What is word stress in grammar

Wondering how to teach English pronunciation more effectively? Here are definitions, examples, techniques and activity ideas for the classroom that may boost your lessons and help your learners be more successful!

Word stress is the emphasis we place in a specific syllable of a word when pronouncing it. In English words that have more than one syllable, we usually don’t pronounce every syllable with the same weight, so each syllable in a word can be stressed or unstressed.

Stressed syllables are louder than the others — i.e. air comes out of our lungs with more power; but they might also be longer, or pronounced with higher or lower in pitch. Syllables that are not pronounced with such emphasis are usually referred to as unstressed syllables, and they are usually not pronounced as clearly as the others.

Some longer words may have more than one ‘strong syllables’, but one of them tends to stand out more than the other. They are referred to as primary and secondary stress, the former being the strongest.

Stress is usually represented in the phonemic chart and transcription by the symbol /ˈ/ placed before the stresses syllable. In words that have secondary stress, we include the symbol /ˌ/ before the appropriate syllable (e.g. everybody: /ˈev.riˌbɒd.i/).

Unlike sentence stress, that frequently changes position according to the speakers’ intention, word stress tends to be fairly invariable. As a result, even when we want to emphasise a word over all others in an utterance, we tend to stick to the usual word stress pattern, making the stressed syllable even longer, louder or more high-pitched.

Because of this relative invariability, mistakes in word stress may lead to more problems with intelligibility than other errors related to pronunciation, so it is crucial that students are made aware of how the word is usually pronounced. Luckily, the same regularity makes stress patterns fairly easy to teach, and it helps students recognise words with less effort.

Next time you’re teaching, consider using the tips below to include work on word stress in your lessons.

1) Draw students’ attention to word stress whenever you teach them a new word

Even though the English language does show some identifiable patterns and ‘rules’ when it comes to word stress, they tend to be rather abstract and might confuse rather than enlighten students. You may increase chances of internalisation of accurate pronunciation, however, if you deal with word stress as an essential characteristic of the new word when teaching it, just like meaning and spelling, for example.

Some patterns may be easier for students to cope with.

2) Make word stress visible

Not only can visual reference can be quite helpful to clarify the pronunciation of words, but it can also provide students with a model they can use to systematise or organise new vocabulary they learn in a more autonomous way.

Here are some examples of how you to illustrate word stress.

3) Correct mistakes in word stress often.

Given its generally invariable character, misplacing word stress may affect intelligibility (arguably, more so than mispronunciation of individual sounds in a word). Therefore, it is of really important that learners be not only taught, but also corrected when they misplace word stress.

Some useful techniques to correct mistakes related to word stress are:

• Use one of the ways of recording stress above to draw students’ attention to the stress pattern and ask them to try it again.

• Use different fingers to mark each syllable and point at the one that corresponds to the stressed one.

• Say that the pronunciation of the word isn’t accurate and give the learner a second chance to get it right.

• Tap on a surface or clap your hands in a way that illustrates the stress pattern (alternating stronger and weaker sounds).

• Use drawings or different-sized objects to illustrate the appropriate stress patterns and ask the learner to try to produce it again.

4) Use playful activities to teach or practice pronunciation

Regardless of the age of the learner, activities that involve an element of fun can help lower learners’ affective filter, or anxiety levels, and increase opportunities for internatlisation.

The domino game below was designed for a vocabulary lesson in which pre-intermediate learners are being exposed to new lexis to describe professions and revisiting some occupations they already know.

Stage 1 — Lead-in

Students get in pairs and brainstorm jobs that are common now that weren’t common in the past.

Stage 2 — Language presentation and clarification

Meaning: Students analyse statements with the new lexis and match the highlighted words to definitions.

Example:

«I’m an intern now, but I want to keep working here after I graduate from Uni.

Definition: someone who is finishing their training for a job by getting practical experience.

Teacher than asks some CCQs to check students’ understanding.

Pronunciation: Teacher distributes dominoes and ask students to try to get rid of their pieces just as they would when playing regular dominoes. Instead of numbers, however, they are to match words with similar stress patterns.

Stages 3 and 4 — After this stage, students take part in controlled and less-controlled practice.

CLICK HERE to download a free PDF version of the domino.

CLICK HERE to donwload a blank PDF version of the domino, so you can use it in your lessons on any topic.

I hope this post has been useful to you! Let us know how you teach word stress and if you tried sny new things after reading this.

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For other uses, see Stress.

Primary stress
ˈ◌
IPA Number	501
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ˈ
Unicode (hex)	U+02C8

Secondary stress
ˌ◌
IPA Number	502
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	​ˌ
Unicode (hex)	U+02CC

In linguistics, and particularly phonology, stress or accent is the relative emphasis or prominence given to a certain syllable in a word or to a certain word in a phrase or sentence. That emphasis is typically caused by such properties as increased loudness and vowel length, full articulation of the vowel, and changes in tone.^[1][2] The terms stress and accent are often used synonymously in that context but are sometimes distinguished. For example, when emphasis is produced through pitch alone, it is called pitch accent, and when produced through length alone, it is called quantitative accent.^[3] When caused by a combination of various intensified properties, it is called stress accent or dynamic accent; English uses what is called variable stress accent.

Since stress can be realised through a wide range of phonetic properties, such as loudness, vowel length, and pitch (which are also used for other linguistic functions), it is difficult to define stress solely phonetically.

The stress placed on syllables within words is called word stress. Some languages have fixed stress, meaning that the stress on virtually any multisyllable word falls on a particular syllable, such as the penultimate (e.g. Polish) or the first (e.g. Finnish). Other languages, like English and Russian, have lexical stress, where the position of stress in a word is not predictable in that way but lexically encoded. Sometimes more than one level of stress, such as primary stress and secondary stress, may be identified.

Stress is not necessarily a feature of all languages: some, such as French and Mandarin, are sometimes analyzed as lacking lexical stress entirely.

The stress placed on words within sentences is called sentence stress or prosodic stress. That is one of the three components of prosody, along with rhythm and intonation. It includes phrasal stress (the default emphasis of certain words within phrases or clauses), and contrastive stress (used to highlight an item, a word or part of a word, that is given particular focus).

Phonetic realization[edit]

There are various ways in which stress manifests itself in the speech stream, and they depend to some extent on which language is being spoken. Stressed syllables are often louder than non-stressed syllables, and they may have a higher or lower pitch. They may also sometimes be pronounced longer. There are sometimes differences in place or manner of articulation. In particular, vowels in unstressed syllables may have a more central (or «neutral») articulation, and those in stressed syllables have a more peripheral articulation. Stress may be realized to varying degrees on different words in a sentence; sometimes, the difference is minimal between the acoustic signals of stressed and those of unstressed syllables.

