Think about the parts of speech of the words (words in the description) in each column. What did you notice? Write your response below.

Question

Progress Present  record  object desert    subject    conduct  permit rebel  suspect  

Answer 1

Joanna B is absolutely correct. What we also notice is a shift in stress. When these words are used as nouns, the stress is on the first syllable. When used as a verb, the stress is on the second syllable. This can be helpful when spelling. When a syllable is not stressed, the vowel is reduced to a schwa. Schwas are hard to spell unless you know the family members. For example, in the first word "progress", the 'o' is a schwa when it's a verb like in the sentence, "How will they progress past the first level." The <o> is not clearly pronounced without stress on it. If a writer knows the same word can be pronounced differently as in the noun "progress" (His progress has increased.), then they can more clearly hear the short 'o' sound and more easily spell it.

Answer 2

Hi Elise,

It looks like each of these words has two parts of speech - noun and verb. For example, you could say, "Progress has been made." (noun form) You could also say, "They progress nicely in this area." (verb form)

Hope that helps!

Joanna