arrange these words into three groups

[ruyugana]

Good morning/afternoon/evening !

I'm an English linguistics student willing to apply for a teacher training course,but first I'm asked to fill out a form. your help would be appreciated. thank you in advance.

in one part of the form I'm asked to arrange these countries into three groups and to give a reason for my choices (clue: think about how the words are pronounced) : Brazil - England - Egypt - Germany - Hungary - Italy - Japan - Mexico - Russia.
thank you.

 

[Rover_KE]

Welcome to the forum.

We expect you to make your own effort first.

 

[ruyugana]

thank you.
actually I'm a little bit confused, I thought about the vowel length feature like in: the vowel "a" in Germany (short vowel) and Japan (long vowel)..
I just couldn't find any common feature that can help to arrange them into three groups

 

[ruyugana]

is there anyone who could give me a hand ?

 

[Rover_KE]

Consider the stressed syllables.

 

[ruyugana]

I already did..
Bra'zil and Ja'pan are both stressed on their second syllable and the others are all stressed on the first (syllable) which gives me only two groups and not three :-|

 

[MikeNewYork]

But how many have more than two syllables?

 

[ruyugana]

four of them have three syllables and are all stressed on the first..
:-D I think I finally have my three groups ! thank you so much MikeNewYork for the hint ! thank you Rover_KE I'm very grateful

the first group: Bra'zil and Ja'pan ( two syllables, stress on the second)
the second group: 'England, 'Egypt and 'Russia (two syllables, stress on the first )
the third group: 'Hun-ga-ry, 'Ger-ma-ny, 'It-a-ly and 'Mex-i-co ( three syllables, stress on the first one)

 

[MikeNewYork]

Good for you! Let us know if this worked for the people in charge.

 

[ruyugana]

I surely will ! thank you so much again for your support