Those particular distinguishing features of stress, or types of prominence in which particular features are dominant, are sometimes referred to as particular types of accent: dynamic accent in the case of loudness, pitch accent in the case of pitch (although that term usually has more specialized meanings), quantitative accent in the case of length,^[3] and qualitative accent in the case of differences in articulation. They can be compared to the various types of accent in music theory. In some contexts, the term stress or stress accent specifically means dynamic accent (or as an antonym to pitch accent in its various meanings).

A prominent syllable or word is said to be accented or tonic; the latter term does not imply that it carries phonemic tone. Other syllables or words are said to be unaccented or atonic. Syllables are frequently said to be in pretonic or post-tonic position, and certain phonological rules apply specifically to such positions. For instance, in American English, /t/ and /d/ are flapped in post-tonic position.

In Mandarin Chinese, which is a tonal language, stressed syllables have been found to have tones that are realized with a relatively large swing in fundamental frequency, and unstressed syllables typically have smaller swings.^[4] (See also Stress in Standard Chinese.)

Stressed syllables are often perceived as being more forceful than non-stressed syllables.

Word stress[edit]

Word stress, or sometimes lexical stress, is the stress placed on a given syllable in a word. The position of word stress in a word may depend on certain general rules applicable in the language or dialect in question, but in other languages, it must be learned for each word, as it is largely unpredictable. In some cases, classes of words in a language differ in their stress properties; for example, loanwords into a language with fixed stress may preserve stress placement from the source language, or the special pattern for Turkish placenames.

Non-phonemic stress[edit]

In some languages, the placement of stress can be determined by rules. It is thus not a phonemic property of the word, because it can always be predicted by applying the rules.

Languages in which the position of the stress can usually be predicted by a simple rule are said to have fixed stress. For example, in Czech, Finnish, Icelandic, Hungarian and Latvian, the stress almost always comes on the first syllable of a word. In Armenian the stress is on the last syllable of a word.^[5] In Quechua, Esperanto, and Polish, the stress is almost always on the penult (second-last syllable). In Macedonian, it is on the antepenult (third-last syllable).

Other languages have stress placed on different syllables but in a predictable way, as in Classical Arabic and Latin, where stress is conditioned by the structure of particular syllables. They are said to have a regular stress rule.

Statements about the position of stress are sometimes affected by the fact that when a word is spoken in isolation, prosodic factors (see below) come into play, which do not apply when the word is spoken normally within a sentence. French words are sometimes said to be stressed on the final syllable, but that can be attributed to the prosodic stress that is placed on the last syllable (unless it is a schwa, when stress is placed on the second-last syllable) of any string of words in that language. Thus, it is on the last syllable of a word analyzed in isolation. The situation is similar in Standard Chinese. French (some authors add Chinese^[6]) can be considered to have no real lexical stress.

Phonemic stress[edit]

With some exceptions above, languages such as Germanic languages, Romance languages, the East and South Slavic languages, Lithuanian, as well as others, in which the position of stress in a word is not fully predictable, are said to have phonemic stress. Stress in these languages is usually truly lexical and must be memorized as part of the pronunciation of an individual word. In some languages, such as Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Lakota and, to some extent, Italian, stress is even represented in writing using diacritical marks, for example in the Spanish words célebre and celebré. Sometimes, stress is fixed for all forms of a particular word, or it can fall on different syllables in different inflections of the same word.

In such languages with phonemic stress, the position of stress can serve to distinguish otherwise identical words. For example, the English words insight () and incite () are distinguished in pronunciation only by the fact that the stress falls on the first syllable in the former and on the second syllable in the latter. Examples from other languages include German Tenor ([ˈteːnoːɐ̯] «gist of message» vs. [teˈnoːɐ̯] «tenor voice»); and Italian ancora ([ˈaŋkora] «anchor» vs. [aŋˈkoːra] «more, still, yet, again»).

In many languages with lexical stress, it is connected with alternations in vowels and/or consonants, which means that vowel quality differs by whether vowels are stressed or unstressed. There may also be limitations on certain phonemes in the language in which stress determines whether they are allowed to occur in a particular syllable or not. That is the case with most examples in English and occurs systematically in Russian, such as за́мок ([ˈzamək], «castle») vs. замо́к ([zɐˈmok], «lock»); and in Portuguese, such as the triplet sábia ([ˈsaβjɐ], «wise woman»), sabia ([sɐˈβiɐ], «knew»), sabiá ([sɐˈβja], «thrush»).

Dialects of the same language may have different stress placement. For instance, the English word laboratory is stressed on the second syllable in British English (labóratory often pronounced «labóratry», the second o being silent), but the first syllable in American English, with a secondary stress on the «tor» syllable (láboratory often pronounced «lábratory»). The Spanish word video is stressed on the first syllable in Spain (vídeo) but on the second syllable in the Americas (video). The Portuguese words for Madagascar and the continent Oceania are stressed on the third syllable in European Portuguese (Madagáscar and Oceânia), but on the fourth syllable in Brazilian Portuguese (Madagascar and Oceania).

Compounds[edit]

With very few exceptions, English compound words are stressed on their first component. Even the exceptions, such as mankínd,^[7] are instead often stressed on the first component by some people or in some kinds of English.^[8] The same components as those of a compound word are sometimes used in a descriptive phrase with a different meaning and with stress on both words, but that descriptive phrase is then not usually considered a compound: bláck bírd (any bird that is black) and bláckbird (a specific bird species) and páper bág (a bag made of paper) and páper bag (very rarely used for a bag for carrying newspapers but is often also used for a bag made of paper).^[9]

Levels of stress[edit]

Some languages are described as having both primary stress and secondary stress. A syllable with secondary stress is stressed relative to unstressed syllables but not as strongly as a syllable with primary stress : for example, saloon and cartoon both have the main stress on the last syllable, but whereas cartoon also has a secondary stress on the first syllable, saloon does not. As with primary stress, the position of secondary stress may be more or less predictable depending on language. In English, it is not fully predictable, but the different secondary stress of the words organization and accumulation (on the first and second syllable, respectively) is predictable due to the same stress of the verbs órganize and accúmulate. In some analyses, for example the one found in Chomsky and Halle’s The Sound Pattern of English, English has been described as having four levels of stress: primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary, but the treatments often disagree with one another.

Peter Ladefoged and other phoneticians have noted that it is possible to describe English with only one degree of stress, as long as prosody is recognized and unstressed syllables are phonemically distinguished for vowel reduction.^[10] They find that the multiple levels posited for English, whether primary–secondary or primary–secondary–tertiary, are not phonetic stress (let alone phonemic), and that the supposed secondary/tertiary stress is not characterized by the increase in respiratory activity associated with primary/secondary stress in English and other languages. (For further detail see Stress and vowel reduction in English.)

Prosodic stress[edit]

Extra stress
ˈˈ◌

Prosodic stress, or sentence stress, refers to stress patterns that apply at a higher level than the individual word – namely within a prosodic unit. It may involve a certain natural stress pattern characteristic of a given language, but may also involve the placing of emphasis on particular words because of their relative importance (contrastive stress).

