For many loanwords from French, AmE has final-syllable stress, while BrE stresses an earlier syllable or preserves the original French equal stress per syllable.

Most 2-syllable verbs ending in -ate have first-syllable stress in AmE and second-syllable stress in BrE. This includes castrate, collate, cremate, curate, dictate, dilate, donate, fixate, frustrate, gestate, gradate, gyrate, hydrate, lactate, locate, mandate, migrate, mutate, narrate_b, notate, phonate, placate_b, prostrate, pulsate, rotate, serrate, spectate, stagnate, striate, translate, truncate, vacate_b*, vibrate. Examples where AmE and BrE match include conflate, create, equate, elate, inflate, negate, sedate; and probate with first-syllable stress. Derived nouns in -ator retain the distinction, but those in -ation do not. Also, migratory and vibratory sometimes retain the distinction.

Most longer -ate verbs are pronounced the same in AmE and BrE, but a few have first-syllable stress in BrE and second-syllable stress in AmE: demarcate_a, elongate_a, impregnate, incarnate, inculcate, inculpate, infiltrate, remonstrate_ab, sequestrate, tergiversate_a^{[nb 1]}. For some derived adjectives ending -atory stress-shifting to -a(tory)- occurs in BrE. Among these cases are celebratory_a (BrE: ), circulatory_a, compensatory_a, participatory_a, regulatory_a. AmE stresses the same syllable as the corresponding -ate verb (except compensatory, where AmE stresses the second syllable). A further -atory difference is laboratory: AmE and BrE .

There are a number of cases where same-spelled noun, verb and/or adjective have uniform stress in one dialect but distinct stress in the other (e.g. alternate, prospect): see initial-stress-derived noun.

Where the syllable preceding the suffixes -ary, -ery, -ory, -mony or -ative is unstressed, AmE pronounces the penultimate syllable with a full vowel sound: for -ary and -ery, for -ory, for -mony and -ative. BrE reduces the vowel to a schwa or even elides it completely: [-əri] or [-ri] (hereafter transcribed as in diaphonemic transcription), and . So military is AmE and BrE , inventory is AmE and BrE , testimony is AmE and BrE and innovative is AmE or and BrE . (The elision is avoided in carefully enunciated speech, especially with endings -rary, -rery, -rory.^{[citation needed]})

Where the syllable preceding -ary, -ery, -ory, -mony or -ative is stressed however, AmE also usually reduces the vowel: , . Exceptions include library, primary, rosemary. (Pronouncing library as rather than is stigmatized in the United States, for example as associated with African-American Vernacular English,^[1] whereas in BrE, is common in rapid or casual speech.)

The suffix -berry is pronounced by similar rules, except that in BrE it may be full after an unstressed syllable, while in AmE it is usually full in all cases. Thus we have strawberry: BrE , AmE , and whortleberry: BrE/AmE .

The placename component -bury (e.g. Canterbury) has a similar difference: AmE has a full vowel: where BrE has a reduced one: .

Stress differences between the dialects occur with some words ending in -atory (listed above) and a few others like capillary (included in #Miscellaneous stress above).

Formerly the BrE–AmE distinction for adjectives carried over to corresponding adverbs ending -arily, -erily or -orily. However, nowadays some BrE speakers adopt the AmE practice of shifting the stress to the penultimate syllable: militarily is thus sometimes rather than , and necessarily is in BrE either or .

Words ending in unstressed -ile derived from Latin adjectives ending -ilis are mostly pronounced with a full vowel in BrE but a reduced vowel or syllabic L in AmE (e.g. fertile sounds like fur tile in BrE but sounds like furtle in AmE).

AmE will (unlike BrE, except when indicated with) have a reduced last vowel:

• generally in facile, (in)fertile, fissile, fragile, missile, sterile, tensile, versatile, virile, volatile
• often in agile, docile,^{[nb 2]} ductile, futile, hostile, juvenile, (im)mobile (adjective and phone), puerile, tactile
• rarely in domicile,^{[nb 3]} erectile, febrile,^{[nb 4]} infantile, nubile, pensile, percentile, projectile, reptile, senile,^{[nb 5]} servile, textile, utile
• never in crocodile, exile, gentile, reconcile; nor to compounds of monosyllables (e.g. turnstile from stile)

In some words the pronunciation also comes into play:

• BrE , AmE : c(h)amomile, mercantile, mobile/stabile (decorations)
• BrE , AmE or : motile, prehensile, pulsatile, tractile
• BrE , AmE or : imbecile
• BrE , AmE : rutile (BrE, AmE also )

Related endings -ility, -ilize, -iliary are pronounced the same in AmE as BrE.

The pronunciation of the vowel of the prefix di- in words such as dichotomy, digest (verb), dilate, dilemma, dilute, diluvial, dimension, direct, dissect, disyllable, divagate, diverge, diverse, divert, divest, and divulge as well as their derivational forms vary between and or in both British and American English.^[2]: 237

The suffix -ine when unstressed is pronounced sometimes (e.g. feline), sometimes (e.g. morphine) and sometimes (e.g. medicine). Some words have variable pronunciation within BrE, or within AmE, or between BrE and AmE. Generally, AmE is more likely to favor or , and BrE to favor .

BrE , AmE (1) : carbine, Florentine, internecine, philistine, pristine^{[nb 6]}, saline, serpentine.

BrE , AmE (1) (2) : adamantine.

BrE , AmE : uterine.

BrE , AmE (1) (2) (3) : crystalline, labyrinthine.

BrE (1) , AmE (1) (2) : strychnine.

The weak vowel merger causes affixes such as -ate (as in climate), be- (before a consonant), de- (as in decide), -ed (with a sounded vowel), -es (with a sounded vowel), -est, -less, -ness, pre- (as in prepare) and re- (before a consonant) to be pronounced with the schwa (the a in about), rather than the unstressed (found in the second syllable of locksmith). Conservative RP uses in each case, so that before, waited, roses and faithless are pronounced , rather than , which are more usual in General American. The pronunciations with are gaining ground in RP and in the case of certain suffixes (such as -ate and -less) have become the predominant variants. The noun carelessness is pronounced in Standard Southern British and in conservative RP; both pronunciations typically merge in GA (usually towards the latter). This variation is denoted with the symbol ᵻ⟩ in some of the dictionaries published by and in the . In the latter, the British pronunciation of is transcribed ˈklʌɪmᵻt⟩, though is transcribed ˈkɛːləsnəs⟩.