English words have certain patterns of stress which you should observe strictly if you want to be understood. The best way to learn English stress is to listen to audio materials and to repeat them after the speaker. The links on the entrance pages of the sections Phonetics, Phrases, and Vocabulary lead to the sites that offer useful listening materials, including sounds, syllables, words, sentences, and conversations. An overview of typical English patterns of word stress in this material will help you to recognize and understand word stress when you work with listening materials. It will also be helpful to listen to examples of word stress in Listening for Word Stress (AmE) in the section Phonetics.
Note: Main stressed syllable in the word is indicated by capital letters in this material, for example, LEMon. In words with two stresses, capital letters with a stress mark before them show the syllable with primary stress, and small letters with a stress mark before them show the syllable with secondary stress, for example, ‘eco’NOMics.
General guidelines on word stress
Generally, common English nouns, adjectives, and adverbs are more often stressed on the first syllable than on any other syllable. Verbs with prefixes are usually stressed on the second syllable, i.e., on the first syllable of the root after the prefix. English words can’t have two unstressed syllables at the beginning of the word; one of these syllables will be stressed. If a word has four or more syllables, there are usually two stresses in it: primary stress (strong stress) and secondary stress (weak stress). Also, secondary stress may be present (in addition to primary stress) in shorter words in the syllable in which the vowel sound remains long and strong.
Prefixes are often stressed in nouns and less often in verbs. Suffixes at the end of the word are rarely stressed, except for a few noun, adjective, and verb suffixes that are usually stressed: rooMETTE, ‘ciga’RETTE / ‘CIGa’rette, Chi’NESE, ‘SIGni’fy, ‘ORga’nize, ‘DECo’rate. In longer derivative words, stress may fall on a suffix or prefix according to typical patterns of word stress. Endings are not stressed.
Stress in derivatives
Stress in a derivative may remain the same as in the word from which it was derived, or it may change in a certain way. When nouns are formed from verbs, or verbs are formed from nouns, the following patterns of stress often occur.
The same stress:
deNY (verb) – deNIal (noun)
ofFEND (verb) – ofFENCE (noun)
reVIEW (noun) – reVIEW (verb)
PREview (noun) – PREview (verb)
HOSpital (noun) – HOSpitalize (verb)
Shift of stress:
preSENT (verb) – PRESent (noun)
reFER (verb) – REFerence (noun)
exTRACT (verb) – EXtract (noun)
inCREASE (verb) – INcrease (noun)
OBject (noun) – obJECT (verb)
Other parts of speech derived from nouns and verbs have the following typical patterns of stress.
Adjectives are usually stressed on the first syllable or repeat the stress of the nouns from which they were derived: fate (noun) – FATal (adj.); COLor (noun) – COLorful (adj.). But stress may change in longer derivative adjectives: METal (noun) – meTALlic (adj.); ATHlete (noun) – athLETic (adj.); geOLogy (noun) – ‘geo’LOGical (adj.); ARgument (noun) – ‘argu’MENtative (adj.).
Adverbs are usually stressed on the first syllable or repeat the stress of the adjectives from which they were derived: ANgry – ANgrily; WONderful – WONderfully; FOOLish – FOOLishly; athLETic – athLETically.
Gerunds and participles repeat the stress of the verbs from which they were formed: forGET – forGETting – forGOTten; CANcel – CANceling – CANceled; ‘ORga’nize – ‘ORga’nizing – ORganized.
Typical patterns of stress
Let’s look at typical examples of stress in English words. Main factors that influence stress are the number of syllables in the word, and whether the word is a noun, an adjective, or a verb.
ONE-SYLLABLE WORDS
One-syllable nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are stressed on the vowel sound in the word. Note that a diphthong is one complex vowel sound that forms only one syllable. A diphthong is stressed on its first main component.
book, cat, rain, boat, crow, chair
read, burn, touch, choose, laugh, hear
new, bright, large, short, clear, loud
late, fast, soon, now
TWO-SYLLABLE WORDS
Two-syllable nouns
Two-syllable nouns are usually stressed on the first syllable.