An example of a natural prosodic stress pattern is that described for French above; stress is placed on the final syllable of a string of words (or if that is a schwa, the next-to-final syllable). A similar pattern is found in English (see § Levels of stress above): the traditional distinction between (lexical) primary and secondary stress is replaced partly by a prosodic rule stating that the final stressed syllable in a phrase is given additional stress. (A word spoken alone becomes such a phrase, hence such prosodic stress may appear to be lexical if the pronunciation of words is analyzed in a standalone context rather than within phrases.)

Another type of prosodic stress pattern is quantity sensitivity – in some languages additional stress tends to be placed on syllables that are longer (moraically heavy).

Prosodic stress is also often used pragmatically to emphasize (focus attention on) particular words or the ideas associated with them. Doing this can change or clarify the meaning of a sentence; for example:

As in the examples above, stress is normally transcribed as italics in printed text or underlining in handwriting.

In English, stress is most dramatically realized on focused or accented words. For instance, consider the dialogue

In it, the stress-related acoustic differences between the syllables of «tomorrow» would be small compared to the differences between the syllables of «dinner«, the emphasized word. In these emphasized words, stressed syllables such as «din» in «dinner» are louder and longer.^[11][12][13] They may also have a different fundamental frequency, or other properties.

The main stress within a sentence, often found on the last stressed word, is called the nuclear stress.^[14]

Stress and vowel reduction[edit]

In many languages, such as Russian and English, vowel reduction may occur when a vowel changes from a stressed to an unstressed position. In English, unstressed vowels may reduce to schwa-like vowels, though the details vary with dialect (see stress and vowel reduction in English). The effect may be dependent on lexical stress (for example, the unstressed first syllable of the word photographer contains a schwa , whereas the stressed first syllable of photograph does not /ˈfoʊtəˌgræf -grɑːf/), or on prosodic stress (for example, the word of is pronounced with a schwa when it is unstressed within a sentence, but not when it is stressed).

Many other languages, such as Finnish and the mainstream dialects of Spanish, do not have unstressed vowel reduction; in these languages vowels in unstressed syllables have nearly the same quality as those in stressed syllables.

Stress and rhythm[edit]

Some languages, such as English, are said to be stress-timed languages; that is, stressed syllables appear at a roughly constant rate and non-stressed syllables are shortened to accommodate that, which contrasts with languages that have syllable timing (e.g. Spanish) or mora timing (e.g. Japanese), whose syllables or moras are spoken at a roughly constant rate regardless of stress. For details, see isochrony.

Historical effects[edit]

It is common for stressed and unstressed syllables to behave differently as a language evolves. For example, in the Romance languages, the original Latin short vowels /e/ and /o/ have often become diphthongs when stressed. Since stress takes part in verb conjugation, that has produced verbs with vowel alternation in the Romance languages. For example, the Spanish verb volver (to return, come back) has the form volví in the past tense but vuelvo in the present tense (see Spanish irregular verbs). Italian shows the same phenomenon but with /o/ alternating with /uo/ instead. That behavior is not confined to verbs; note for example Spanish viento «wind» from Latin ventum, or Italian fuoco «fire» from Latin focum. There are also examples in French, though they are less systematic : viens from Latin venio where the first syllabe was stressed, vs venir from Latin venire where the main stress was on the penultimate syllable.

Stress «deafness»[edit]

An operational definition of word stress may be provided by the stress «deafness» paradigm.^[15][16] The idea is that if listeners perform poorly on reproducing the presentation order of series of stimuli that minimally differ in the position of phonetic prominence (e.g. [númi]/[numí]), the language does not have word stress. The task involves a reproduction of the order of stimuli as a sequence of key strokes, whereby key «1» is associated with one stress location (e.g. [númi]) and key «2» with the other (e.g. [numí]). A trial may be from 2 to 6 stimuli in length. Thus, the order [númi-númi-numí-númi] is to be reproduced as «1121». It was found that listeners whose native language was French performed significantly worse than Spanish listeners in reproducing the stress patterns by key strokes. The explanation is that Spanish has lexically contrastive stress, as evidenced by the minimal pairs like tópo («mole») and topó («[he/she/it] met»), while in French, stress does not convey lexical information and there is no equivalent of stress minimal pairs as in Spanish.

An important case of stress «deafness» relates to Persian.^[16] The language has generally been described as having contrastive word stress or accent as evidenced by numerous stem and stem-clitic minimal pairs such as /mɒhi/ [mɒ.hí] («fish») and /mɒh-i/ [mɒ́.hi] («some month»). The authors argue that the reason that Persian listeners are stress «deaf» is that their accent locations arise postlexically. Persian thus lacks stress in the strict sense.

Stress «deafness» has been studied for a number of languages, such as Polish^[17] or French learners of Spanish.^[18]

Spelling and notation for stress[edit]

The orthographies of some languages include devices for indicating the position of lexical stress. Some examples are listed below:

• In Modern Greek, all polysyllables are written with an acute accent (´) over the vowel of the stressed syllable. (The acute accent is also used on some monosyllables in order to distinguish homographs, as in η (‘the’) and ή (‘or’); here the stress of the two words is the same.)
• In Spanish orthography, stress may be written explicitly with a single acute accent on a vowel. Stressed antepenultimate syllables are always written with that accent mark, as in árabe. If the last syllable is stressed, the accent mark is used if the word ends in the letters n, s, or a vowel, as in está. If the penultimate syllable is stressed, the accent is used if the word ends in any other letter, as in cárcel. That is, if a word is written without an accent mark, the stress is on the penult if the last letter is a vowel, n, or s, but on the final syllable if the word ends in any other letter. However, as in Greek, the acute accent is also used for some words to distinguish various syntactical uses (e.g. té ‘tea’ vs. te a form of the pronoun tú ‘you’; dónde ‘where’ as a pronoun or wh-complement, donde ‘where’ as an adverb). For more information, see Stress in Spanish.
• In Portuguese, stress is sometimes indicated explicitly with an acute accent (for i, u, and open a, e, o), or circumflex (for close a, e, o). The orthography has an extensive set of rules that describe the placement of diacritics, based on the position of the stressed syllable and the surrounding letters.
• In Italian, the grave accent is needed in words ending with an accented vowel, e.g. città, ‘city’, and in some monosyllabic words that might otherwise be confused with other words, like là (‘there’) and la (‘the’). It is optional for it to be written on any vowel if there is a possibility of misunderstanding, such as condomìni (‘condominiums’) and condòmini (‘joint owners’). See Italian alphabet § Diacritics. (In this particular case, a frequent one in which diacritics present themselves, the difference of accents is caused by the fall of the second «i» from Latin in Italian, typical of the genitive, in the first noun (con/domìnìi/, meaning «of the owner»); while the second was derived from the nominative (con/dòmini/, meaning simply «owners»).

