Contra bute?

I would say ‘ con-trib-uter’ if that makes sense.

Yes, the accent is on trib.

Although I have also heard con-tribute. The other one I am never sure of is harassment, which part of that word is accented?

sodapop - I emphasis the rass - is that right?

(oops) while some people emphasise the har.

I avoid accentuating the first two syllables in harr-ass-ment; I hate harr-ASS-ment and correct the television every day but they never listen.

Emphasis on 'trib' here, but I can see how it can vary.

I' d go for the 'ass' in harassment, too.. It's not incorrect, eazybee, just a different pronunciation.

Re harass, a double letter usually signifies a stress on the syllable in front. So harass is correct.

It's must surely be accent on 'trib', as 'contributor' 's main idea is 'tribute', 'con' meaning with, and 'or 'meaning agent

Just tested myself - I say CONtribute but conTRIButor. I never realised I say them differently but then I hardly ever use them.

I was brought up with harASS as my mother sometimes complained of feeling harASSED. I don't ever remember personally using the word at all.

Contribute: I put equal stress on each syllable and, like others, put it on trib in contributor.

And contri_but_ion

I have noticed for some time that people have started saying CONtribute, which sounds so odd to my ears. This is one abomination that the Americans don't do.

HarASSment.

I have also heard "grinded" recently!

However, I am very wary of correcting people's pronunciations because, not having lived in the UK for 46 years now, there are some new words I have not heard but only seen written down, and I have been caught out by them.

American pronunciation of contribute, ice cream, and romance has the accent on the first syllable. Why is it annoying when English English speakers do this ?

So many examples both in the mass media, and sadly also in everyday conversation of the butchery of the potentially beautiful, and with the most words in our dictionary, arguably the most expressive language in the world. Not just in pronunciation, but also in grammatical use, demonstrating a crippling lack of vocabulary in many areas. "I was like and she was like", "I'm bored of". "I don't want no pudding". "we is going to school", confusion between "it's and its", and "there, their and they're". As for pronunciation, with Estuary English becoming so common with media presenters these days, I often have to rely on subtitles. I'm also considering sending Priti Patel a bagful of letter G's to replace all those she drops at word endings. Listenin out for examples is distractin me from actually focusin on what she's sayin.... Rant over...

I get fed up with (not "of" !!) people using the past participle instead of the past tense - e.g. saying or writing "sunk" when they should use "sank". They say/write 'the ship sunk' when they mean 'the ship sank'. The past participle is used when saying 'the ship was sunk'.

I put the emphasis on 'trib' in contributor but evenly stress the syllables in contribute. I've never been sure how to say harass/harassment!

I too was taught that harrassment had the emphasis on the second syllable, but nowadays people are say it with the emphasis on the first syllable and self-righteouslly maintain this is correct British pronounciation.

I don't doubt it is correct American, like project pronounced prohject, rather than prawject, but I shall continue to say harRasment.

Thanks for the correction on harassment everyone, hopefully I'll get it right now.

kənˈtrɪbjətə(r)

Oh dear. I've always put the stress on the con and the har.

I'm doing a charity collection on Friday - I hope nobody feels HARassed when I ask them to CONtribute.

Could it be a regional thing?

The online Oxford English Dictionary is very clear that contribute may be pronounced in British English as con-tribute or contri-bute. There are audio clips demonstrating this.

I suspect what the OP heard was the speaker pronouncing /i/ as a schwa - an unstressed vowel that sounds like uh.

Similarly, harassment may be pronounced in British English as har-assment or harass-ment.

reesearch or research ?

ice cream or ice cream ?

eazybee

I avoid accentuating the first two syllables in harr-ass-ment; I hate harr-ASS-ment and correct the television every day but they never listen.

Growing up, I only ever heard HARR-ass / HARR-ass-ment, etc. with the stress on the first syllable. I don't think I heard these words stressed on the -ass- until Frank Spencer was on our screen in Some Mother's do 'Ave 'Em.

Nowadays, I often use them in different contexts.

I use the first to mean 'fluster', because if my mum said she was HARRassed, she meant she was feeling flustered, so if we were HARRasing her, we were bothering her in a way that mad her feel flustered.

Rightly or wrongly, I think of being harrASSed by someone as being bothered by them in an annoying or irritating way, which, in my mind at least, is very slightly different.

Sometimes though, They do overlap in my mind!