TEACHer, STUDent, CARpet, LESson
REgion, ILLness, STATEment, CITy
CONvict, INcrease, INstinct, OBject
PERmit, PRESent, PROject, SYMbol
Nouns may be stressed on the last syllable if there is a long vowel sound or a diphthong in it. Words of foreign origin (especially words of French origin) may be stressed on the last syllable.
trainEE, caREER, deLAY, conCERN
poLICE, hoTEL, beRET, rooMETTE
Two-syllable adjectives
Two-syllable adjectives are usually stressed on the first syllable.
FUNny, LOCal, USEful
FOOLish, NATive, CAREless
Some adjectives are stressed on the last syllable if there is a long vowel sound or a diphthong in it.
abSURD, comPLETE, exTREME, moROSE
If there is a prefix in an adjective, stress often falls on the first syllable of the root after the prefix.
inSANE, imMUNE, enGAged
unWELL, unKNOWN
Two-syllable verbs
Two-syllable verbs are usually stressed on the second syllable, especially if the first syllable is a prefix.
adMIT, apPLY, beGIN, beLIEVE
comBINE, conFIRM, deNY, deSERVE
disLIKE, misPLACE, exPLAIN
forBID, forGET, igNORE, inVITE
oBEY, ocCUR, perMIT, prePARE
proPOSE, purSUE, reCEIVE, rePLY
supPLY, surPRISE, unDO, unLOCK
But there are many verbs that are stressed on the first syllable.
HAPpen, CANcel, PRACtice
ANswer, OFfer, MENtion
FOLlow, BORrow, PUNish
THREE-SYLLABLE WORDS
Three-syllable nouns
Three-syllable nouns are usually stressed on the first syllable.
POLitics, GOVernment, GENeral
INterest, GRADuate, CONfidence
But many nouns, especially those derived from verbs with prefixes, have stress on the second syllable.
apPROVal, conFUSion, conSUMer
corRECTness, eLECtion, diRECtor
Some nouns have primary stress on the last syllable if there is a long vowel sound or a diphthong in it.
‘engi’NEER, ‘refu’GEE
Three-syllable adjectives
Three-syllable adjectives are usually stressed on the first syllable.
GENeral, DELicate, EXcellent
WONderful, FAVorite, CURious
Some adjectives have one more stress on the last syllable if there is a long vowel or a diphthong in it.
‘OBso’lete / ‘obso’LETE
‘Vietna’MESE, ‘Portu’GUESE
Some adjectives do not repeat the stress of the noun from which they were derived and are stressed on the second syllable.
geNERic, symBOLic, inSTINCtive
Three-syllable verbs
Three-syllable verbs often have primary stress on the first syllable (even if it is a prefix) and secondary stress on the last syllable (which is often a verb suffix).
‘ORga’nize, ‘MODer’nize
‘SIGni’fy, ‘SPECi’fy
‘COMpen’sate, ‘DECo’rate
‘COMpli’ment, ‘CONsti’tute
But many verbs, especially those with prefixes, have stress on the second syllable.
conTINue, conSIDer, reMEMber
If the prefix consists of two syllables, its first syllable usually gets secondary stress.
‘under’STAND, ‘decom’POSE
‘contra’DICT, ‘corre’SPOND
FOUR OR MORE SYLLABLES
Long nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs usually have two stresses: primary stress and secondary stress. But there are some long words with only one stress. There are four patterns of stress in long words.
Only one stress: on the first syllable
Nouns:
ACcuracy, DELicacy
Adjectives:
INteresting
Only one stress: on the second syllable
Nouns:
inTOLerance, geOMetry, aMERica
simPLICity, moBILity, teLEpathy
acCOMpaniment
Adjectives:
sigNIFicant, mysTErious, traDItional
inTOLerable, unREAsonable, noTOrious
Verbs:
acCOMpany
Two stresses: on the first and third syllable
This is a very common stress pattern in long words in English.