Though not part of normal orthography, a number of devices exist that are used by linguists and others to indicate the position of stress (and syllabification in some cases) when it is desirable to do so. Some of these are listed here.

• Most commonly, the stress mark is placed before the beginning of the stressed syllable, where a syllable is definable. However, it is occasionally placed immediately before the vowel.^[19] In the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), primary stress is indicated by a high vertical line (primary stress mark: ˈ) before the stressed element, secondary stress by a low vertical line (secondary stress mark: ˌ). For example, [sɪˌlæbəfɪˈkeɪʃən] or /sɪˌlæbəfɪˈkeɪʃən/. Extra stress can be indicated by doubling the symbol: ˈˈ◌.
• Linguists frequently mark primary stress with an acute accent over the vowel, and secondary stress by a grave accent. Example: [sɪlæ̀bəfɪkéɪʃən] or /sɪlæ̀bəfɪkéɪʃən/. That has the advantage of not requiring a decision about syllable boundaries.
• In English dictionaries that show pronunciation by respelling, stress is typically marked with a prime mark placed after the stressed syllable: /si-lab′-ə-fi-kay′-shən/.
• In ad hoc pronunciation guides, stress is often indicated using a combination of bold text and capital letters. For example, si-lab-if-i-KAY-shun or si-LAB-if-i-KAY-shun
• In Russian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian dictionaries, stress is indicated with marks called znaki udareniya (знаки ударения, ‘stress marks’). Primary stress is indicated with an acute accent (´) on a syllable’s vowel (example: вимовля́ння).^[20][21] Secondary stress may be unmarked or marked with a grave accent: о̀колозе́мный. If the acute accent sign is unavailable for technical reasons, stress can be marked by making the vowel capitalized or italic.^[22] In general texts, stress marks are rare, typically used either when required for disambiguation of homographs (compare в больши́х количествах ‘in great quantities’, and в бо́льших количествах ‘in greater quantities’), or in rare words and names that are likely to be mispronounced. Materials for foreign learners may have stress marks throughout the text.^[20]
• In Dutch, ad hoc indication of stress is usually marked by an acute accent on the vowel (or, in the case of a diphthong or double vowel, the first two vowels) of the stressed syllable. Compare achterúítgang (‘deterioration’) and áchteruitgang (‘rear exit’).
• In Biblical Hebrew, a complex system of cantillation marks is used to mark stress, as well as verse syntax and the melody according to which the verse is chanted in ceremonial Bible reading. In Modern Hebrew, there is no standardized way to mark the stress. Most often, the cantillation mark oleh (part of oleh ve-yored), which looks like a left-pointing arrow above the consonant of the stressed syllable, for example ב֫וקר bóqer (‘morning’) as opposed to בוק֫ר boqér (‘cowboy’). That mark is usually used in books by the Academy of the Hebrew Language and is available on the standard Hebrew keyboard at AltGr-6. In some books, other marks, such as meteg, are used.^[23]

See also[edit]

• Accent (poetry)
• Accent (music)
• Foot (prosody)
• Initial-stress-derived noun
• Pitch accent (intonation)
• Rhythm
• Syllable weight

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• «Feet and Metrical Stress», The Cambridge Handbook of Phonology
• «Word stress in English: Six Basic Rules», Linguapress
• Word Stress Rules: A Guide to Word and Sentence Stress Rules for English Learners and Teachers, based on affixation

English students often learn syllable and word stress rules before venturing into sentence stress. This is because sentence stress rules are far more variable and complex, while the rules for correct intonation in English generally stay the same. To demonstrate the differences, let’s look at a few different examples of stress in English.

Syllable Stress vs. Sentence Stress

When you learn how to pronounce different vowel and consonant sounds, you must also learn how to stress different parts of a word correctly. Stress is just another way to say “emphasize.” This means that some parts of a word are stronger (and slightly louder) than others. Here are a few examples:

• Away (pronounced: a-WAY)
• Delicious (pronounced: de-LI-cious)
• Anticipate (pronounced: an-TI-ci-PATE)
• Communication (pronounced: comm-un-i-CA-tion)
• Autobiography (pronounced: au-to-bi-O-gra-phy)

Some longer words have a primary stressed syllable and one or more secondary stressed syllables. The primary stressed syllable is always stronger than the secondary stressed syllable, while both are stronger than unstressed syllables. Be sure to check out our guide on stressed and unstressed syllables to learn more about using proper English intonation.

Sentence stress refers to the words in a sentence that get the most emphasis. While common sayings and phrases usually have unchanging sentence stress rules, you can emphasize different words in a sentence to create new meanings. For example, let’s look at the common saying: I told you so!

The most common way to say this phrase is to put the primary stress on “told” and the secondary stress on “so,” like this:

I TOLD you SO!

However, you could also change the implicit meaning of the phrase by emphasizing “I.” By doing this, you will stress the fact that you (the speaker) were the one who told them (the listener) about something. 

Which words should you stress in a sentence?

So, how can you know which words to stress in a sentence? Again, there are no hard-and-fast sentence stress rules, but there are some general principles that will help you use stress properly when speaking in English. You can often tell which words should be stressed based on the parts of speech and where the words fall in a sentence.

• Content words (nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and main verbs) are usually stressed.
• Function words (determiners, prepositions, and conjunctions) are usually unstressed unless you want to emphasize their role(s) in a sentence.
• Question words (who, what, when, where, why, and how) are usually unstressed unless you want to emphasize their role(s) in a sentence.
• Subject pronouns (I, You, He, She, We, They) are usually unstressed, while object pronouns (me, you, him, her, us, them) are usually stressed.

Sentence Stress in a Statement

Pronoun	Main Verb	Adverb	Preposition	Determiner	Noun
I	ran	quickly	to	the	desk.
unstressed	unstressed	STRESSED (primary)	unstressed	unstressed	STRESSED (secondary)

This example denotes the natural rise and fall of the sentence. However, as previously stated, you could stress different words to alter the meaning:

• I ran quickly to the desk. (emphasizes who is doing the running)
• I ran quickly to the desk. (emphasizes what action is being done)
• I ran quickly to the desk. (emphasizes the way in which you ran, but does not fundamentally change the meaning of the sentence)
• I ran quickly to the desk. (inappropriate sense stress, but emphasizes the direction in which you ran)
• I ran quickly to the desk. (inappropriate sense stress, but emphasizes that it was a specific desk)
• I ran quickly to the desk. (emphasizes the object or location to which you ran)

Sentence Stress in a Question

Pronoun	Modal Verb	Main Verb	Preposition	Determiner	Noun
Who	will	come	to	the	party?
unstressed	unstressed	STRESSED (primary)	unstressed	unstressed	STRESSED (secondary)

Like the previous example, the sentence stress here also denotes the natural rise and fall of the word combination. However, you could still ask this question six different ways to convey six slightly different meanings:

• Who will come to the party? (you want to know who the party attendees are)
• Who will come to the party? (you want to know who will definitely be attending the party)
• Who will come to the party? (you want to know who will attend the party, but this form does not change the standard meaning of the question)
• Who will come to the party? (inappropriate sense stress, but emphasizes the location of the party) 
• Who will come to the party? (inappropriate sense stress, but emphasizes which party you’re talking about)
• Who will come to the party? (you want to emphasize the party, possibly in contrast to a separate event)

Sentence Stress and Intonation in English

If you couldn’t already tell, sentence stress is often linked to the way our voices rise and fall (intonation) while speaking. The natural rise and fall in pitch usually determines which words are stressed and unstressed. This is why the two example sentences above have similar structures. They are both examples of falling intonation.

