Improve Word Stress – Exercises with Videos & Voice Recorders
Word Stress in English is one of the most challenging areas for many non-native speakers.
But there’s good news. This is mostly because people simply haven’t learnt what they need to know to master good word stress in English.
This page explains everything you need to know about English word stress. It will give you clear steps to follow to improve your word stress in the RIGHT WAY, starting from right now!
If you approach improving English word stress in the right way you will see your English clarity, stress and rhythm improve over a matter of weeks.
What is Word Stress in English? Every multi-syllable word in English has one stressed syllable. This syllable is slightly higher and stronger than other syllables. Word stress makes the rhythm of English. To speak clearly in English you need to use correct word stress.
Here are some word stress examples:
rePORT – the ‘PORT’ is the stressed syllable.
MEdical – the ME is the stressed syllable.
eXAMple – the XAM is the stressed syllable.
Let’s look at that more closely.
What Is English Word Stress (definition)?
In English, not every syllable of a word has the same amount of emphasis or stress. In every English multi-syllable word there are stressed syllables and unstressed syllables.
So, what do you need to know about stressed syllables?
There is one stressed syllable in every multi-syllable word in English.
The stressed syllable:
- is slightly higher in pitch (or tone)
- has a full vowel (in unstressed syllables the vowel is often weaker)
- does not change – it is always the same for that particular word (there are a few exceptions to this. Read more further down the page).
- gives a beat when it’s in a sentence.
Listen To Word Stress Examples
It’s likely you are already quite good at hearing word stress in English. You’ll be better at it than you think! You just probably haven’t paid much attention to it before. It’s time to start developing your ability to hear word stress.
The tricky part is hearing it in real speaking AND of course, making it in your own speaking. But it starts with listening!
Practise listening to word stress examples below.
It’s very important that you can hear the word stress, the up and down of the voice to mark the stressed syllable in English.
Listen below and then record your own stress with the voice recorder.
Listen to Word Stress Examples.
Click to listen to the native speaker.
Listen carefully to the pitch of the voice.
Can you hear that the pitch is slightly higher for the stressed syllable in each word?
You might need to play and listen a few times.
Why Is English Word Stress Important? VERY IMPORTANT : )
English speakers use the word stress you make to recognise the words you say.
Research shows that listeners rely A LOT on the pitch and rhythm of a word to recognise it.
So, when you make word stress that is different to what they are expecting, it can mean that they don’t understand it.
In other words if you aren’t using good word stress it gives your listener more work to do and it can result in them not understanding what you say easily.
So, “why is English word stress so important?”. Using good word stress in English is very important because listeners use it to recognise the words you say. To speak clear English that people understand easily, you need to use good word stress. This means putting stress on the correct syllable and using enough stress so your pitch is not too flat.
Better English word stress makes a person’s spoken English clearer and more engaging to listeners.
In English, the position of the stress can change the meaning of a word.
For example, ‘PROject’ with the stress on the first syllable is a noun, for example you might say “I FInished my PROject’.
If you put the stress on the 2nd syllable of ‘proJECT’ it is a verb. So you might say “This is our proJECted OUTcome”.
If you use flat stress, so a similar amount of stress on each syllable, it will be difficult for listeners to instantly recognise. Especially when there is background noise or other pronunciation differences too.
How To Improve Your Word Stress
Here are some clear steps to follow for improving your English word stress.
1] LISTEN FOR WORD STRESS.
The first step in all this is becoming better at hearing word stress. If you can’t hear it – you won’t be able to make it.
Pay attention to the up and down, or the pitch or tone of native speakers voices when they are speaking. The more you listen, the more you’ll pick up that they don’t use a flat tone or an even rhythm.
Their pitch rises slightly to mark the stressed syllables and this is what makes the rhythm of English. This takes some practise to hear.
Be patient but listen carefully and you’ll start to hear it more easily over time.
2] USE THE WORD STRESS EXERCISES & VIDEOS BELOW
Use the Word Stress Videos and Voice Recorders below. These videos will help you learn to hear English word stress and practise making better word stress. Hearing word stress can take time and practise – be patient and keep focusing on it. The more you practise and actively listen for word stress, the better you will get at hearing it.
With these word stress exercises and English word stress videos you’ll correct many commonly mispronounced words. Non-native speakers often put the stress on the wrong syllable in the words that are covered in these word stress videos.
3] KEEP ACTIVELY LISTENING AND PRACTISING
Keep thinking about and focusing on word stress in multi-syllable words and your word stress will keep improving. Each time you learn a new multi-syllable word, make sure you look at the IPA to check where the word stress is. See more on that below.
Some tips as you go through these English Word Stress exercises:
– DO focus on pitch.
– Do not aim to make the stressed syllable louder. This results in unnatural sounds speech.
– DO NOT look for short cuts. Develop your ability to hear it and then practise making it. Through building these skills and actively working on it and listening for it you will get a feel for the ‘music’ of English.
Word Stress Exercise & Video 1
occur, maintain, maintenance, strategy, strategic
Watch the video and practise out loud while focusing on the pitch / tone of your voice.
Pay careful attention to the one stressed syllable in each word. It’s higher and the other syllables are lower and weaker.
Then record your own word stress with the voice recorder on the right.
Watch the video on the left to practise: occur, maintain, maintenance, strategy, strategic.
Record the words while focusing on your pitch. It should rise slightly to mark the stressed syllable.
Word Stress Exercise & Video 2
capable, capacity, initiate, initiative and entrepreneur
Watch the video and practise out loud while focusing on the pitch / tone of your voice.
Pay careful attention to the one stressed syllable in each word. It’s higher and the other syllables are lower and weaker.
Then record your own word stress with the voice recorder on the right.
Watch the video to practise the words: capable, capacity, initiate, initiative and entrepreneur
Record the words while focusing on making good word stress. Your pitch should rise slightly to mark the stressed syllable.
Word Stress Exercise & Video 3:
purchase, promise, technical, technique, technology
These words are OFTEN mispronounced by non-native speakers. Watch the video and say the words out loud focusing on pitch / tone.
Pay careful attention to the one stressed syllable in each word. It’s higher and the other syllables are lower and weaker.
Then record your own word stress with the voice recorder on the right.
Watch the video to practise: purchase, promise, technical, technique, technology
Record the words while focusing on making good word stress.
Word Stress Exercise & Video 4:
establish, specific, stable, politics, political, politician
Many non-native speakers mispronounce these words. Check your stress and vowel sounds with this word stress video.
Pay careful attention to the one stressed syllable in each word. It’s higher and the other syllables are lower and weaker.
Then record your own word stress with the voice recorder on the right.
Watch the video on the left to practise the target words: establish, specific, stable, politics, political, politician
Record the words while focusing on making good word stress.
Why Is Word Stress So Challenging?
If you speak English as a 2nd language, English word stress can be challenging because:
1] it’s different to the stress and rhythm of your first language
and
2] you can’t tell where the word stress is by looking at an English word (by the spelling)
Here are some ways that English word stress is different to the word stress and rhythm of other languages.
In some languages, each syllable gets the same amount of stress. So they don’t have stressed and unstressed syllables like English does.
In some languages, there are stressed syllables but they aren’t important and don’t change the meaning of a word.
Some languages have stressed syllables but the stressed syllables are simply made longer, instead of higher in pitch like they are in English.
Many languages don’t have weak vowels like in English. English has stressed and unstressed syllables and the vowels in the unstressed syllables often become weak.
All these variations make word stress challenging for non-native speakers to master.
The word stress exercises and word stress videos above will help you improve and develop your English word stress.
English Word Stress Rules
Some teachers will try and teach you word stress rules. This is dangerous! While it will make you feel like things are easier it will simply result in mispronunciations.
I spend a lot of time correcting students that have learnt rules with a previous teacher – and those rules are resulting in mispronunciations.
Do not follow rules for word stress. Why?
Because the word stress is so variable in English. English has borrowed words from many other languages – that’s why our spelling and word stress is so variable. Trying to follow word stress rules is a bad idea.
There are literally thousands of exceptions and I have worked with countless professionals who are making mistakes because they are following a rule that they learnt at school.
The most common rule that people have learnt that leads to so many mispronunciations is that “the word stress is on the long vowel”.
No! English word stress is not always on the long vowel in English words. Here are just a few of the many exceptions – suburb, colleague, purchase. There are LOTS or exceptions and these are important, common words that you need to be pronouncing correctly.
If you try and follow rules – you’ll make mistakes.
I can see why people teaching beginner level English want to teach rules, but teachers who are teaching advanced level pronunciation to professionals should not be teaching word stress rules.
There is one way forward and that is to start to LISTEN! You are hearing the correct word stress around you all day, every day. You just need to start to pay attention to it and start to tune into it.
Trying to follow rules is a short cut to a dead end! Spending a week or so actively listening and really tuning in to word stress will give you the skills you need to improve and keep improving in the future.
Mastering word stress in English is an ongoing project. It takes time. The quicker you start to build your listening skills and paying attention to the stress around you and your own stress the better. That is what will help you improve word stress.
How do you find the Stress of a Word?
There are some important Dos and Don’t’s for checking which syllable should be stressed in a word.
Dos
Here are the best, easy ways to find out which syllable in a word is stressed.
1. Do Use Google Chrome Search.
Google Chrome Pronunciation Tool is another fantastic way to see and hear which syllable is stressed in English.
At the moment this feature is only available on your mobile phone (not on your computer browser yet).
To see this feature in Google on your phone, simply type “How to pronounce (word)” and enter the word you want to hear pronounced.
For example, if you type in ‘How to pronounce carrot’, you’ll see a screen like this.
On the right hand side you can choose between British English and American English. You can also choose to hear it in slow motion. While the mouth movements aren’t very helpful, the pronunciation is clear and the stressed syllable is clearly marked in bold type.
The downsides of the Google pronunciation tool is that it doesn’t use the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet).
2. Use The Cambridge Online Dictionary with the IPA
If you want to see the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) or if Google Chrome is not your preferred browser, you should use the Cambridge Online Dictionary. Here you can also hear the word pronounced in British and American English.
The word stress will be marked with /ˈ/ before the stressed syllable. See more on how word stress is marked in the IPA.