Nouns:
‘eco’NOMics, ‘infor’MAtion
‘consti’TUtion, ‘repe’TItion
‘coloni’ZAtion, ‘multipli’CAtion
Adjectives:
‘aca’DEMic, ‘geo’METrical
‘inter’NAtional, ‘cosmo’POLitan
‘capita’LIStic, ‘conver’SAtional
‘PAtro’nizing
Two stresses: on the second and fourth syllable
Nouns:
con’side’RAtion
in’vesti’GAtion
con’tinu’Ation
Adjectives:
ex’peri’MENtal
in’compre’HENsible
Verbs:
i’DENti’fy, in’TENsi’fy
in’TOXi’cate, ac’CUmu’late
com’MERcia’lize, a’POLo’gize.
Ударение в слове
Английские слова имеют определённые модели ударения, которые нужно строго соблюдать, если вы хотите, чтобы вас понимали. Лучший способ изучить английское ударение – слушать аудиоматериалы и повторять их за диктором. Ссылки на входных страницах разделов Phonetics, Phrases и Vocabulary ведут на сайты, которые предлагают полезные материалы для прослушивания, включая звуки, слоги, слова, предложения и разговоры. Краткий обзор типичных английских моделей ударения в данном материале поможет вам узнавать и понимать ударение в словах, когда вы работаете с материалами для прослушивания. Также будет полезно прослушать примеры ударения в материале для прослушивания Listening for Word Stress (AmE) в разделе Phonetics.
Примечание: Главный ударный слог в слове указан заглавными буквами в данном материале, например, LEMon. В словах с двумя ударениями, заглавные буквы со значком ударения перед ними показывают слог с главным ударением, а маленькие буквы со значком ударения перед ними показывают слог с второстепенным ударением, например, ‘eco’NOMics.
Общие рекомендации по ударению в словах
В целом, употребительные английские существительные, прилагательные и наречия чаще ударяются на первом слоге, чем на любом другом слоге. Глаголы с приставками обычно имеют ударение на втором слоге, т.е. на первом слоге корня после приставки. Английские слова не могут иметь два неударных слога в начале слова; один из этих слогов будет ударным. Если в слове четыре или более слогов, то в нём обычно два ударения: главное ударение (сильное ударение) и второстепенное ударение (слабое ударение). Также, второстепенное ударение может присутствовать (в дополнение к главному ударению) в более коротких словах в слоге, в котором гласный звук остается долгим и сильным.
Приставки часто ударные в существительных и реже в глаголах. Суффиксы в конце слова редко ударные, за исключением нескольких суффиксов существительных, прилагательных и глаголов, которые обычно ударные: rooMETTE, ‘ciga’RETTE / ‘CIGa’rette, Chi’NESE, ‘SIGni’fy, ‘ORga’nize, ‘DECo’rate. В более длинных производных словах ударение может падать на приставку или суффикс согласно типичным моделям ударения в слове. Окончания не ударные.
Ударение в производных словах
Ударение в производном слове может остаться таким же, как в слове, от которого оно образовано, или оно может измениться определённым образом. Когда существительные образуются от глаголов, или глаголы образуются от существительных, часто возникают следующие модели ударения.
Одинаковое ударение:
deNY (глагол) – deNIal (существительное)
ofFEND (глагол) – ofFENCE (существительное)
reVIEW (сущ.) – reVIEW (глагол)
PREview (сущ.) – PREview (глагол)
HOSpital (сущ.) – HOSpitalize (глагол)
Смещение ударения:
preSENT (глагол) – PRESent (существительное)
reFER (глагол) – REFerence (сущ.)
exTRACT (глагол) – EXtract (сущ.)
inCREASE (глагол) – INcrease (сущ.)
OBject (сущ.) – obJECT (глагол)
Другие части речи, образованные от существительных и глаголов, имеют следующие типичные модели ударения.
Прилагательные обычно ударные на первом слоге или повторяют ударение существительных, от которых они были образованы: fate (сущ.) – FATal (прилаг.); COLor (сущ.) – COLorful (прилаг.). Но ударение может меняться в более длинных производных прилагательных: METal (сущ.) – meTALlic (прилаг.); ATHlete (сущ.) – athLETic (прилаг.); geOLogy (сущ.) – ‘geo’LOGical (прилаг.); ARgument (сущ.) – ‘argu’MENtative (прилаг.).