In American English, there are two basic types of intonation: rising intonation and falling intonation. Falling intonation is far more common. When you speak with falling intonation, the pitch of your voice starts high and gets lower by the end of the sentence. More often than not, sentences with falling intonation use stressed verbs and objects. For example:

• I saw a crab at the beach.
• They never return my calls.
• Frank is a responsible person.
• My dad doesn’t like to wash the dishes.

Alternatively, rising intonation occurs when the pitch of your voice starts lower and gets higher at the end of the sentence. This type of intonation is less common, but you can use it when you want to ask a Yes/No question or when you want to express a negative emotion, like anger. Similarly, the stress often falls on verbs and objects, though this can vary depending on the meaning you want to convey. Here are some examples:

• Are you sure?
• Do you want to go to the park?
• You’re so mean!
• I don’t want to talk to you!

What is sense stress?

You might have heard of sense stress, which is very similar to the concept of sentence stress. Sense stress simply refers to the use of stress on different words to convey different meanings. Thus, sense stress is a form of sentence stress. Usually, people refer to appropriate or inappropriate sense stress. Appropriate sense stress sounds natural and correctly conveys the meaning of a sentence. Here are some examples of appropriate sense stress:

• How many HAMBURGERS should we get?
• What TIME is it?
• He ANSWERED the phone.
• They did NOT want to go swimming.

Alternatively, inappropriate sense stress sounds unnatural and conveys strange or incorrect meanings. Here are a few examples:

• Where do you want to eat?
• Did you go to the doctor?
• I never go to the supermarket by myself.
• She was watching a movie when the guests arrived.

Conclusion

Sentence stress is an element of English that can be difficult to grasp, especially for beginner or even intermediate learners. However, with practice, you can use stress to accurately express yourself. With time, you’ll find that sense and sentence stress are some of the best ways to get your point across to other English speakers!

If you’d like to hear native English speakers using sentence stress, be sure to subscribe to the Magoosh Youtube channel!

2. Try saying this word as though you have been completely taken by surprise: for example, SYLlabus? baNAna? kangaROO? 

These three content words carry the most important ideas in the sentence. Unstressed words tend to be smaller words which we need in order to make our language hold together. They help the sentence “function” and for this reason they are called function words. 

Content Words	Function Words
Main Verbs	go, talk, writing	Pronouns	I, you, he ,they
Nouns	student, desk	Prepositions	on, under, with
Adjectives	big, clever	Articles	the, a, some
Adverbs	quickly, loudly	Conjunctions	but, and, so
Negative Aux. Verbs	can’t, don’t, aren’t	Auxiliary Verbs	can, should, must
Demonstratives	this, that, those	Verb “to be”	is, was, am
Question Words	who, which, where

Now, say this sentence aloud and count how many seconds it takes:

The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance.

Time required? Probably about 5 seconds. Now, try speaking this sentence aloud: 

Мы рассмотрели правила и примеры постановки ударений в английском языке. Чтобы узнать больше об английской грамматике, читайте другие публикации в разделе Grammar!

In our previous post, we shared 12 great tips to help you improve your English pronunciation.  For tip number nine, Understanding Word Stress & Sentence Stress, we explained the importance of word stress rules for communicating effectively in English. In this post, we delve a little deeper into the subject.

What is Word Stress?

The stress placed on syllables within words is called word stress. In one word, we place emphasis on one syllable, while the other syllables are given less emphasis.

English words only have one stressed syllable. Whilst longer words can have a secondary stress, it is always a much lighter stress. It is also worth noting that we stress vowel sounds and not consonants.

In English we have variable stress where the position of the stress is unpredictable. This contrasts with some other languages – like Polish or Finnish – that have fixed stress where the stress on virtually any multi-syllable word falls on a particular syllable. Learn more here.

Where you place stress or emphasis within a word can affect the way in which it is pronounced and therefore its meaning. As a result, knowing which syllable within a word should be emphasised or stressed is very important for correct pronunciation. The reason for this is that placing stress on the wrong syllable within a word can completely change the meaning of a word.

Understanding The Importance of Word Stress

So, understanding the importance of word stress is vital if you want to improve your English pronunciation and speak English like a native English.

But if word stress is so important, exactly what are the rules that we need to follow?

As with so many aspects of the English language, there are many rules to learn. Then, to make things even more tricky, there are also many contradictions or exceptions to those rules. This can make learning English more challenging for some students.

To help you out, we have compiled some simple guidelines for learning the rules of word stress.  We don’t cover all aspects of English word stress rules but the points  we have mentioned will certainly get you started.

English Word Stress Rules

1. Word Stress For Two-Syllable Words

Two-Syllable Nouns

If the word is a two-syllable noun, we usually place the stress on the FIRST syllable.

Example: MONkey, TEAcher, DIStance, INsect, TAble,

Two-Syllable Adjectives

If the word is a two-syllable adjective,  as with two-syllable nouns, we usually place the stress on the FIRST syllable.

Examples: SIlent, BORing, LIttle, PURple, STUpid, CLEver, FRIEndly

Two Syllable Verbs

Conversely, if the word is a two-syllable verb we generally stress the SECOND syllable.

Examples: beGIN, surVIVE, aTTEND, coLLECT, preVENT

See more examples of verbs where the second syllable is stressed.

Two Syllable Prepositions

The SECOND syllable is also stressed if the word is a preposition.

Examples: aROUND, beFORE, beLOW, inSIDE, toWARDS (See more examples of prepositions with stress on second syllable)

2. Word Stress For Words That Are Both Nouns & Verbs

When a word can be both a noun and a verb, we stress the FIRST syllable for the noun and the SECOND syllable for the verb.

Examples:

1) The violent CONflict between the couple conFLICTS with their pacifistic beliefs.

2) The PREsents he preSENTS his wife never fail to disappoint her.

3) They will no doubt disCOUNT my suggestion for DIScounts on Chinese courses for the elderly.

Click here for some good examples with audio included:

As mentioned, there are always exceptions to the rules. That said, it’s fairly accurate to say that only around 20% of two-syllable words have their stress on the second syllable.