3. Do Use Your Ears and Do Repeat
The best way you can start to develop your English word stress is to use your ears. If you live in an English speaking country, you are hearing correct word stress all around you. Start to listen to it! One of the best and most important tool to improve your word stress is your ears.
Each time you look up a new word in a dictionary check, if it is a multi-syllable word you should pay attention to the word stress. Say it out loud 3 times using good word stress on the correct syllable.
DON’Ts
1] Don’t Ask Your Friends
Don’t ask your friends and expect the right answer. I’ve heard lots of non-native speakers ask other non-native speakers for help with word stress. This is risky business : )
Even if your friend has been speaking English for many years, many non-native speakers have problems with word stress.
Asking a native speaker is also risky. Unless they are an ESL teacher or English teacher most native speaker simply won’t know what you are talking about. Word stress is something that we just do, we don’t realise we do it and we don’t learn about it. Because of this, if you ask a native speaker they will likely guess and that can result in mistakes!
2] Don’t Use An Unreliable Dictionary.
I see SO many students using their Chinese dictionaries that have incorrect English pronunciation and word stress. This is a big problem!
I have even heard incorrect word stress on dictionary.com. So, please check the dictionary you are using to check it is reliable and correct. As mentioned, the google pronunciation tool or Cambridge Online Dictionary are both great free reliable tools to check your word stress.
Is Word Stress Always The Same? What Are Exceptions?
You might be wondering “Is English word stress the same in British English, American English, Australian English?”.
The answer is mostly yes.
In 99% of words, the word stress is the same in English spoken in the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and so on.
That’s explains why it’s such a problem for listeners when you use word stress that’s different or too flat. They just don’t recognise it because for most words, we only ever hear it with one type of stress.
There are a handful of words where different stresses are used depending on what type of English you speak.
Here are some examples of these:
adVERtisement vs adverTISEment
PROtest proTEST
aluMINium aLUminum
GArage gaRAGE
The good news is that it’s OK to use either stress pattern as either way will be clear to most native speakers. Do you don’t really need to worry about too much about the variations across different types of English for word stress.
What is English Stress?
Stress in English is often called ‘syllable stress’ in English.
‘Syllable Stress is what makes the ‘music’ of English – it makes its rhythm.
English syllable stress is made up of two levels of stress – word stress and sentence stress. Word Stress happens in words (multi-syllable words) and Sentence Stress happens over a sentence. They work together to make syllable stress.
Summary – Why You Need to Think About Word Stress
Research shows that the emphasis and rhythm you use in English has a HUGE effect on how clear your English is to listeners.
Every English multi-syllable word has one stressed syllable. That syllable is slightly higher in pitch and has more emphasis than the other syllables.
When you put the emphasis on the right part of words in English, it means that your listener can instantly recognise it. Good word stress is essential for clear English.
Flat or incorrect word stress means that your English is very likely to be unclear.
Many non-native English speakers use word stress and rhythm in English that’s flatter than a native speaker or they put the stress in some words on the wrong syllable.
For many people, learning word stress and rhythm in English is very challenging.
It’s challenging too because you can’t tell by looking at an English word, where the stress should be. It can be on any syllable. Many non-native speakers bring the rhythm and stress pattern of their first language into their English.
We hope this article has been helpful to put you on the right path with improving your word stress and spoken English.
If you would like to speak to us about how our online courses can assist you with mastering word stress in English, please contact us using the form below, email at info@speechactive.com or call us on +61 411 295 828. Also you can chat with us on our website using our chat widget.
We look forward to hearing from you and helping you achieve clearer, more confident spoken English.
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Georgie
This course has made me realise the importance of awareness of how English should be spoken and which can be improved.
Awareness of the mouth and tongue movement, stresses on words and sentences are important elements in order to have clear English communication.
I have developed more confidence and improved fluency which further enhance my professionalism in my job and communication with all stakeholders.
I am very glad with my achievement with this course.
Cantonese Speaker , Admission Coordinator Australia
The best part about this course for me is that I think the information that is covered in this course is very detailed and, in particular, the contents are valuable and rarely available from other materials.
It gave valuable information that I did not know and that no one else could teach as clearly.
One example of this is word stress and the weak vowel schwa.
Hyun H
Korean Speaker , Perth Australia
I highly recommend this course because it explains in a very easy way the common mistakes of Spanish speakers – how to correct them and stress the words correctly.
This gives me more confidence and fluency.
I am now enjoying any conversation.
Mateo
Spanish Speaker , New York US
I really love all of this course. It covers all areas which are important but difficult for Japanese speakers.
In the past I acknowledged that I had problems but had no idea how to improve. This course showed me exactly how I need to pronounce these and gave me the right practice.
My English word stress was very flat. The course shows me how to change this and I still improve this everyday. I speak clearly now and people understand me more easy.
I highly recommend this course.
Masumi K
Nurse
Japanese Speaker, Perth Australia
English Pronunciation – Word Stress Exercises & Videos
by Georgie
Georgie Harding has assisted thousands of people from all over the world with improving their clarity and spoken English skills. A Speech Pathology degree (BAppSc(SpPath) and CELTA qualifications and over 15 years of experience providing 1:1, group and online training make Georgie a leader in her field.
Georgie is the creator the world’s leading English Pronunciation online courses that are tailored to the language background of the student and presents regularly at Universities.
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Your step-by-step path to clear and confident English
By
Last updated:
April 13, 2022
8 English Word Stress Rules to Promote Clear Communication
There should be a rhythm to English sentences—it shouldn’t sound flat, monotone (all in the same tone) and boring!
I know it sounds like an additional challenge, especially when speaking English is already difficult.
However, when you pronounce every bit of a word and sentence with the same pitch, volume and length, it might make it difficult for native speakers to understand you.
Contents
- Why Word Stress Matters
- What Is Word Stress?
-
- Identifying syllables to understand word stress
- Features of a stressed syllable
- 8 Word Stress Rules to Improve Your English Pronunciation
-
- 1. Nouns and adjectives with two syllables
- 2. Verbs and prepositions with two syllables
- 3. Words that are both a noun and a verb
- 4. Three syllable words ending in “er” and “ly”
- 5. Words ending in “ic,” “sion” and “tion”
- 6. Words ending in “cy,” “ty,” “phy,” “gy” and “al”
- 7. Compound nouns
- 8. Compound adjectives and verbs
- Resources to Perfect Your Word Stress Skills
Download:
This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you
can take anywhere.
Click here to get a copy. (Download)
Why Word Stress Matters
In her head, this sentence was understandable to Saskia:
“Dessert is my favorite thing!”
But when she said this to a friend, a native English speaker, he looked confused and asked her:
“Why? It’s just sand and has no life. It could also be dangerous!”
Then it was Saskia’s turn to be puzzled.
Can you guess the source of the problem?
Well, the problem here is word stress. Saskia got the word (“dessert”—the sweet heavenly thing) right, but she said it with the emphasis in the wrong place and the word sounded like “desert”—a dry perilous place.
This is just one example of how important word stress is to improving your pronunciation and speaking English like a native speaker. Perhaps you don’t know much (or anything at all) about the stress in English words yet, but trust me, it’s the key to improving your communication skills, both with speaking to a native English speaker and listening to English.
Also, I’m not just telling you how important word stress is. This guide will take you through the basics of this pronunciation challenge and provide you with eight rules to start doing it right.
Learning word stress is a crucial part of becoming an advanced English learner.
In addition to word stress, it is important to learn the pronunciation of the English dialect you want to speak.
What Is Word Stress?
In English, the individual sounds of a word (i.e. syllables—which we’ll discuss in just a moment) aren’t pronounced with the same weight. One syllable receives more emphasis than the others.
For example, there are three syllables in the word “beautiful” /BEAU-ti-ful/ and the word stress falls on the first one /BEAU/. (Please note that in this guide, I’ll demonstrate the stress in a word by capitalizing all the letters that make up the syllable.)
Now that you have the definition of word stress, let’s dive deeper into syllables to comprehend word stress.
Identifying syllables to understand word stress
A syllable is a unit of pronunciation that has one vowel sound. A word might have one syllable (like “an” or “can”) or more, such as “po-lice” (two syllables), “com-pa-ny” (three syllables), “ne-ce-ssa-ry” (four syllables), etc.
Just for fun, do you know the English word with the most syllables?
The answer is “antidisestablishmentarianism.” (The opposition of the belief that there shouldn’t be an official church in a country.)
The word has 12 syllables!
Remember that syllables aren’t similar to letters. For example, “scratch” has seven letters but one syllable, while “umami” has five letters but three syllables. Whatever the word, pay attention to the vowels because one of them will be where you find the stress of a word.
Features of a stressed syllable
Now you know that you need to emphasize a particular vowel in a specific syllable of a word. However, you might still wonder exactly how to do so. Let’s take a look at a native speaker’s speech pattern.
When a native speaker stresses a syllable in a word, this is what they do:
- Produce a longer vowel
- Raise the pitch of the syllable to a higher level
- Say the syllable louder
- Pronounce it with clarity
- Create a more distinctive facial movement
Don’t forget these five features next time you pronounce a word!
8 Word Stress Rules to Improve Your English Pronunciation
1. Nouns and adjectives with two syllables
The rule: When a noun (a word referring to a person, thing, place or abstract quality) or an adjective (a word that gives information about a noun) has two syllables, the stress is usually on the first syllable.
Examples:
table /TA-ble/
scissors /SCI-ssors/
pretty /PRE-tty/,
clever /CLE-ver/
Exceptions: Unfortunately, there are exceptions to this rule. It could be that a word was borrowed from another language or it could be totally random. You just have to learn these “outsiders” by heart. Here are three words you can start with:
hotel /ho-TEL/
extreme /ex-TREME/
concise /con-CISE/
2. Verbs and prepositions with two syllables
The rule: When a verb (a word referring to an action, event or state of being) or a preposition (a word that comes before a noun, pronoun or the “-ing” form of a verb, and shows its relation to another word or part of the sentence) has two syllables, the stress is usually on the second syllable.