Наречия обычно ударные на первом слоге или повторяют ударение прилагательных, от которых они были образованы: ANgry – ANgrily; WONderful – WONderfully; FOOLish – FOOLishly; athLETic – athLETically.
Герундий и причастия повторяют ударение глаголов, от которых они были образованы: forGET (забывать) – forGETting – forGOTten; CANcel (отменять) – CANceling – CANceled; ‘ORga’nize (организовать) – ‘ORga’nizing – ORganized.
Типичные модели ударения
Давайте посмотрим на типичные примеры ударения в английских словах. Главные факторы, которые влияют на ударение – количество слогов в слове и является ли это слово существительным, прилагательным или глаголом.
ОДНОСЛОЖНЫЕ СЛОВА
Односложные существительные, глаголы, прилагательные и наречия имеют ударение на гласном звуке в слове. Обратите внимание, что дифтонг – это один сложный гласный звук, который образует только один слог. Дифтонг имеет ударение на своём первом главном компоненте.
книга, кот, дождь, лодка, ворона, стул
читать, гореть, трогать, выбрать, смеяться, слышать
новый, яркий, большой, короткий, ясный, громкий
поздний / поздно, быстрый / быстро, скоро, сейчас
ДВУСЛОЖНЫЕ СЛОВА
Двусложные существительные
Существительные из двух слогов обычно ударные на первом слоге.
учитель, студент, ковер, урок
район, болезнь, утверждение, город
осужденный, увеличение, инстинкт, предмет
пропуск, подарок, проект, символ
Существительные могут иметь ударение на последнем слоге, если в нём долгий гласный звук или дифтонг. Слова иностранного происхождения (особенно слова французского происхождения) могут иметь ударение на последнем слоге.
стажер, карьера, задержка, забота
полиция, гостиница, берет, одноместное купе
Двусложные прилагательные
Прилагательные из двух слогов обычно ударные на первом слоге.
смешной, местный, полезный
глупый, родной, беззаботный
Некоторые двусложные прилагательные могут иметь ударение на последнем слоге, если в нём долгий гласный звук или дифтонг.
абсурдный, полный, крайний, угрюмый
Если в прилагательном есть приставка, то ударение часто падает на первый слог корня после приставки.
безумный, имеющий иммунитет, занятый
нездоровый, неизвестный
Двусложные глаголы
Глаголы из двух слогов обычно ударные на втором слоге, особенно если первый слог – приставка.
допускать, применять, начинать, верить
соединять, подтвердить, отрицать, заслуживать
не любить, положить не на место, объяснять
запрещать, забывать, игнорировать, приглашать
подчиняться, возникать, разрешать, подготовить
предлагать, преследовать, получать, ответить
снабжать, удивлять, аннулировать, отпереть
Но есть много глаголов, которые имеют ударение на первом слоге.
случаться, отменить, практиковать
отвечать, предлагать, упоминать
следовать, заимствовать, наказывать
ТРЕХСЛОЖНЫЕ СЛОВА
Трехсложные существительные
Существительные из трёх слогов обычно имеют ударение на первом слоге.
политика, правительство, генерал
интерес, выпускник, уверенность
Но многие существительные, особенно образованные от глаголов с приставками, имеют ударение на втором слоге.
одобрение, замешательство, потребитель
правильность, избрание, директор
Некоторые существительные могут иметь главное ударение на последнем слоге, если в нём долгий гласный звук или дифтонг.
инженер, беженец
Трехсложные прилагательные
Прилагательные из трёх слогов обычно имеют ударение на первом слоге.
общий, деликатный, превосходный
чудесный, любимый, любопытный
Некоторые трёхсложные прилагательные имеют ещё одно ударение на последнем слоге, если в нём долгий гласный звук или дифтонг.
вышедший из употребления
вьетнамский, португальский
Некоторые прилагательные не повторяют ударение существительного, от которого они были образованы, и ударяются на втором слоге.
видовой, символический, инстинктивный
Трехсложные глаголы
Глаголы из трёх слогов часто имеют главное ударение на первом слоге (даже если это приставка) и второстепенное ударение на последнем слоге (который часто глагольный суффикс).