3. Word Stress For Words Ending in ‘er’ & ‘ly’.

If a word ends in either ‘er’ or ‘ly’, whether it’s a noun, an adjective or an adverb, the general rules is that the stress is placed on the first syllable.

Example:

ANgrily, PERfectly, SUddenly, HAppily,

FOReigner, GARdener, BARtender, MANager

BIgger, BEtter, FAtter

4. Words That Use The Suffix ade, ee, ese, ique, ette & oon

Stress the actual suffix of words (including the first consonant before the suffix) ending in -ade, -ee, -ese, -ique and -ette and -oon

Examples:

deCADE, inVADE,

ampuTEE, guaranTEE, aGREE,

ChiNESE, oBESE, legaLESE,

vinaigRETTE, kitcheNETTE, laundeRETTE,

anTIQUE, obLIQUE,

carTOON, baBOON

5. Simple Word Stress Rules For Suffixes

The rule changes for words with a number of other suffixes such as -ery, -ian, -ible, -able, i-al, -cian, -ic, -ish, -ics, -ion, -ious, -ia, and -ient. Instead of placing the emphasis on the actual suffix as illustrated in the examples above, we stress the syllable just before the suffix.

Examples:

-ery: CELery, SURgery, reCOVery
-ian: boHEMian, coMEdian, ciVILian, beauTICian
-ible: AUDible, adMISSible, SENSible
-able: aDAPTable, SUITable, CHANGEable
-ial: fiNANcial, artiFICial, oFFICial
-cian: maGIcian, opTIcian, beauTIcian
-ic: BAsic, draMAtic, characteRIStic
-ish: GARish, ENglish, unSELfish
-ics: dyNAMics, aeRObics, hypNOtics
-ion: VERsion, classifiCAtion, CAUtion
-ious: harMONious, PREvious, VARious, FURious
-ia: TRIVia, maLARia, multiMEdia
-ient: ANcient, NUtrient, suFICient
-osis: thromBOsis, psyCHOsis, osMOsis

A good way to remember some of the suffixes above is to use the rule for nearly all suffixes that start with an ‘i’ or a ‘u’. For example, the suffixes -ion, -ual, -uous, -ial, -ient, -ious, -iuor, ior, -ic, -ity.

Notice again  how we stress the syllable immediately before the suffix in the following examples:

diVERsion,

unUSual,

conTINuous,

amBIGuous,

FATuous,

SPAtial,

TRANSient,

LUSCious,

suPERior,

behaviour,

JUNior,

STOic,

linGUIStic,

photoGRAPHic

Note, some exceptions to this rule include words ending in -ism, -ist and -ize.

English Word Stress Videos




How Dictionaries Help With Word Stress

If you are unsure about where to place the stress in a word, you can always refer to an English dictionary.  All good dictionaries give the phonetic spelling of a word.

You can learn which syllable of a word is stressed by looking at the phonetic spelling. The stressed syllable is commonly shown with an apostrophe (‘) just before or just after the stressed syllable.

Unfortunately, dictionary creators never agreed on one system so you should refer to your dictionary’s (how to use this dictionary) notes to see which system they use.

Here’s an example from my dictionary that shows which syllable to stress by placing the apostrophe immediately BEFORE the stressed syllable:

photograph | ‘fəʊtəɡrɑːf

photographic | ˌfəʊtə’ɡrafɪk 

Using the system of capitalising the stressed syllable as in all of my examples above, these two dictionary examples look like this:

PHOtograph

photGRAPHic

Learn Word Stress With Practise & Experience

As previously mentioned, the list of rules above is by no means complete. However, it does explain where to place the primary emphasis on numerous English words.

If the thoughts of learning all these rules is overwhelming, do not be too discouraged.  Many English learners naturally assimilate to word stress rules simply by listening and practicing the language.

Probably the best way to learn is from experience.  Try to get a feel for the music of the language by listening carefully to spoken English.

Of course, if you would like some extra assistance with your English speaking skills, contact us to find out more about our English courses in Hong Kong.

Here’s a brief overview of our English courses. Click the image for more details.

1. Word stress, its acoustic
   nature.

2. The
   linguistic function of a word stress.

3. Degree
   and position of a word stress.

-1-

The
sequence of syllables in the word is not pronounced identically. The
syllable or syllables which are pronounced with more prominence than
the other syllables of the word are said to be stressed or accented.
The correlation of varying prominences of syllables in a word is
understood as the accentual structure of the word.

According
to A.C. Gimson, the effect of prominence is achieved by any or all of
four factors: force, tone, length and vowel colour. The dynamic
stress implies greater force with which the syllable is pronounced.
In other words in the articulation of the stressed syllable greater
muscular energy is produced by the speaker. The European languages
such as English, German, French, Russian are believed to possess
predominantly dynamic word stress. In Scandinavian languages the word
stress is considered to be both dynamic and musical (e.g. in Swedish,
the word komma
(comma) is distinguished from the word komma
(come) by a difference in tones). The musical (tonic) word stress is
observed in Chinese, Japanese. It is effected by the variations of
the voice pitch in relation to neighbouring syllables. In Chinese the
sound sequence “chu” pronounced with the level tone means “pig”,
with the rising tone “bamboo”, and with the falling tone “to
live”.

It is fair
to mention that there is a terminological confusion in discussing the
nature of stress. According to D. Crystal, the terms “heaviness,
intensity, amplitude, prominence, emphasis, accent, stress” tend to
be used synonymously by most writers. The discrepancy in terminology
is largely due to the fact that there are 2 major views depending on
whether the productive or receptive aspects of stress are discussed.

The main
drawback with any theory of stress based on production of speech is
that it only gives a partial explanation of the phenomenon but does
not analyze it on the perceptive level.

Instrumental
investigations study the physical nature of word stress. On the
acoustic level the counterpart of force is the intensity of the
vibrations of the vocal cords of the speaker which is perceived by
the listener as loudness. Thus the greater energy with which the
speaker articulates the stressed syllable in the word is associated
by the listener with greater loudness. The acoustic counterparts of
voice pitch and length are frequency and duration respectively. The
nature of word stress in Russian seems to differ from that in
English. The quantitative component plays a greater role in Russian
accentual structure than in English word accent. In the Russian
language of full formation and full length in unstressed positions,
they are always reduced. Therefore the vowels of full length are
unmistakably perceived as stressed. In English the quantitative
component of word stress is not of primary importance because of the
non-reduced vowels in the unstressed syllables which sometimes occur
in English words (e.g. “transport”, “architect”).

-2-

In discussing accentual
structure of English words we should turn now to the functional
aspect of word stress. In language the word stress performs 3
functions:

1. constitutive– word
   stress constitutes a word, it organizes the syllables of a word into
   a language unit. A word does not exist without the word stress. Thus
   the function is constitutive – sound continuum becomes a phrase
   when it is divided into units organized by word stress into words.