Examples:
present /pre-SENT/
export /ex-PORT/
aside /a-SIDE/
between /be-TWEEN/
3. Words that are both a noun and a verb
The rule: Some words in English can be both a noun and a verb. In those cases, the noun has its word stress on the first syllable, and with the verb, the stress falls on the second syllable.
If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll see that this rule is a derivation from the prior two sections and notice some of the same words. However, this is a separate section since those pairs of words are relatively common in English and they’re likely to cause misunderstanding due to the same spelling.
Examples:
present /PRE-sent/ (a gift) vs. present /pre-SENT/ (give something formally)
export /EX-port/ (the practice or business of selling goods to another country or an article that is exported) vs. export /ex-PORT/ (to sell goods to another country)
suspect /SU-spect/ (someone who the police believe may have committed a crime) vs suspect /su-SPECT/ (to believe that something is true, especially something bad)
There are, however, exceptions to this rule. For example, the word “respect” has a stress on the second syllable both when it’s a verb and a noun.
4. Three syllable words ending in “er” and “ly”
The rule: Words that have three syllables and end in “-er” or “-ly” often have a stress on the first syllable.
Examples:
orderly /OR-der-ly/
quietly /QUI-et-ly/
manager /MA-na-ger/
5. Words ending in “ic,” “sion” and “tion”
The rule: When a word ends in “ic,” “sion” or “tion,” the stress is usually on the second-to-last syllable. You count syllables backwards and put a stress on the second one from the end.
Examples:
creation /cre-A-tion/
commission /com-MI-ssion/
photographic /pho-to-GRA-phic/
6. Words ending in “cy,” “ty,” “phy,” “gy” and “al”
The rule: When a word ends in “cy,” “ty,” “phy,” “gy” and “al,” the stress is often on the third to last syllable. Similarly, you count syllables backwards and put a stress on the third one from the end.
Examples:
democracy /de-MO-cra-cy/
photography /pho-TO-gra-phy/
logical /LO-gi-cal/
commodity /com-MO-di-ty/
psychology /psy-CHO-lo-gy/
7. Compound nouns
The rule: In most compound nouns (a noun made up of two or more existing words), the word stress is on the first noun.
Examples:
football /FOOT-ball/
keyboard /KEY-board/
8. Compound adjectives and verbs
The rule: In most compound adjectives (a single adjective made of more than one word and often linked with a hyphen) and compound verbs (a multi-word verb that functions as a single verb), the stress is on the second word.
Examples:
old-fashioned /old-FA-shioned/
understand /un-der–STAND/
Resources to Perfect Your Word Stress Skills
Here are some resources to learn about this important factor of English pronunciation:
- Forvo — Forvo is definitely one of the more popular audio dictionaries on the market. Translations are provided if you type in a word in English, and a map is shown to give you audio clips of how people say the particular word in varying dialects. For your convenience, we’ve linked the words in the guide to this resource so you’ll be able to hear the pronunciation immediately.
- Merriam-Webster — Merriam-Webster is a well-known dictionary and has high-quality definitions—all available offline. It lets you save favorites, has a word of the day and keeps track of recent searches you did. It’s also available as an app on both iOS and Android devices. Other dictionaries with pronunciation citations you can check out are MacMillan and Cambridge.
- FluentU — FluentU is a language learning website and app that teaches with videos made by, and for, native English speakers. This means you can learn and get used to the sounds of the language in context. Each clip comes with interactive subtitles where you can click on a word to get its definition as well as information on pronunciation. You can also practice writing and speaking vocabulary with personalized quizzes.
- English Club — English Club is a popular site for both English learners and teachers. It provides grammar lessons in small, easy-to-understand parts. There are also fun quizzes and games so you can practice the knowledge you learn. It’s entirely free. You can also find more word stress quizzes and exercises from Word Stress Rules and esl-lounge.
Constant practice will improve your stress pronunciation quickly and effectively! Soon, you can confidently apply what you learned to real conversations and sound like a true native speaker.
Mastering the subject of word stress isn’t easy, as there are many rules and exceptions. While native speakers do it naturally, English learners have to get there through a lot of practice and repetition.
These eight English speaking and word stress rules in this guide might seem a bit overwhelming but they work as references. Next time you hear a word or look something up in a dictionary, come back to these rules.
Make it a habit to be more aware of what you learn and soon you’ll perfect your pronunciation.
Download:
This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you
can take anywhere.
Click here to get a copy. (Download)
A stress in a word is the singling out of a certain syllable in the composition of a word by the power of a voice or by increasing the tone. Let’s figure out how to put stress in a word.
The question of where to place the stress arises when it comes to words consisting of two or more syllables.
To begin with, note that in Russianthere are no uniform rules for setting the stress. Moreover, when we incline or conjugate this or that part of speech, then the stressed syllable can change. For example, orphans are syrates, start-nachal.
Features of the Russian stress
In some languages, the stress isfixed. For example, the Czech language assumes an accent always on the first syllable, Polish — on the penultimate, French — on the last. In Russian, the stress has a free form, that is, every word has its stress. There is no single rule, unfortunately, so you have to memorize the words.
Stress helps to distinguish words. For example, Muka — Muka, Atlas — Atlas. Such words, identical in spelling, but different in sound and meaning, are called homographs.
Also in the Russian language there are words in which you can put stress on any syllable. For example, creator — tvorog. And the one and the other option will be correct.
Dictionaries for stress testing
In order to correctly place the stresses inwords, it is necessary to remember the correct pronunciation of words, and in case of difficulties it is necessary to turn to the orthoepic dictionary. To test the stress, you do not have to go to the library for the dictionary, now you can find a special dictionary on the Internet. For example, the Dictionary of stresses from Yandex. You can also download the dictionary on your computer and have it in electronic form (as an option, you can download the orthoepic dictionary here).
If you do not want to search for a word in the dictionary,then you can use the online service: you enter the desired word in a special window, and the program selects a shock vowel with another color. There are a lot of such electronic dictionaries, for example: Gramota.ru, Pro-udarenie.ru.
Why is it important to emphasize correctly
It is very important in our world to be a literate person. Therefore, it is required to know where it is necessary to put stress in a word, that is, simply remember the pronunciation of frequently used words.
Here is a list of common words, in which mistakes are most often made, with the correct stress:
- catalog;
- догов Ор;
- score;
- shoe;
- quarter;
- jalousie;
- THORES;
- will call;
- beet;
- sorrel;
- more beautiful;
- plum;
- rhubarb;
- it’s OK;
- sears;
- scourge;
- marketing;
- Iconography;
- dispensary;
- the table;
- sleep;
- kilometer;
- the Omen;
- facilities.
Of course, there are a lot of words, so do not be lazy once again to open the dictionary and check the statement of stress.
On the peculiarities of the Russian accent, you can also learn from the article How to put stress.
If you need to emphasize the stress when writing a word in Word, then in the article How to Put an Accent in Word, you will find several ways of putting a sign.
Arrangement of stress in the text in Russian
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Accent in Russian
Mastering phonetics of the Russian language can be a daunting task for foreigners starting out to learn Russian language… As you might be aware, the pronunciation of Russian vowels differs depending on which accent is the given letter or not.
Unlike some other languages, Russian no strict stress setting rules — it can fall on any account syllable in a word (compare with French, where the stress almost always falls on the last syllable). It is almost impossible to predict which syllable the accent falls on in a given word, especially to a foreigner who has just begun to learn Russian.
Online tool on this page automatically places stress in Russian words, and also restores the letter «ё» in the Russian text. This will save you time because you do not have to look in the dictionary for information about the stress in a word.
Some Russian words, which are spelled the same, have different meanings depending on where the stress falls. Compare:
castle castle
big big
Such words are called homographs… The online tool will show you all possible stress positions in similar words. The dictionary contains information on 23 homographs (376 unique spellings of words).
In Russian there is also a group of words that I call «false» homographs. These are words with the letter «e» that become homographs when written with the letter «e». For example, the word «bereg», being written as «shore», can be read both as «bereg» and as «bereg». The online tool shows both possible accents in similar words. Other examples:
wheels wheels
lakes lakes
There is another group of words that can also be written with the letter «e» or «ё». The stress position in such words is the same, but their meanings are different. For example:
all all
sky palate
If you select the display mode for stressed vowels «Paint red», then the letter «ё» in such words will be highlighted in purple: that’s it.
Want to improve this tool? Use error correction mode in the translator of Russian words into transcription!
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Source: https://easypronunciation.com/ru/add-stress-marks-to-russian-text
Apostrophe in English, the rule when
Although the apostrophe plays a special role in English, many use the wrong stress in this word. Very often it is put not on the last syllable, as it should be, but on the second. Apostrophe is the correct pronunciation of this word. The word is of Greek origin, and it means «facing back.» This probably won’t tell you anything, and the best explanation would be that it is a vertical bar or comma superscript.
It’s time to find out when the apostrophe is put in English. This is done in the following cases:
- When reducing auxiliary verbs and the word not when transmitting colloquial speech in writing (He’s (he has) taken a look at the painting. He looked at the painting);
- For nouns in the possessive case in the singular (Tom’s cat. Tom’s cat);
- For plural possessive nouns (children’s tests, children’s tests)
- In some surnames of Irish origin (O’Connor).
The English language, in contrast to the Russian synthetic language (in it a lot depends on the cases and endings), is considered analytical (here “his majesty” context comes to the main roles). The use of an apostrophe requires conjecturing the situation depending on this very context (the place of a word in a sentence or in a text). You will be convinced of this when reading the following information.
Examples of abbreviations
In many cases, an apostrophe in English is put in place of those letters of the word that are missing. Abbreviations are characteristic of fast English colloquial speech, and this important sign comes to the rescue to denote them in writing. Here are examples of full sentences and their abbreviated versions:
Nick did not peel the apple. Nick didn’t peel the apple. Nick didn’t peel the apple.
As you noticed, here two words (did not) merged into one, and instead of «o» there appeared an apostrophe. We will not comment on further changes, you yourself can easily figure them out:
April is doing the flat. April’s doing the flat. April is cleaning the apartment.
April has already done her flat. April’s already done her flat. April has already cleaned the apartment.
These two examples illustrate that abbreviations can be the same, but have different grammatical structures.
