is rarer, so learners generalise the verb's stress to both.

“progress” as a verb

Used when progress means to advance or move forward.

pruh-GRES

prəˈɡres · stress on “GRES”

pruhGRES

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

3 human recordings

Actual people saying “progress”, 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 Association Shtooka, Judith Franck and Dvortygirl, licensed under CC BY 3.0 us / CC BY-SA 3.0. 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.

British vs American

The first vowel differs: British /ˈprəʊ-/ has the diphthong of “go”, while American /ˈprɑː-/ uses an open back vowel.

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.

pp as in pen rr as in red əʊo as in go ɡg as in go ee as in bed ss as in see

More words that change with stress

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

presentPREZ-unt recordREK-ord objectOB-jikt subjectSUB-jikt projectPROJ-ekt contractKON-trakt

Frequently asked questions

How do you pronounce progress?

progress is pronounced PROH-gres, written /ˈprəʊɡres/ in IPA. Noun: PROH-gres — stress the first syllable.

How many syllables are in progress?

two: PROH-gres. The stress falls on “PROH”.

What is the most common mistake with progress?

pruh-GRES for the noun, which is the single most common stress error in IELTS answers about study or work. The noun is very frequent in exam speech (“making progress”), and the verb is rarer, so learners generalise the verb's stress to both.

Is progress pronounced differently in British and American English?

The first vowel differs: British /ˈprəʊ-/ has the diphthong of “go”, while American /ˈprɑː-/ uses an open back vowel. IELTS accepts either accent, so choose one model and stay consistent.

Does progress change as a verb?

Yes. Used when progress means to advance or move forward. That form is pronounced pruh-GRES, /prəˈɡres/ in IPA.

The full sound library

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