Slova
Uncomfortable is usually pronounced un-KUMF-ter-bl in American English and un-KUMF-tuh-bl in British English. The stress is on the second syllable, KUMF, not on un. Said carefully it has five syllables: un-KUM-fer-tuh-bl.
uncomfortable
adjective · not comfortable; feeling or causing pain, worry or embarrassment
Also said: US /ʌnˈkʌm.fɚ.t̬ə.bəl/.
IPA checked in the Cambridge Dictionary and Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. Oxford gives only the shorter form for both accents. Cambridge lists the five-syllable form for American English. The recording is American English.
Each sound in the IPA, with a word you already know that has it.
US American English/ʌnˈkʌmf.tɚ.bəl/
un
KUMFstressed
ter
bl
UK British English/ʌnˈkʌmf.tə.bəl/
un
KUMFstressed
tuh
bl
Press the microphone and say it once. Your browser writes down what it hears: if it writes uncomfortable, you were understood. If it writes another word, you see which sound changed.
Tip. Stress KUMF, not un. Com sounds like come.
Record yourself and play it next to our recording: the quickest way to hear a difference.
Say this word
uncomfortable
Compare
What people often say instead, and how to fix it. Say un-KUMF-ter-bl.
NotUN-kumf-tuh-bl
Stressing un. The stress belongs on KUM, as in comfortable.
Notun-kom-FOR-tuh-bl
Stressing for and saying com as in hot. Say un-KUM, with the vowel in come.
Notun-KUM-for-tay-bl
Saying table at the end. Keep it light: tuh-bl.
Hear each one, slow it down, then say it. Words change a little when they join others, so practise them in sentences too.
These shoes get uncomfortable after an hour.
There was an uncomfortable silence after his joke.
I feel uncomfortable talking about money.
Adding un- to a word does not move its stress. Comfortable is stressed on KUM, so uncomfortable is too: un-KUM. The same is true of unhappy, unusual and unfair.
The un- is still a clear syllable, with the vowel in cup, but it is short and quiet. Do not pause after it; run it straight into KUM.
The middle can shrink, just as it does in comfortable. Oxford gives only the short form for both accents. Cambridge lists un-KUMF-tuh-bl for British English and the full five-syllable form for American English.
Rhymes and words that share its tricky sound. Open any of them in the checker and say it.
In Slova you say new words out loud in every lesson, at your level, in lessons built around what you love.