Sometimes you can come across the universal abbreviation ain’t, which abbreviates the phrases am not, is not, are not, has not, have not:
I ain’t going to spend too much time here. I’m not going to spend too much time here. I am not going to spend too much time here. I’m not going to spend a lot of time here.
All three of these expressions are translated in the same way, but they are by no means equal. In the first case, this is an outdated colloquial statement, which is practically not included in textbooks. In the second, it is a modern colloquial expression that is never used in official texts, and is rarely used in neutral ones. The third sentence sounds neutral and can be used in any style.
Features of the possessive case
The apostrophe in English is usually used in the possessive case with proper nouns; with possessive pronouns it is not needed. This grammatical construction can be used with animate objects, names of people and in some other cases, for example, with words denoting a time or a period of time. Examples:
I know Mr. Baker’s son. I know Mr. Baker’s son.
Our dog’s eyes are blue. Our dog has blue eyes.
If the noun is in the possessive case in the plural, then the apostrophe is placed at the end of the word:
Source: https://lim-english.com/posts/apostrof-v-angliiskom-yazike/
Features of English stress and intonation. English rhythm
This article will be devoted to phonetics, melody, understanding of speech and intonation pattern, tones and intonation scales in the English language.
— This is a branch of linguistics that studies the structure of the language, as well as the sounds of speech. First of all, we are talking about words and sound combinations, thanks to which we can understand how the language works.
Without phonetics, it is impossible to understand how foreigners speak, because everything is based on oral and written speech, as well as the work of the speech apparatus. By studying the elements of the language system, we can understand how words and sentences are composed, and what sound form they acquire. However, such an explanation of phonetics as a subject of study is incomplete. The main aspects of phonetics are as follows:
- articulatory;
- physical;
- phonological;
- perceptual.
Articulation aspect studies the sounds of speech from the point of view of its creation with the participation of the articulatory apparatus.
Physical aspect pays attention to sound as a vibration of air and notes its frequency, strength, duration.
Phonological aspect aims at the function of sounds in the language.
Perceptual the same aspect considers the perception of sounds by a person.
All about melody and how it affects speech understanding
Melody in English is the change in pitch of different syllables in a sentence. Changing the pitch is necessary in order to understand what types of sentences we are dealing with: interrogative, exclamatory, affirmative.
The melody of each language is built in a certain sequence, so it is a mistake to think that in each language you can adhere to the same scheme. So, the sentence «Hello, how are you?» in English and Russian languages will sound completely different. That is why it is often difficult to understand when a person first goes abroad. However, some similarities can still be found. We will talk about them below.
Tones in English
What are tones in English? Tone — This is a rhythmic-melodic pattern of speech, which periodically changes with the help of the frequency of the sound signal. In order to understand tones and intonation scales, we need to know what a syntagma is. This is a section of a phrase containing special intonation and bar stress.
Pauses between measures are often not provided, and bar stress is not intense. What tones do we have to face in the English language? it Low Fall, High Fall, Low Rise, High Rise, Fall-Rise, Rise Fall and Mid-Level.
What is each tone, in what situations it is necessary to use this or that tone, and how not to get confused in the tone system, we will figure it out below.
Characterization of tones in different types of sentences
It should be noted that stress in English is placed on nouns, semantic verbs, adjectives, adverbs, numerals, interrogative pronouns, demonstrative pronouns that play the role of a subject, as well as possessive pronouns in absolute form. Auxiliary and modal verbs remain without stress, which do not begin a sentence, conjunctions, articles, other pronouns and particles.
What can you say about England?
In this sentence, 3 words remain stressed: what, say, England. All others are unstressed. That is why sometimes it is so difficult for us to understand foreigners: it seems that they are swallowing some words.
However, do not forget about logical stress, which makes the word stand out from the crowd. And this word can be any one you want to emphasize.
In affirmative sentences there is usually a low, descending tone that characterizes the phrase as calm, judicious.
Source: https://donschool86.ru/glagol-i-formy/osobennosti-angliiskogo-udareniya-i-intonacii-angliiskii-ritm.html
Words with incorrect stress: a list of examples in Russian that we pronounce incorrectly and why we miss the stress
20.12.2019
How often do you become interested in someone exactly until the time when the object of your attention deigns to say something? «Sing, light, do not be ashamed! ..» («I apologize», «lodge in place», «these are their problems»), philistine phrases («I ate», «buy sausages», «we will come with a spouse»), or even completely profanity.
The most correct and effective way to correct the interlocutor is not a remark, but the correct, literary or normative, version of the word you have voiced (“No, thanks, I ate, no sausages, sorry, my husband and I were just guests”). This manner of speaking, you see, adorns no worse than diamonds!
Himself a grammar-nazi
To be sure that you are right and bring the light of knowledge and culture to the masses, you will have to start with yourself — to clean up the «flaws» of your own speech. Our editorial staff decided first of all to tackle the stress, and we got a kind of rating of 30 words, with which «shock» difficulties most often arise. Here it is, in alphabetical order and with a hint for correct stress:
- pamper, pamper, pamper
- bartender
- barrel
- water pipeline, gas pipeline, garbage pipeline, oil pipeline, but: electric pipeline
- CONTRACT (AND CONTRACTS)
- jalousie
- enviously
- catalog
- quarter
- more beautiful
- Cooking and cooking (both options are equal)
- marketing
- master classes
- extended
- newborn
- security
- facilitate
- to open
- hinge (loop — appropriate in everyday speech)
- call, call, call
- pullover
- beet
- dancer, dancer
- cottage cheese and cottage cheese (both options are equal)
- tiramisu
- THORDS
- right now
- shoe
- phenomenon
- scoop
Source: https://rgiufa.ru/russkij-yazyk/spisok-slov-s-nepravilnym-udareniem.html
Tones and intonation scales in English
Download this online tutorial in PDF
This article will be devoted to phonetics, melody, understanding of speech and intonation pattern, tones and intonation scales in the English language.
What is phonetics and why is it needed
Phonetics — This is a branch of linguistics that studies the structure of the language, as well as the sounds of speech. First of all, we are talking about words and sound combinations, thanks to which we can understand how the language works.
Without phonetics, it is impossible to understand how foreigners speak, because everything is based on oral and written speech, as well as the work of the speech apparatus. By studying the elements of the language system, we can understand how words and sentences are composed, and what sound form they acquire. However, such an explanation of phonetics as a subject of study is incomplete. The main aspects of phonetics are as follows:
- articulatory;
- physical;
- phonological;
- perceptual.
Articulation aspect studies the sounds of speech from the point of view of its creation with the participation of the articulatory apparatus.
Physical aspect pays attention to sound as a vibration of air and notes its frequency, strength, duration.
Phonological aspect aims at the function of sounds in the language.
Perceptual the same aspect considers the perception of sounds by a person.
Popular mistakes in English among IT professionals
Based on my many years of experience in teaching English to IT specialists (programmers, business analysts, testers, marketing specialists), I have compiled a list of the most common mistakes in English among IT specialists.
1) Emphasis
content — content. Since in Russian in the word content the stress falls on the second syllable, there is a temptation to pronounce the English word as well. Be careful, you should say cOntent, where the first syllable is stressed.
repOrt… The second syllable is stressed, not the first!
suppOrt pronounced like saport.
a cOmment, to cOmment — in both the noun and the verb, the stress falls on the first syllable.
2) Pronunciation
company pronounced kampani, not kampani.
e-commerce, eco-friendly, ebay and all words with such a beginning are pronounced with the sound AND, not E (иcomers, иkofrendly, иbay).
3) Monotonous speech
If you listen to the same text read from one side carrier language, on the other hand — not a carrier language (without an accent), you can immediately understand which of them is who, even without seeing the appearance of the speakers. «Like this?» you ask.
It’s very simple: native speakers use a lot of different intonations, pauses, logical accents, from which their speech becomes lively, energetic and literally attracts attention; while non-native speakers (especially Russian speakers) are very restrained in their feelings during a conversation. A more expressive language with a wider range of emotions is especially useful during meetings, presentations, and demos.
Based on this, an urgent recommendation to dilute your speech with the help of everyone fall rise tone (descending-ascending tone) when the tone of the voice falls and then rises.
4) False friends of the translator (false friends) — words that sound the same in 2 different languages, but mean completely different concepts
accurate does not mean accurate, accurate = accurate (eg an accurate report, an accurate estimation).
to list it is not a list, a list = a list (eg a list of features).
a magazine means a magazine, not a store.
present = actual, valid, genuine (the actual name / address).
Actual problem = a relevant problem (not an actual problem).
To the question «How are you?» incorrectly answer “I’m normal”, you need to answer “I’m Ok / Nothing special”. Normal = normal, not normal (eg Normally, my working day consists of 8 hours).
a notebook = a notebook, not a laptop at all (laptop = a laptop).
5) Literal translation from Russian
Attention: below are INCORRECT examples!
I’m agree = I agree (should be I agree).
to feel yourself good = to feel good feel good).
to behave yourself well = to behave well (instead of this, one should say to behave well).
It’s warmly = warm (you need It’s warm). After It is, you need to put an adjective, not an adverb (Eg It is correct, It is necessary, It is bad).
I knew that = I knew that (right I’ve learned that
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/496620/
Syllables in English: Briefly about the Important
It is often difficult for foreigners to understand how a particular English word is read. Therefore, everyone who learns this language needs to know how the division into syllables occurs in English. This will help not only to correctly hyphenate words, but also to better understand the linguistic structure.
What are syllables in English
The syllable is a phonetic element of the language. We can talk about the importance of syllables for oral speech, while they do not participate in semantic word formation. Therefore, the syllable is also called a pronunciation unit.
Russian-speaking people can learn English syllabus by analogy with their native language. Surprisingly, in such different languages, the division into syllables is almost the same. The main rule is the dominant position of the vowels, which are syllabic sounds.
The role of syllable division in language:
-
Formation of transfer norms. In order to correctly transfer a word from one line to another, you need to be able to divide it into parts according to the rules of syllable division.
-
Criteria by which tokens can be divided. Syllables in English can be distinguished based on morphology, phonetics, or spelling. There is no single standard in this regard.