2. Word
   stress enables a person to identify a succession of syllables as a
   definite accentual pattern of a word. This function is known as
   identificatory (or
   recognitive).

3. Word
   stress alone is capable of differentiating the meaning of words or
   their forms, thus performing its distinctive
   function. The accentual patterns of
   words or the degrees of word stress and their positions form
   oppositions (“/import – im /port”, “/present – pre
   /sent”).

-3-

There are
actually as many degrees of word stress in a word as there are
syllables. The British linguists usually distinguish three degrees of
stress in the word. The primary stress is the strongest (e.g.
exami/nation), the secondary stress is the second strongest one (e.g.
ex,ami/nation). All the other degrees are termed “weak stress”.
Unstressed syllables are supposed to have weak stress. The American
scholars, B. Bloch and J. Trager, find 4 contrastive degrees
of word stress: locid, reduced locid, medial and weak.

In
Germanic languages the word stress originally fell on the initial
syllable or the second syllable, the root syllable in the English
words with prefixes. This tendency was called recessive. Most English
words of Anglo-Saxon origin as well as the French borrowings are
subjected to this recessive tendency.

Languages
are also differentiated according to the placement of word stress.
The traditional classification of languages concerning the place of
stress in a word is into those with a
fixed stress and a free stress. In
languages with a fixed stress the occurrence of the word stress is
limited to a particular syllable in a multisyllabic word. For
example, in French the stress falls on the last syllable of the word
(if pronounced in isolation), in Finnish and Czech it is fixed on the
first syllable.

Some
borrowed words retain their stress.

In languages with a free
stress its place is not confined to a specific position in the word.
The free placement of stress is exemplified in the English and
Russian languages

(e.g. E. appetite – begin –
examination

R.
озеро – погода
– молоко)

The word
stress in English as well as in Russian is not only free but it may
also be shifting performing semantic function of differentiating
lexical units, parts of speech, grammatical forms. It is worth noting
that in English word stress is used as a means of word-building (e.g.
/contrast – con/trast, /music – mu /sician).

Questions:

1. What
   features characterize word accent?

2. Identify
   the functions of word stress.

3. What
   are the types of word stress?

4. Do AmE and
   BE have any differences in the system of word stress? Give your
   examples.

Lecture 8. Intonation

1. Intonation.

2. The
   linguistic function of intonation.

3. The
   implications of a terminal tone.

4. Rhythm.

-1-

Intonation is a language
universal. There are no languages which are spoken as a monotone,
i.e. without any change of prosodic parametres. On perceptional level
intonation is a complex, a whole, formed by significant variations of
pitch, loudness and tempo closely related. Some linguists regard
speech timber as the fourth component of intonation. Though it
certainly conveys some shades of attitudinal or emotional meaning
there’s no reason to consider it alongside with the 3
prosodic components of intonation (pitch, loudness and tempo).
Nowadays the term “prosody” substitutes the term “intonation”.

On the acoustic level pitch
correlates with the fundamental frequency of the vibrations of the
vocal cords; loudness correlates with the amplitude of vibrations;
tempo is a correlate of time during which a speech unit lasts.

The auditory level is very
important for teachers of foreign languages. Each syllable of the
speech chain has a special pitch colouring. Some of the syllables
have significant moves of tone up and down. Each syllable bears a
definite amount of loudness. Pitch movements are inseparably
connected with loudness. Together with the tempo of speech they form
an intonation pattern which is the basic unit of intonation.

An intonation pattern contains
one nucleus and may contain other stressed or unstressed syllables
normally preceding or following the nucleus. The boundaries of an
intonation pattern may be marked by stops of phonation, that is
temporal pauses.

Intonation patterns serve to
actualize syntagms in oral speech. The syntagm
is a group of words which are semantically and syntactically
complete. In phonetics they are called intonation
groups. The
intonation group is a stretch of speech which may have the length of
the whole phrase. But the phrase often contains more than one
intonation group. The number of them depends on the length of phrase
and the degree of semantic impotence or emphasis given to various
parts of it. The position of intonation groups may affect the
meaning.

-2-

The communicative
function of
intonation is realized in various ways which can be grouped under
five – six general headings:

1. to
   structure the intonation content of a textual unit. So as to show
   which information is new or can not be taken for granted, as against
   information which the listener is assumed to possess or to be able
   to acquire from the context, that is given information;

2. to
   determine the speech function of a phrase, to indicate whether it is
   intended as a statement, question, etc;

3. to
   convey connotational meanings of attitude, such as surprise, etc. In
   the written form we are given only the lexics and the grammar;

4. to
   structure a text. Intonation is an organizing mechanism. It divides
   texts into smaller parts and on the other hand it integrates them
   forming a complete text;

5. to
   differentiate the meaning of textual units of the same phonetic
   structure and the same lexical composition (distinctive or
   phonological function);

6. to
   characterize a particular style or variety of oral speech which may
   be called a stylistic function.

-3-

Classification of intonation
patterns:

Different combinations of
pitch sections (pre-heads, heads and nuclei) may result in more than
one hundred pitch-and-stress patterns. But it is not necessary to
deal with all of them, because some patterns occur very rarely. So,
attention must be concentrated on the commonest ones:

1. The Low (Medium) Fall
   pitch-and-stress group

2. The
   High Fall group

3. Rise
   Fall group

4. The
   Low Rise group

5. The
   High Rise group

6. The
   Fall Rise group

7. The
   Rise-Fall-Rise group

8. The
   Mid-level group

No intonation pattern is used
exclusively with this or that sentence type. Some sentences are more
likely to be said with one intonation pattern than with any other. So
we can speak about “common intonation” for a particular type of
sentence.

1. Statements are most widely
   used with the Low Fall preceded by the Falling or the High level
   Head. They are final, complete and definite.

2. Commands,
   with the Low Fall are very powerful, intense, serious and strong.

3. Exclamations
   are very common with the High Fall.

-4-

We cannot fully describe
English intonation without reference to speech rhythm. Rhythm
seems to be a kind of framework of speech organization. Some
linguists consider it to be one of the components of intonation.

Rhythm is understood as
periodicity in time and space. We find it everywhere in life. Rhythm
as a linguistic notion is realized in lexical, syntactical and
prosodic means and mostly in their combinations.

In speech,
the type of rhythm depends on the language. Linguists divide
languages into two groups:

1. syllable-timed(French, Spanish);

2. stress-timed(English, German, Russian).

In a
syllable-timed language the speaker gives an approximately equal
amount of time to each syllable, whether the syllable is stressed or
unstressed.

In a
stress-timed language the rhythm is based on a larger unit, than
syllable. Though the amount of time given on each syllable varies
considerably, the total time of uttering each rhythmic unit is
practically unchanged. The stressed syllables of a rhythmic unit form
peaks of prominence. They tend to be pronounced at regular intervals
no matter how many unstressed syllables are located between every 2
stressed ones. Thus the distribution of time within the rhythmic unit
is unequal.

