cooperate · corporate
cooperate /koʊˈɑːpəreɪt/ · corporate /ˈkɔːrpərət/ — nearly the same letters, but a different syllable count and a different stressed syllable. Say them back to back and your tongue wants to blend the two rhythms into one.
🌀 Tongue twister: both words share almost every letter — co(o)perat- — but cooperate has 4 syllables stressed on the 2nd, and corporate has 3 syllables stressed on the 1st. Say “the corporate team needs to cooperate” five times fast.
verb — to work together toward a shared goal — 'please cooperate with the officers' · 'the two teams cooperated'
mouth shape
4 syllables, stress on the 2nd: co-OP-er-ate — the stressed /ɑː/ is open and central, jaw drops
cooperate
/koʊˈɑːpəreɪt/
vowel length
plays as: “please cooperate”
adjective — relating to a corporation or company — 'corporate headquarters' · 'corporate culture'
mouth shape
3 syllables, stress on the 1st: COR-po-rate — the stressed /ɔːr/ is rounded and r-coloured
corporate
/ˈkɔːrpərət/
vowel length
plays as: “corporate headquarters”
Syllable count and stress
co·OP·er·ate
/koʊˈɑːpəreɪt/
4 syllables — stress on #2
COR·po·rate
/ˈkɔːrpərət/
3 syllables — stress on #1
Fun fact — different Latin roots
Despite looking almost identical, the two words come from completely different Latin sources. Cooperate comes from co- (together) + operari (to work) — literally “to work together”. Corporate comes from corpus (body) — a corporation is legally treated as a single “body” of people. The overlap in spelling is a coincidence of English word-formation, not a shared origin.
Key difference
cooperate is a verb — an action two or more people do. corporate is an adjective — it describes something belonging to a company. If you can put “to” in front of it (“to cooperate”), it’s the verb. If it’s describing a noun (“corporate office”), it’s the adjective.
Example sentences
cooperate:“The witness agreed to cooperate with police.”
cooperate:“If we all cooperate, we’ll finish faster.”
corporate:“She works in the corporate office downtown.”
corporate:“The company has a strong corporate culture.”
Hear it in the wild
Real speech from native speakers — the most reliable way to check a pronunciation, since automated audio can vary by device and browser.
cooperate
Hear native speakers say “cooperate” in real sentences — news, lectures, and podcasts.
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corporate
Hear native speakers say “corporate” in real sentences — news, lectures, and podcasts.
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How teachers explain this
Approved tips from the community, sorted by helpfulness
Word families
cooperate family ▸
corporate family ▸
Related pairs
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