-
Evolution of language. Language is a living system that is constantly changing, and changes can lead to the emergence of new rules for division into syllables.
Read the material on the topic: English Phonetics for Beginners: Learn to Speak Like a Native Speaker
The rules for dividing into syllables in English
It is not enough to know the rules of syllables in English: you also need to know which of them should be addressed in a given situation. To read an English word correctly, you must:
-
It is correct to put stress in the word. This is important because the pronunciation of a sound depends on whether it is struck or unstressed.
-
Determine what type of syllable you are dealing with. There are four types of syllables in English — two basic and two conventional. The same letter in closed and open syllables will be read differently.
Here the main provisions that will help to correctly divide the English word into syllables:
- There is a rule that makes it easy to understand how many syllables are in a given word. There will be as many syllables in any English word as there are vowels. For example, we will divide the word music into syllables like this: mu-sic. In this case, each syllable will have one vowel sound. It is possible to make a mistake, paying attention not to sounds, but to letters. Look at the word take: it has two vowels, but only one sound, so this word will be monosyllabic.
- It is important to understand that there may be no vowels in the English syllable at all. A sonorant consonant can also become a syllabary sound. These sounds that are pronounced “nose-down” are [m], [n], [l], [w], [r], and [j]. For example, the word mild consists of two syllables, although it has only one vowel.
- Note also that the consonant at the junction of the syllables refers to the second syllable. See how the division into syllables occurs in this word: pu-pil.
- One of the features of syllabic definition concerns the consonant l. We are talking about words in which there are several co-ordinates next to them, one of which is l. In this case, l will go to the second syllable, moreover, together with the letter that stands next to it. For example: ta-ble.
- In a special way, English lexemes are divided into syllables, in which three or more consonants stand one after another. In this case, one of them will go to the first syllable, which will become closed: lit-tle, cen-tre.
- Combinations of letters such as ld and nd in English form a separate syllable. Accordingly, the splitting is done like this: mi-ld, fi-nd.
- Remember: you need to start dividing a word into syllables from the end. Usually the border between syllables is between the vowel and the consonant, from which the new syllable begins.
- Pay special attention to words with zero sounds. If the letter is not pronounced, accordingly, it will not be displayed in the transcription and will not affect the syllabus in any way.
- If a word contains a doubled consonant or a combination of consonants that are not pronounced as one sound, they can go to different syllables.
- Syllables in English can be identical to prefixes and suffixes.
- Words with the ending -ed can be divided into syllables in different ways. It can act as a syllable if the vowel «e» is pronounced. If it gives a zero sound, the ending cannot be distinguished as a syllable.
- In this case, the ending -ing is always a separate syllable.
- And the last rule: if a word consists of two parts, between which there is a hyphen, each of these parts should be divided into syllables independently of the other.
Read the material on the topic: Articles in English with examples and rules
Closed syllable in English
How to understand that a syllable is closed?
The main sign of a closed syllable is a consonant letter, which stands at the end and “covers” a vowel: bag, fun, plan. It can be any consonant other than «r».
- When after a vowel under stress there are one or two more consonants at the end of a word: man — [æ], egg — [e].
- When a vowel is closed by two or more consonants in the middle (even if there is a dumb «e» at the end): syntax — [i], butter — [ʌ]. Please note that the letter «x» corresponds to two sounds — and therefore two consonants: boxer — [o].
Here are some examples of words that have one closed syllable: stand — [æ], tent — [e], wish — [i], fun — [ʌ], clock — [ɔ]. Read them, trying to pronounce the stressed vowel abruptly, concisely.
Reading vowels in a closed syllable in English follows the following rules:
- Aa — [æ] — close to Russian «e and a»: map.
- Ee — [e] — «e»: fell.
- Yy — [i] — «and»: system.
- Ii — [i] — «and»: ill.
- Uu — [ʌ] — «a»: uncle.
- Oo — [ɔ] — «o»: shop.
There are a few exceptions:
Source: https://www.englishpatient.org/articles/slogi-v-anglijskom-yazyke
Such a phonetic device as stress in English deserves a detailed consideration, since, as you know, the intonation of a single syllable, word or phrase can radically affect the change in the meaning of what is said. Correctly placed stress is a guarantee that the interlocutor will understand the speaker.
Features of English stress distinguish it from Russian, since not only individual vowel syllables, but also parts of sentences are subject to stress. And the atypical intonational originality of English phrases, as you know, very often affects the meaning.
Therefore, it is necessary to give a more detailed explanation of what stress is in words and how it happens.
Characteristics of English stress
The rules of stress in English have some common features with the Russian language, however, there are perhaps even more peculiarities and differences. For example, in Russian, there are usually no situations when one word may contain not one, but two stresses. However, in English, this phenomenon is quite popular and is found in those words that consist of two separate stems:
snowball — snowball,
four-wheeled — four-wheeled, etc.
In addition, it is not always possible to easily determine where the stress falls in a word, unless the speech, of course, concerns words with one syllable. Of course, it is not necessary to convey intonational stress in the letter.
An exception is transcription, where the stress mark is always placed, representing the symbol `, reminiscent of an apostrophe and placed in front of the stressed syllable. But in any case, you will have to verbally reflect stress.
It is important to consider the rules for placing stress from the point of view of the three main types of this intonation phenomenon and determine the difference between these options.
Types of intonational stresses
In order to be able to put the correct stress in words, you need to remember that this phenomenon is characterized by a certain classification, and with each variety, certain features are used that must be taken into account. So, it is customary to highlight verbal, phrasal and logical stress.
Features of word stress
Word stress in English is most similar to Russian, as this type involves the supply of stress to emphasize one or more syllables within a word. The functions of verbal stress often imply its use to distinguish one part of speech from another:
`increase -» increase «,
in`crease — «increase», etc.
This type of intonational stress does not have a definite place of setting, and such stress can fall on the first, and on the second, and on the last syllables.
There are a number of rules to help you understand how to properly stress English words. These are detailed in the following video:
When there are two intonation highlights in a word, one of them is considered to be the main one, and the second is secondary. In this case, the main is displayed with a symbol at the top, and the secondary — at the bottom:
, improvi`sation — «improvisation»
A similar stress in English words is possible in ordinary constructions, while in Russian such a situation is permissible only when the word consists of two stems.
Basic principles of phrasal stress
The features that phrasal stress has in English can be understood from the very name of this type of intonational stress. The fact is that it is not a syllable that stands out intonationally, but a separate word in a phrase in order to focus the interlocutor’s attention on a specific unit of the sentence and purposefully highlight it. The parts of speech that are usually highlighted can be very different: nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc.
In order to understand how to correctly put this type of stress, it is enough to concentrate on a specific meaning. Then this task will surely not cause problems.
Features of logical stress
Logical stress is very similar to phrasal stress, which is used to emphasize a certain word to convey the speaker’s idea to the listener. For example: «He is responsible for this task but not me — He is responsible for this task, not me.» The intonational emphasis of pronouns in this sentence allows you to convey to the listener the fact that it is he, and not I, who is responsible for a specific task; the emphasis is on the performer.
It is not difficult to figure out how to put stress correctly, you just need to understand what kind of meaning you need to convey to the interlocutor, and then you will want to select a certain word automatically. This rule of setting intonational stress is very often used in colloquial speech, when the speaker expressively expresses his feelings.
Thus, the intonational features of the pronunciation of words and phrases in English imply stresses of several types. Taking into account the peculiarities of each of them will allow you to express this or that thought as accurately and expressively as possible, and the interlocutor will have a complete picture of what the speaker wants to say.
Underverbal percussion, following T.I. Shevchenko, in this manual is understood as «the selection, or properties of selection, syllables against the background of other syllables in the word.» For example, in the word [ˈɪnstɪŋkt], the first sound [ɪ] acquires a special emphasis in comparison with [ɪ] in the second syllable, so the first syllable of the word is stressed.
Languages differ from each other by means of achieving the emphasis of a syllable in a word. The emphasis of a syllable in a word can be a)dynamic, i.e. achieved by forceful selection (the syllable is pronounced louder than other syllables in the word), 6)musical or tonal, i.e.
is achieved by pronouncing the stressed syllable at a different tonal level compared to other syllables in the word or by changing the direction of the tone of the stressed syllable, at)quantitative, i.e. achieved by lengthening the stressed vowel, d)qualitative (distinguished by some linguists, in particular, G.P. Torsuev).
Emphasis is achieved by maintaining the quality of the vowels in the stressed position. In the unstressed position, the vowel is reduced.
V.A. Vasiliev believes that it is unfair to separate the quantitative and qualitative type of stress from dynamic stress, since the vowel of a dynamically highlighted syllable is at the same time longer than a vowel in an unstressed position.
Recent instrumental studies of the acoustical nature of verbal stress in English have shown that the effect of accent emphasis on a syllable is achieved not only by pronouncing it with greater force or intensity at the acoustic level or greater loudness at the perceptual level, but also by longitude. Word stress is a specific pattern of relationships among all syllables of a word, regulated by pitch strength, quality, and quantity.
2. Degree and position of stress in a word
The functional approach to stress allows you to analyze a word from the point of view of an accent, a phonological unit of the prosodic level, which is a collection of stresses of different strengths. For example, the accent of the word combination [ˌkɒmbɪˈneɪʃn] is represented by 3 syllables with different degrees of stress: kɒm– weakly stressed, bɪn– unstressed, neɪʃn– unstressed, neɪʃ.
British phoneticists distinguish three degrees of verbal stress: a) the main stress falls on the main stressed syllable, b) the secondary stress falls on a semi-stressed syllable, c) weak stress falls on unstressed syllables.
The main stress is indicated by a vertical bar on top in front of the beginning of a syllable, auto-degree — by a bar below. Light impacts are not marked with special icons.
For example, the word infinitive [ɪn-ˈfɪ-nɪ-tɪv] consists of four syllables, the third end of the syllable is stressed, the rest of the three syllables are unstressed.
The word indivisibility [ˈɪn-dɪ-ˌvɪ-zɪ-ˈbɪ-lɪ-tɪ] consists of seven syllables, of which the third and seventh syllables from the end of the word have the main stress, the fifth from the end of the word has a secondary stress, the remaining four are unstressed.