Speech
rhythm is traditionally defined as recurrence of stressed syllables
at more or less equal intervals of time in a speech continuum.

Questions:

1. Name
   the basic components of intonation.

2. What
   is the connection between pitch and tempo?

3. What
   for do we need different nuclear tones?

4. Which
   nuclei are the commonest?

Lecture
9. Territorial varieties of English pronunciation

1. Varieties
   of language.

2. English
   variants.

-1-

The
varieties of the language are conditioned by language communities
ranging from small groups to nations. National
language is the language of a nation,
the standard of its form, the language of a nation’s literature.
The literary spoken form has its national
pronunciation standard. A “standard”
may be defined as a socially accepted variety of a language
established by a codified norm of correctness. It is generally
accepted that for the “English English” it is “Received
Pronunciation” or RP; for the “American English” – “General
American pronunciation”; for the Australian English – “Educated
Australian”.

Though
every national variant of English has considerable differences in
pronunciation, lexics and grammar, they all have much in common which
gives us ground to speak of one and the same language – the English
language.

Every
national variety of the language falls into territorial
or regional dialects. Dialects are
distinguished from each other by differences in pronunciation,
grammar and vocabulary. When we refer to varieties in pronunciation
only, we use the word “accent”.

The social
differentiation of language is closely connected with the social
differentiation of society. Every language community, ranging from a
small group to a nation has its own social
dialect, and consequently, its own
social accent.

The
“language situation” may be spoken about in terms of the
horizontal and vertical differentiations of the language, the first
in accordance with the sphere of social activity, the second – with
its situational variability. Situational varieties of the language
are called functional dialects or functional styles and situational
pronunciation varieties – situational accents or phonostyles.

-2-

Nowadays
two main types of English are spoken in the English-speaking world:
English English and American English.

According to British
dialectologists (P. Trudgill, J. Hannah, A. Hughes and others) the
following variants of English are referred to the English-based
group: English English, Welsh English, Australian English, New
Zealand English; to the American-based group: United States English,
Canadian English.

Scottish English and Irish
English fall somewhere between the two being somewhat by themselves.

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What is Word Stress in English?

1.7.1  Word stress is the system of stress within an individual word. Word stress is important because English is a stress-timed language, which means that we speak with rhythm, pronouncing the stress in each content word. Each content word is broken into parts called syllables. One of the syllables in a word will have a stronger stress than the others. We pronounce the stressed syllable more loudly and with more power, while the other syllables are pronounced more quietly and with less power. Every content word in English has one strong stress. For example:

teacher             has two syllables: tea cher         Tee ch (Clear Alphabet)

The first syllable has strong stress, while the second syllable does not. It is weak.

1.7.2  Word stress is not regular in English. The positioning of word stress varies, although it is very often on the first syllable of a word, so if you need to have a guess you should choose the first syllable! This is mainly because suffixes – word endings – in English are not usually stressed. For example, a two syllable word ending with the suffix  ing  must be stressed on the first, because  ing  is never stressed:

Click here for 100 of the most common suffixes in English: most-common-suffixes-in-english

1.7.3  Suffixes can also help us to find word stress because there are many suffixes which follow a rule that the stress must be on the syllable before, for example:

These suffixes are very common, so it’s reassuring to know that the stress will always be before each one. Read and learn the full list here: suffixes-and-word-stress

There are also a number of common suffixes which are stressed. (Click here: most-common-suffixes-in-english.) They are the exception to the rule that suffixes are unstressed. For example:

1.7.4  Other rules of word stress include:

a) Compound nouns are usually stressed on the first syllable. These are words which combine two words, such as:

airport    air + port
football    foot + ball
popcorn    pop + corn
strawberry    straw + berry

There is a list of 300 common compound nouns here: common-compound-nouns.

b) Both parts of phrasal verbs are stressed, for example:

wake up
go out

c) Acronyms are usually stressed on the final syllable, for example:

BBC
DVD

d) There is a small group of words called homographs which are pairs of words with the same spelling, but different stress depending on the type of word, (whether it is a noun or a verb), for example:

Click here for a longer list of noun-verb homographs: noun-verb-homographs.

e) As we can see in the table above, it is very common for two-syllable verbs to be stressed on the second syllable.

This advice can help us to find word stress because modern English often consists mainly of:

• words of one syllable – where the word stress is obvious
• words with suffixes, which guide us because they are not stressed or follow a word stress rule
• words which are compound nouns

Click here for an analysis of a newspaper article that proves this point: working-out-word-stress.

1.7.5  Apart from the helpful guidance above, the best place to start if you want to find the stressed syllable in a word is the final syllable. In general, a word is stressed on the nearest strong syllable to the end. We must work from right to left, beginning with the final syllable, and assess whether each syllable is strong or weak. It depends on the vowel sound: a strong syllable is one with a long vowel sound (e.g. ar, ee), a diphthong (e.g. ai, ei), or a short vowel sound (e.g. a, o, but not a schwa sound). If it is strong, we have found the stressed syllable. If it is weak, we must move along until we find a strong syllable. Click here to read examples of this process: english-stress-rules.

Exercises

Ex. 1.7.1 Reading  Put the words into groups depending on how many syllables there are:

Ex. 1.7.2 Writing  Write more words on the topic of Learning English in each group:

Ex. 1.7.3 Reading  Underline the stressed syllable in each word:

1. adverb
2. article
3. beginner
4. course
5. dictionary
6. elementary
7. English
8. grammar
9. homework
10. intermediate
11. level
12. listening
13. mobile
14. noun
15. paper
16. partner
17. pen
18. pronunciation
19. qualification
20. reading

Ex. 1.7.4 Reading  Underline the suffix in each word and put the words into groups:

1. dictionary
2. reading
3. grammar
4. syllable
5. consonant
6. determiner
7. answer
8. elementary
9. listening
10. spelling
11. speaking
12. advanced
13. writing
14. tablet
15. mobile
16. example
17. beginner
18. qualification
19. student
20. level
21. computer
22. article
23. teacher
24. paragraph
25. certificate
26. intermediate
27. conjunction
28. partner
29. preposition
30. pronunciation

Ex. 1.7.5 Reading  Match the words to make 20 compound nouns:

Ex. 1.7.6 Reading  Add a word to each word to make a compound noun:

1. basket _______________
2. green _______________
3. under _______________
4. super _______________
5. land _______________
6. dust _______________
7. sales _______________
8. news _______________
9. tooth _______________
10. wind _______________
11. work _______________
12. play _______________
13. life _______________
14. ward _______________
15. paper _______________
16. milk _______________
17. every _______________
18. hair _______________
19. day _______________
20. wall       _______________

Ex. 1.7.7 Reading  Use a dictionary to help you complete the table and underline the stressed syllable(s) in each item: