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Type 3: Adjective + Noun (always joined when written) – STRESS ON FIRST WORD

    Notes

• This type of word combination is really a sub-set of Type 1. For example, a supermarket is another kind of market, just like the word, stock market. But I am calling these examples a separate stress pattern "Type" because they are often confused with the Type 2 stress pattern when spoken.

• Even though the first word, such as "super" in "supermarket" seems to describe the thing (and it usually does do that), English chooses to use this first word to mean a classification, or type. That is, a supermarket is a kind of market. Another example: a blackbird is certainly black but here it is used to mean a particular type or species of bird. If you use the Type 2 stress pattern and say, "a black bird", you are just saying that it is a bird that is black, just like saying, a black cat.

• The stress pattern of the examples on this page is another example of the general rule: "When two words are joined together in writing, i.e., written as one word, to form a noun, no matter what type of word the first word is (whether a noun, adjective, adverb, preposition or verb), the first word is spoken with more stress than the second word."

  [Note that this applies only when two words are combined to form a noun. Verbs that are formed in this way generally have the stress on the second word, such as "to overtax" and "to overthrow".]

• Students of English often make mistakes when speaking these. In China, many people incorrectly use the Type 2 stress pattern when saying supermarket and the words in the grandfather group. The IELTS examiner will notice this mistake and it won't help your pronunciation sub-score, although one small mistake like that won't cause you to lose a whole Band point for pronunciation because the pronunciation sub-score is based on several different factors, not just the stress pattern of two-word combinations. However, sometimes a pronunciation mistake like that causes the examiner to not understand what you just said and the examiner might ask you to repeat yourself. If that happens, the examiner might consider the mistake to carry a little more "weight".

• I have collected many of these Type 3 examples and put them into four lists.

I suggest you consider the first list, called the "Basic List", as part of your essential "IELTS vocabulary" because these words are often used or needed in the Speaking test by candidates.

List 2 is similar to the Basic List but these words are much less frequently needed or used in the test.

List 3 has words that English speakers are familiar with and use sometimes but these examples would be rarely used in the IELTS Speaking test.

List 4 has examples that are even rarely used by native English speakers.

• If you decide to learn any new words from these lists, you should understand that many of these are very idiomatic. That means you should not guess at the meaning and usage of these words but should, instead, use good reference books (or the internet) to find out the meaning and usage. As well as that, some examples here are very informal, perhaps too informal to use in the Speaking test. Certainly, using many very informal words in the test is unsuitable although an occasional very informal word is ok. (You should not speak formally in the test but, at the same time, it is not suitable to speak very informally, either. Spoken language is by its nature, less formal than written language but you should try to speak like an educated person.)

Also note that some words are considered to be rather offensive and it is of course, not a good idea to use these in the Speaking test.

• I have tried as much as possible to link to the "Howjsay" website for the audio recordings because that website provides the recording with one click, whereas the MacMillan Dictionary website requires you to use two clicks to hear the recording (although it takes two clicks to come back to this page from "Howjsay".) However, "Howjsay" does not provide any information besides the pronunciation whereas MacMillan gives excellent information on the meaning and usage of words.

• On this page, I have not only written the stressed words in bold, such as "super"; I have also put them into italic style such as "super". The only reason I did that was to emphasize the stressed word even more than only using bold print, to make it easier for you to see the stressed word.

• A few of these examples could also be classified as the Type 1 subgroup, "compound nouns derived from phrasal verbs". For example, a shortcut comes from the phrasal verb, "to cut short". These are shown on the page, http://ielts-yasi.englishlab.net/TYPE_1_PAGE_9.htm

          Basic List                                         

a blackberry (audio on right) You could also choose to use the British pronunciation, blackberry but that pronunciation is less clear than the North American pronunciation. a blackbird a blackboard a blackout a blueprint a briefcase a broadcast a freeway a Frenchman a gentleman a grandchild a granddad a grand-daughter a grandfather a grandmother a grandparent a grandson a greenhouse a highlight a highway a hotdog

a hotspot a latecomer a newcomer a shortcoming a superman a supermarket a superstar a sweetheart a whiteboard a wildfire a wildflower an Englishman  grandchildren hardware software wildlife a shortcut sweetcorn (a) softball softwood hardwood cyberspace hot-pot  (especially useful for Chinese students)

          List 2

a "busybody" a cheapskate a darkroom a deadline a deadlock a downfall a downgrade a falsehood a forerunner a freefall  a grandstand a greenback a greengrocer a greyhound a highchair a highjack a highlighter a hotbed hotcakes ("sell like hotcakes") a hothouse a loudspeaker (Am.)  a loudspeaker (Br.) (a merrymaker) merrymakers merrymaking a middleman a strongman a supercomputer a superpower blackmail bluegrass (a kind of country and western music)

a hotline longhand (the) lowlands a blacklist a blacksmith  a brownout a "madhouse" a microchip a microscope a shortcoming a shortfall a/the shortlist a supermodel a superpower the nearside a "lazybones" a hotshot a halfwit a hothead a hotplate a redhead a wetland a wet-nurse a wetsuit a whiteout smallpox shorthand wholemeal

          List 3

a blindfold a dumbbell (offensive if used to mean, "a stupid person") a superdome a supertanker lowlife (offensive) shortbread sweetbread doublespeak superconductor (Br.) Also: a superconductor (Br.), superconductor (U.S.) a stronghold a "deadbeat" (offensive) a fullback a halfback a halfbreed (offensive) a redneck a shortcake a strongbox a stronghold crispbread

quicksand yellowcake hardball ("play hardball") hardboard a superbug a sharpshooter blackjack (a card game) a sidecar a blackhead a blindside a greatcoat a half-caste (offensive) a highbrow (a highbrow person) a hot-rod a six-pack the lowdown the quickstep (a dance) the Superbowl (in the U.S.) a fathead (offensive) a longbow

          List 4

a bluebell (a type of flower) a bluebird a bluebottle (a living thing in the ocean) a forepart a supertax a tallboy a wetback (offensive)

a yellowtail Bluebeard (a name) quicklime quicksilver (= Hg = mercury) superscript the quicktime (a dance style) the superstructure a flatfish