It should be remembered that in every five-six-compound word with the main stress on the third syllable from the end, there must also be a secondary stress on the first or second syllable from the beginning of the word.
Some words consisting of two morphemes have two main accents: re-write [ˈrɪ-ˈraɪt], fourteen [ˈfɔ: -ˈti: n], which indicates the semantic significance of these morphemes.
The position of word stress in English is a product of historical development, conditioned by the influence of two trends: recessive and rhythmic.
The recessive tendency (the most ancient) is the emphasis of the root syllable. Most words of Germanic origin have an emphasis on the first syllable: ˈclever, ˈbody, ˈwater, ˈsinging. If a word includes a prefix with a preferential meaning, the stress is shifted to the first root syllable: beˈgin, misˈtake.
The recessive trend is the result of the influence of the Germanic and French accent patterns. The agreed tendency is stressed in the third syllable from the end of the word: arˈticulate. Rhythmic stress is characteristic of words with the suffixes -ate, -fy, -ize: ˈsituate, ˈqualify, ˈcentralize.
Most syllable words have a recessive stress on the root syllable: ˈfinish, ˈanswer.
Some French borrowings retained the stress on the last syllable: poˈlice, maˈchine.
In three-syllable words, the stressed is the third syllable from the end: ˈcinema, ˈenemy. Four-syllable words can have both recessive and rhythmic stress: ˈarchitect, reˈmarkable, ˈcriticism.
Representatives of the American Phonological School B. Blok, J. Traiger, G.A. Gleason, in addition to the three indicated degrees of stress, distinguish the fourth stress degree — tertiary stress (tertiary stress).
The tertiary stress is placed behind the main stress, while the secondary stress precedes the main stress.
Tertiary stress is usually associated with American English, where in words with the suffixes -ary, -ory, -ony, the penultimate syllable receives this type of emphasis: dictionary [ˈdɪkʃəˌnerɪ], territory [ˈterɪˌtɔ: rɪ], ceremony [ˈserɪˌməʊnɪ].
Date _______________________
Topic: «Word stress»
Goal and tasks
- To systematize and clarify the knowledge of students about stress Form an idea of the meaningful role of stress in words; Expand vocabulary, develop children’s speech; Develop thinking, creativity, interest in learning the Russian language.
Form of carrying out:practical work
Equipment: cards for completing tasks
Course of the lesson
1. Org. Moment
2 The main part.
Everyone knows what stress is, even if they cannot clearly formulate the definition of this word. How important is it to stress correctly in English? Can incorrect stress change the meaning of a word? Should all words in a sentence be stressed? Let’s look at it in order.
Percussion Syllables
The correct formulation of stress in English is important primarily because numerous reading rules depend on the stress and unstressed syllable. For example, if an open syllable is under stress, then the vowel in it is read as it is called in the alphabet: cucumber [«kju: kʌmbə] — the stress falls on the first syllable.
If we assume that this word should have an accent on the second syllable, then it would read like, and if on the third, then. In other words, an incorrectly placed stress changes the sound of the word, which means it makes it difficult to understand. By the way, you need to remember that in English the stress mark is placed in front of the stressed syllable, and not above it, as in Russian. Another important point: in fluent speech, sometimes stress helps to distinguish similar words. For example:
- PHOtograph, phoTOgrapher, photoGRAPHic.
These three words have different stressed syllables to avoid confusion when speaking at a fast pace.
Top 5 simplest rules
1. If there are 2 syllables in a noun or adjective, then the stress usually falls on the first syllable: “HAPpy”, “SOfa”, “SISter”, “PAper”, “SILly”, “CLEver”.
If the verb has 2 syllables, then the stress often falls on the second syllable: «beGIN», «atTEND», «exPLAIN», «supPORT». For some words, stress is the only way to distinguish between a noun and a verb:
- a PREsent — to preSENT; an INcrease — to inCREASE; an OBject — to obJECT.
3. In words with different «smart» suffixes, the stress is placed immediately before the suffix:
- Able: enJOYable, dePendable; Ary: LIBRary, DIary; Graphy: geOgraphy, calLIgraphy;
Source: https://ronozhi.ru/pravilnoe-udarenie-v-angliiskom-yazyke-udarenie-pravila.html
Pronunciation rules for English numbers and numbers
A lot of English students are often confused about the pronunciation of numbers and numbers in English.
In this lesson, we will cover three important aspects of number pronunciation in English.
1. Stress when pronouncing numbers
When pronouncing numbers ending in a syllable «Teen», the stress falls on the second syllable. For example: fifteen, seventeen.
When pronouncing numbers — tens, such as 50, 90, etc. the stress falls on the first syllable. For example: fifty, estateety.
2. Sound pronunciation «T» in numbers in American English
Listen carefully to the video for an example of the pronunciation of words: nineteen и ninety, pay attention to the pronunciation of the sound / t /.
As you probably noticed, in the second case, when pronouncing the word ninety, the sound / t / is pronounced as / d /.
Americans came up with this rule of pronunciation of numbers on purpose so as not to confuse numbers from 13 to 20 with numbers ending in 0, such as 30 — 90.
Thus, the second rule sounds like this: In numbers ending in a syllable / ty / in most cases, the sound / t / is pronounced as / d /.
There are two exceptions to this rule, these are the numbers «fifty» and «sixty«
3. Stress in numbers consisting of several words
When pronouncing a number consisting of several words, the stress falls on the last word.
For example (words in bold are stressed):
817 — eight one SEVEN
1989 — nineteen eighty NINE
Training Exercises — Repeat after teacher:
How much does it cost? — It’s $ 17.99
What time is it? — It’s five fifteen.
How old are they? — He’s forty FIVE, and his wife is thirty NINE.
Consider another case where students make mistakes very often:
Pronunciation of ordinal numbers:
Ordinal numbers in English are generally formed by adding the / th / ending. We will now talk about the pronunciation of this ending.
With numbers ending in a digit from 1 to 9, everything is simple: fifth, sixth, seventh
19 th — nineteenth
But numbers that end in zero (zero) are pronounced a little differently — an auxiliary sound is added between the number and the added suffix / th /. Listen to examples in the video.
20th twentieth
30th third
Pronunciation of numbers from 1 to 12 in English
Pronunciation of numbers from 13 to 20 in English
English Joke
A man had been drinking at the bar for hours when he mentioned something about his girlfriend being out in the car. The bartender, concerned because it was so cold, went to check on her. When he looked inside the car, he saw the man’s friend, Dave, and his girlfriend kissing one another.
The bartender shook his head and walked back inside. He told the drunk that he thought it might be a good idea to check on his girlfriend. The fellow staggered outside to the car, saw his buddy and his girlfriend kissing, then walked back into the bar laughing.
«What’s so funny?» the bartender asked.
«That stupid Dave!» the fellow chortled, «He’s so drunk, he thinks he’s me!»
Source: https://www.lovelylanguage.ru/pronunciation/video-lesson/281-pronunciation-of-numbers
How to put stress in words in which everyone makes mistakes. Instructions
Recently, the publishing house «Bombora» published a book by a former Russian language teacher who became a blogger, Tatiana Gartman, «Speech is like a sword.» In her channel «Uchilka vs TV» Tatiana analyzes the mistakes of presenters, journalists, actors and politicians, and in the book she has collected the most popular of them. Sobaka.ru publishes an excerpt from it — about the stress in the most difficult words, how they were formed and how to remember them once and for all.
Oral speech is in no way simpler than written. Often I hear, for example, how people characterize their speech in this way: «I speak well, but I write with mistakes.» Of course, I am not Stanislavsky, but I don’t believe it. If a person speaks well, without mistakes, then he will write correctly.
According to my observations, this is mainly the position of people who do not notice their own mistakes, or, more simply, do not know how to pronounce some words correctly. In this tutorial, we will focus on the most difficult nouns, in which many are mistaken.
And, by the way, it is precisely by the ability to correctly place the stress in such words that one can judge the general literacy of a person.
A mixture of French with Nizhny Novgorod
A huge layer of the vocabulary of the Russian language is made up of borrowed words. Most often, the stresses in them are preserved, that is, they are placed in the same way as in the source language. It is well known about the French language that the stress in it is fixed and always falls on the last syllable. By the way, words with an emphasis on the last syllable are called oxytones. There are also many oxytons in Russian, and some of them came to us from French — either directly or in transit from other languages.
One of the most obvious French words is blinds. It even sounds in Russian with a corresponding accent. Interestingly, the word «blinds» literally means «envy, jealousy», and it seems to contain a hint that such curtains allow you to spy on someone. And here are rhymes that will help you remember that the stress in this word is on the last syllable.
Very hot! Bring
We have blinds for windows!
Another Russified Frenchman is fetish, and in this word they often try to emphasize the first syllable. This is not true, here the emphasis falls on I.
And where are you in such a hurry?
After all, work is not a fetish.
The word apostrophe means a superscript comma. In Russian, this sign is used mainly for writing foreign surnames, primarily French and English: d’Artagnan, O’Hara, Jeanne d’Arc, as well as in the names of various places from the state of Côte d’Ivoire to the Ca’d palace ‘Oro in Venice, in the name of which there are already two apostrophes.
Have written many stanzas
Do not forget the apostrophe.
The French language gave us many more oxytones, including whooping cough disease or, for example, the Chasse transport platform. And the expert got into Russian from Latin, but not directly, but also through French. In about the same way I came to our language and the dispensary, only from English. Therefore, apparently, there is a desire to call him a dispensary, as in English, but the French version of dispensary is still recognized as the literary norm.
Anyone with measles, for example
Sent immediately to the dispensary.
It is not known for certain about the word «basilik», from which language it came to Russian. There are two assumptions — from Latin or from French. That is why the stress in this word fluctuated between the second and third syllables for a long time, but in the end French won. And by the way, basilic is one of the favorite herbs of Vegans.
The word vegan itself appeared in Russian as a borrowing from English and retains the stress of the source language on the first syllable. Therefore, it is correct to say — Vegan, Vegan. And vegans are happy to include other herbs in their diet — cilantro (not cilantro) and sorrel (not sorrel).
A furry bumblebee has arrived
And he sat down on the sorrel.
From other languages
The word «Abris» is of German origin, and its exact translation is «drawing, plan». As in German, the stress in this word falls on the first syllable. But its most accurate meaning is determined by the synonym «contour», in which the stress is also placed on the first syllable — and this is a good clue to memorize.
No one sailed to forgotten shores
Only the outline of the island sometimes flashed to me there,
Where the dawn is clear, when it shines without the sun,
He marks the boundary of his horizons.
(V. Bryusov, «Closed»)
From German, the word «katarsis» came to our language with the preservation of the stress on the first syllable, and libido and medikament — from Latin, and in these words the stress is the same as in the source language. The stress on O — in the word «dogma», the same stress on O — in the word «dogma». Both words — dogma and dogma — are borrowed from Greek, where the stress also falls on the first syllable.
Apostle Peter, take your keys
Worthy of paradise knocks on his door.
Colloquium with the church fathers there
Will show that I was straight in the dogma.
(N. Gumilev, «Paradise»)
From the same Greek the word “phenOmen” came into the Russian language. But before that, it was also borrowed by the French, and therefore, perhaps, sometimes I just want to say «phenomEn». And this, by the way, is not always wrong. The fact is that the word «phenomenon» has two meanings: a phenomenon in science and something rare, unique, most often this is what they say about a person.
The explosion is guilty, and therefore we are guilty —
Excuse the cost of our fights.
But the phenomenon entered the breakthroughs of the boom —
Millions Tsvetaeva and Pasternak.
(A. Voznesensky, «Instruction»)
So, in this word, in the first meaning, the stress should be on O, and in the second meaning, both options are allowed: the phenomenon and the phenomenon. And in order not to be mistaken, you need to remember the stress on O, it will always be correct.
The word «graffiti» is borrowed from the Italian language along with the stress on the second syllable. This happened recently, although scientists believe that the earliest graffiti appeared in the twentieth century BC.
No, just look!
There is graffiti on the wall again.
And the word «transfer» did not retain the stress of the source language (English). But it can be considered an international term, and this explains the French version of the stress, which has settled in the Russian language.
Capricious norm
Language is a living organism, and changes are constantly taking place in it. The rules regarding stress are also changing. Earlier in the word «illness» the stress on the first syllable was considered normative, but now it is a mistake, and it is correct to say «ill».
In the languor of passionate illness,
In the fields of fierce battles
In the quiet of an unmown meadow
Don’t forget your prayers.
(A. Blok, «Look for a clue to expectations»)
The changes also affected the word «squint». The old norm «prIshchur» has become a thing of the past, and the language has an emphasis on the second syllable — prIshUr, by analogy with the verb «squint».
But again, behind empty distances,
Red, as if after a storm,
The sun rose with the thought of the desert
In a red-hot dream
(N. Matveeva, «Hoarfrost»)
Explains the head of the «School of literacy of the Romanovs» Natalia Romanova
Source: http://m.sobaka.ru/city/science/97181
Simple rules for stress in English
By Alina Skorokhodova Mar 10, 2020
Stress in the phonetics of English is considered in detail because of the ability to highlight intonationally not only words, but also phrases, as well as to change the meaning of what is said. Correctly placed stress is responsible for understanding the interlocutor and the course of the conversation.
Distinctive features of English stress are both in the isolation of the vowel sound in the syllable, and in the selection of a part of the sentence during pronunciation. Atypical intonation of English phrases often transforms meaning. Therefore, it is important for students to understand in detail the features of stress.
Types of stress in English
There are 3 types of donation in English:
- verbal, which is indicated by a special symbol [‘] in the transcription of English;
- phrasal;
- logical.
Stress functions
In English, a competent stress setting determines the reading rules, which are influenced by the unstressed or stressed syllable. Stress is a means that serves for the phonetic organization of a lexeme, creates the unity of the verbal shell of sounds. It divides words in a speech stream.
Stress will help out when distinguishing similar lexical units:
- monograph [ˈmɒnəɡrɑːf] -monograph;
- monographer [mɒˈnɒɡrəfə] — the author of the monograph;
- monographic [mɒnə (ʊ) ˈɡrafɪk] — monographic.
Different stressed syllables help to avoid confusion in the perception of fluent English.
The rhythm of the melody of phrases is determined by different types of stress, which enhance the sound of certain components in speech and emphasize the content.
Word stress in English
If one or several syllables are distinguished in a lexical unit, we are talking about verbal stress. In addition, the syllable under stress is pronounced more energetically.
The importance of word stress for a word lies in the difference in grammatical forms — parts of speech:
- import [ˈɪmpɔːt] — import, meaning / noun — import [ɪmˈpɔːt] — import, imply / verb;
- abstract [ˈæbstrækt] — synopsis, summary (noun) — absract [æbˈstrækt]— to abstract, extract (verb).
The peculiarity of English is the setting of stress in front of the stressed syllable in the word, in contrast to Russian, where the vowel sound is highlighted. Compound words that include more than four syllables have two accents.
The main stress is indicated by the symbol above, the secondary stress is indicated below:
shopkeeper [ˈʃɒp͵kiːpə] — the owner of a (small) store;
get-together [ˈɡettə͵ɡeðə] — meeting, gathering;
semi-automatic — [ˌsemiˌɒtəˈmætɪk] — semi-automatic.
While it is common practice to place an accent in this way in English, it is rare in Russian.
If there are 2 syllables in a noun or adjective
In the presence of two syllables in an adjective or noun, the emphasis, as a rule, falls on the first:
Part of speech | Word | Transcription | Transfer |
Noun | critic | [ˈKrɪtɪk] | critic |
Noun | dreamer | [ˈDriːmə] | dreamer |
Noun | lorry | [ˈLɒrɪ] | truck |
Noun | monkey | [ˈMʌŋkɪ] | a monkey |
Noun | scissors | [ˈSɪzəz] | scissors |
Adjective | Alpine | [ˈÆlpaɪn] | Alpine |
Adjective | fits | [ˈPɜːfɪkt] | a great |
Adjective | merry | [ˈMeri] | cheerful |
Adjective | golden | [ˈꞬəʊld (ə) n] | gold |
Adjective | vapid | [ˈVæpɪd] | insipid, tasteless |
If the verb has 2 syllables
When a verb consists of 2 syllables, the second syllable is usually stressed:
Word | Transcription | Transfer |
Believe | [bɪˈliːv] | believe |
connect | [kəˈnekt] | tie, connect |
desire | [dɪˈzaɪə] | want |
expect | [ɪkˈspekt] | expect |
forget | [fəˈɡet] | forget |
inform | [ɪnˈfɔːrm] | inform |
omit | [əˈmɪt] | do not include, skip |
Source: https://eng911.ru/rules/udarenie.html
Word stress in English: basic rules
Emphasizing one or more syllables in a word is called word stress. The syllable on which the emphasis falls is pronounced more energetically and during pronunciation the organs of speech are tense. Word stress in English is very consonant with Russian stress, so it will be quite easy to deal with this topic.
When pronouncing a word, stress is of great importance, as it helps to distinguish one grammatical form from another. For example:
- ‘hands (nominative plural)
- ruk’i (genitive singular)
Fundamental rules
In English, word stress allows you to distinguish one part of speech from another:
- ex’port (verb «export»)
- ‘export (noun «export»)
as well as a compound word from a free combination of words:
- » blackboard
- ‘black’ board
In English, the stress mark is placed in front of the stressed syllable, and not on the vowel of the stressed syllable, as in Russian.
Both in Russian and in English, word stress is free and can fall on different syllables of words.
- In English: ‘animal, be’fore, repre’sent
- In Russian: ‘year, year’a, year’oy.
Polysyllabic words, where there are more than four syllables, can have two or even three stresses, one of which is the main one and is indicated by an icon at the top of the stressed syllable, the other is secondary, which is placed at the bottom of the stressed syllable:
- ‚Demon’stration (demo)
- ‚Indi, visi’bility (indivisibility)
In Russian, two stresses can be found only in compound words: ‚Dark green.
Compare:
The stress falls on the first syllable:
- ‘tennis’ tennis — tennis
- ‘mom’ public — public
- ‘centner’ center — center
- ‘soon’ different — different
- ‘climate’ climate — climate
The stress falls on the second syllable:
- ru’chey en’tire — whole, whole
- mu’ka oc’casion — case
- mo’roz ap’prove — approve
- step’noy ex’pense — consumption
- love de’part — to leave
Words with major and minor stress:
- ‘light’ gray, ad, mini’stration — administration
- ‚Shipbuilding, popu’lation — population
- ‚Crustacean, conti’nental — continental
- biblio, teko’vedenie, acci’dental — random
- ‚God’s word, contra’dictory — contradictory
Changing the place of word stress
The forms of a large number of nouns coincide with the forms of verbs, but differ from them in stress — nouns are stressed on the first syllable, and the corresponding verbs on the second.
The same phenomenon can be seen in the Russian language. It refers to the form of the same word.
- arrеzat — bleedаthe
- реki — riversи
- руki — handsи
Stress in compound words
If a word has two different roots, then it is called compound. In this case, words can be written together, separately or through a dash, while their meaning is a single whole.
In Russian, compound words include words such as: airplane, steamer, pale pink, explosive etc.
Most English compound nouns stress the first component of a compound word.
For example:
- ‘reading-lamp — table lamp
- ‘sitting-room — living room
- ‘writing-desk — desk
Two equal stresses on both elements have words such as:
- ‘arm’chair — armchair
- ‘ice-‘cream — ice cream
Source: https://englandlearn.com/abc/slovesnoe-udarenie
Accent in English
Basically, the most commonly used nouns, adjectives, and adverbs of the English language tend to be stressed on the first syllable. In verbs with prefixes, as a rule, the stress is placed on the second syllable, that is, on the first syllable of the root after the prefix.
Words in English cannot have 2 unstressed syllables at the beginning of a word; one of these syllables will be stressed. If a word has 4 or more syllables, it usually has 2 stresses: main (strong) and secondary (weak) stress.
In addition, the secondary stress can be present together with the main stress in short words in the syllable in which the vowel continues to be long and strong.
Prefixes can often be stressed in nouns and much less often in verbs.
Suffixes at the end of a word are rarely stressed, with the exception of some suffixes of nouns, verbs and adjectives, which are usually stressed: `ciga`RETTE, Chi`NESE,` ORga`nize, `SIGni`fy,` DECo`rate …
Longer derivative words have a prefix stress or suffix according to the typical stress patterns that are given below. The endings are not stressed. Next, we will consider when and how stress is placed in English.
Stress rules in English derivative words
In derived words, the stress can remain the same as in the original word from which it is formed, or it can be changed in some way. For example, in the case of nouns and verbs formed from each other, such types of patterns are often observed:
Same stress:
deNIal (noun), deNY (verb)
deFENCE (noun), deFEND (verb)
reVIEW (noun), reVIEW (verb)
Stress Offset:
reFER (verb), reFerence (noun)
OBject (noun), obJECT (verb)
INcrease (noun), inCREASE (verb)
When any part of speech is formed from a noun and a verb, then there are a number of typical stress patterns:
Adjectives are usually stressed on the first syllable or have the same stress as the noun from which it was formed, for example, fate (noun) — FATal (adjective), COLor (noun) — COLorful (adjective). However, stress can change in longer derivative adjectives such as METal (noun) — meTALlic (adjective), geOLogy (noun) — `geo`LOGical (adjective).
In adverbs, as a rule, the stress is on the first syllable, or they have the same stress as in the adjectives from which they were formed, for example: ANgry — ANgrily, athLETic — athLETically.
The gerund and participle have the same stress as the verbs from which they are derived, for example: CANcel (cancel) — CANceling — CANceled.
Acceleration of derivative words
In derived words, the stress can remain the same as in the original word from which it is formed, or it can be changed in some way. For example, in the case of nouns and verbs formed from each other, such types of patterns are often observed:
Same stress:
deNIal (noun), deNY (verb)
deFENCE (noun), deFEND (verb)
reVIEW (noun), reVIEW (verb)
Stress Offset:
reFER (verb), reFerence (noun)
OBject (noun), obJECT (verb)
INcrease (noun), inCREASE (verb)
When any part of speech is formed from a noun and a verb, then there are a number of typical stress patterns:
Adjectives are usually stressed on the first syllable or have the same stress as the noun from which it was formed, for example, fate (noun) — FATal (adjective), COLor (noun) — COLorful (adjective). However, stress can change in longer derivative adjectives such as METal (noun) — meTALlic (adjective), geOLogy (noun) — `geo`LOGical (adjective).
In adverbs, as a rule, the stress is on the first syllable, or they have the same stress as in the adjectives from which they were formed, for example: ANgry — ANgrily, athLETic — athLETically.
The gerund and participle have the same stress as the verbs from which they are derived, for example: CANcel (cancel) — CANceling — CANceled.
Typical stress patterns
Let’s consider typical examples of English words stress. The main factors influencing stress are the number of syllables contained in a word and what this word is — a noun, adjective or verb.
Monosyllabic words
In monosyllabic nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs, the stress is placed on the vowel sound. It should be noted that diphthongs in English are one complex vowel sound that forms only one syllable. In a diphthong, the stress is on its first principal component.
cat, rain, book, boat, beer, crow;
read, take, burn, choose, hear, laugh;
new, bright, short, clear, loud;
fast, late, now, here.
Two-syllable words
Consider nouns.
Nouns with two syllables are usually stressed on their first syllable:
Source: https://www.comenglish.ru/udarenie-v-anglijskom-yazyke/
Stress in English: how to determine the stressed syllable
On this page you can familiarize yourself with the stress setting rule in English:
— two important rules for stating stress in English — dividing a word into syllables — designating a stressed syllable in transcription — rules for stressing the first syllable — rules for stressing the last syllable — rules for stressing the second syllable from the end — rules for stressing the third syllable from the end
— rules of stress in compound words
Pronunciation
In English, we don’t pronounce every syllable with the same strength. In each single word, the stress falls only on one syllable. We pronounce this syllable louder and clearerand everyone else quieter and less audible.
An example of stress setting
Let’s consider this phenomenon in the following example — let’s take three words photograph, photographer и PhotoGraphic… Do they sound the same? No. This is because we strike one particular syllable, and each time it is different. Thus, the schematic representation of each of the words we have taken is different.
Schematic word image |
Common number of syllables |
Shock syllable |
|
PHO to GRAPH |
‘. … |
3 |
№ 1 |
PHO TO GRAPHER |
… ‘. … |
4 |
№ 2 |
PHO TO GRAPH IC |
… … ‘. |
4 |
№ 3 |
This happens in all two or more complex words: TEACHer, JaPAN, CHINa, aBOVE, converSAtion, INteresting, imPORtant, deMAND, etc.
The importance of correct stress
Unstressed syllables are weak, quiet and less clear. Native speakers, perceiving someone’s speech by ear, are guided by drums syllables, not unstressed. Thus, if you correctly place the stress in words, you automatically improve your pronunciation and listening skills.
Stress rules in English
There are two extremely important rules for placing stress in English:
- One word — one main stressed syllable. (There cannot be two main stresses in one word (meaning main stress). If you hear two stresses, these are two words. In some words, the presence of a secondary stress is possible, but it is much weaker than the main stress and occurs only in long words.)
- The stress always falls on the vowel.
To understand the rules for stating stress, you need to understand how words are divided into syllables. Each word consists of a number of syllables: one, two, three or more syllables.
word |
number of syllables |
|
dog |
dog |
1 |
green |
green |
1 |
quite |
quite |
1 |
quiet |
quiet |
2 |
Orange |
or-ange |
2 |
backgammon |
ta-ble |
2 |
expensive |
ex-pen-sive |
3 |
interesting |
in-ter-est-ing |
4 |
realistic |
re-al-is-tic |
4 |
unexceptional |
un-ex-ception-al |
5 |
Please note that (with a few rare exceptions) each syllable contains at least one vowela letter (a, e, i, o or u) or vowel.
Stress notation
There are a number of rules about which syllable is stressed. As you learn a new word, you also need to remember where the stress falls in it. If you are unsure, you need to consult the dictionary.
They all give a transcription, which denotes the phonetic spelling of the word. The stressed syllable is usually indicated by the apostrophe (‘), standing directly before or after stressed syllable.
However, these rules are quite complex and can vary from vocabulary to vocabulary.
Example: |
transcription: |
transcription: |
PLAS TIC |
‘. |
‘. |
/ plæs’tIk / |
/ ‘plæs tIk / |
Stress on the first syllable
Rule: |
Example: |
Most disyllabic nouns |
PRESent, EXport, CHINA, TABLE |
Most disyllabic adjectives |
PRESent, SLENder, CLEVer, HAPpy |
Accent on the last syllable
Rule: |
Example: |
Most disyllabic verbs |
to preSENT, to export, to deCIDE, to beGIN |
In English, there are a large number of disyllabic words whose meaning changes with the change of stress. So the word present, for example, consists of two syllables. If the stress falls on the first syllable, then it is a noun («gift») or an adjective («present»).
But if the stress falls on the second syllable, this word becomes a verb («to offer»). This group includes the following words, whose meaning directly depends on where the stress falls: export, import, contract и object.
Stress on the second syllable from the end
Rule: |
Example: |
The words, ending in -ic |
GRAPHic, geoGRAPHic, geoLOGic |
The words, ending in —sion и —production |
teleVIsion, reveLAtion |
There are a number of words where native speakers disagree about where the stress is. For example, some say televisionwhile others say TELEvisionAnother example of a similar double standard: CONtroversy и conTROversy.
Stress on the third syllable from the end
Rule: |
Example: |
The words, ending in —cy, —ty, —physical и —gy |
deMOcracy, dependentBIlity, phoTOgraphy, geOLogy |
The words, ending in -to the |
CRItical, geoLOGical |
Compound words
Rule: |
Example: |
Complex of nouns stress falls on first часть |
BLACKbird, GREENhouse |
Complex adjectives stress falls on the second часть |
bad-TEMPERED, old-FASHioned |
Complex verbs stress falls on the second часть |
to underSTAND, to overFLOW |
Additional materials:
Source: https://www.activeenglish.ru/vocabulary/udarenie-v-anglijskom-jazyke-word-stress/
There are two very simple rules about word stress:
- One word has only one stress. (One word cannot have two stresses. If you hear two stresses, you hear two words. Two stresses cannot be one word. It is true that there can be a «secondary» stress in some words. But a secondary stress is much smaller than the main [primary] stress, and is only used in long words.)
- We can only stress vowels, not consonants.
Here are some more, rather complicated, rules that can help you understand where to put the stress. But do not rely on them too much, because there are many exceptions. It is better to try to «feel» the music of the language and to add the stress naturally.
A. Stress on first syllable
rule | examples |
---|---|
Most 2-syllable nouns |
PRESent |
Most 2-syllable adjectives |
PRESent |
B. Stress on last syllable
rule | examples |
---|---|
Most 2-syllable verbs |
preSENT |
There are many two-syllable words in English whose meaning and class change with a change in stress. The word present, for example is a two-syllable word. If we stress the first syllable, it is a noun (gift) or an adjective (opposite of absent). But if we stress the second syllable, it becomes a verb (to offer). More examples: the words export, import, contract and object can all be nouns or verbs depending on whether the stress is on the first or second syllable.
C. Stress on penultimate syllable (penultimate = second from end)
rule | examples |
---|---|
Words ending in -ic |
GRAPHic |
Words ending in -sion and -tion |
teleVIsion |
For a few words, native English speakers don’t always «agree» on where to put the stress. For example, some people say teleVIsion and others say TELevision. Another example is: CONtroversy and conTROversy.
D. Stress on ante-penultimate syllable (ante-penultimate = third from end)
rule | examples |
---|---|
Words ending in -cy, -ty, -phy and -gy |
deMOcracy |
Words ending in -al |
CRItical |
E. Compound words (words with two parts)
rule | examples |
---|---|
For compound nouns, the stress is on the first part |
BLACKbird |
For compound adjectives, the stress is on the second part |
bad-TEMpered |
For compound verbs, the stress is on the second part |
underSTAND |
Contributor: Josef Essberger
Updated: August 2020