организовать, модернизировать
означать, уточнять
компенсировать, украшать
делать комплимент, составлять
Но многие глаголы, особенно те, которые с приставками, имеют ударение на втором слоге.
продолжать, рассмотреть, помнить
Если приставка состоит из двух слогов, её первый слог обычно получает второстепенное ударение.
понимать, разлагаться
противоречить, соответствовать
ЧЕТЫРЕ ИЛИ БОЛЕЕ СЛОГОВ
Длинные существительные, прилагательные, глаголы и наречия обычно имеют два ударения: главное и второстепенное ударение. Но есть некоторые длинные слова только с одним ударением. В длинных словах четыре модели ударения.
Только одно ударение: на первом слоге
Существительные:
точность, утончённость
Прилагательные:
интересный
Только одно ударение: на втором слоге
Существительные:
нетерпимость, геометрия, Америка
простота, мобильность, телепатия
аккомпанемент
Прилагательные:
значительный, таинственный, традиционный
невыносимый, неразумный, печально известный
Глаголы:
сопровождать
Два ударения: на первом и третьем слоге
Это очень распространённая модель ударения в длинных словах в английском языке.
Существительные:
экономика, информация
конституция, повторение
колонизация, умножение
Прилагательные:
академический, геометрический
международный, космополитический
капиталистический, разговорный
покровительственный
Два ударения: на втором и четвертом слоге
Существительные:
рассмотрение
расследование
продолжение
Прилагательные:
экспериментальный
непонятный / непостижимый
Глаголы:
идентифицировать, усиливать
опьянять, накапливать
превращать в источник прибыли, извиняться.
Word Stress in
English
Word stress is
your magic key to understanding spoken English. Native speakers of
English use word stress naturally. Word stress is so natural for them that
they don’t even know they use it. Non-native speakers who speak English to
native speakers without using word stress, encounter two problems:
- They find it difficult to understand native speakers, especially
those speaking fast. - The native speakers may find it difficult to
understand them.
To understand
word stress, it helps to understand syllables. Every word is made from
syllables. Each word has one, two, three or more syllables.
word |
number of syllables |
|
dog |
dog |
1 |
green |
green |
1 |
quite |
quite |
1 |
quiet |
qui-et |
2 |
orange |
or-ange |
2 |
table |
ta-ble |
2 |
expensive |
ex-pen-sive |
3 |
interesting |
in-ter-est-ing |
4 |
realistic |
re-al-is-tic |
4 |
unexceptional |
un-ex-cep-tion-al |
5 |
Notice that (with
a few rare exceptions) every syllable contains at least one vowel (a, e,
i, o or u) or vowel sound.
What is Word Stress?
In English, we
do not say each syllable with the same force or strength. In one word, we
accentuate ONE syllable. We say one syllable very loudly (big,
strong, important) and all the other syllables very quietly.
Let’s take 3
words: photograph, photographer and photographic. Do they
sound the same when spoken? No. Because we accentuate (stress) ONE syllable
in each word. And it is not always the same syllable. So the shape of
each word is different.
shape |
total |
stressed |
|
PHO TO GRAPH |
3 |
#1 |
|
PHO TO GRAPH ER |
4 |
#2 |
|
PHO TO GRAPH IC |
4 |
#3 |
This happens in
ALL words with 2 or more syllables: TEACHer, JaPAN, CHINa, aBOVE, converSAtion,
INteresting, imPORtant, deMAND, etCETera, etCETera, etCETera
The syllables
that are not stressed are weak or small or quiet.
Native speakers of English listen for the STRESSED syllables, not the weak
syllables. If you use word stress in your speech, you will instantly and
automatically improve your pronunciation and your comprehension.
Try to hear the
stress in individual words each time you listen to English — on the radio, or
in films for example. Your first step is to HEAR and recognise it. After
that, you can USE it!
There are two
very important rules about word stress:
- One word, one stress. (One word cannot have two stresses.
So if you hear two stresses, you have heard two words, not one word.) - The stress is always on a vowel.
Why is Word Stress Important?
Word stress is
not used in all languages. Some languages, Japanese or French for example,
pronounce each syllable with eq-ual em-pha-sis. Other languages, English for
example, use word stress.
Word stress is
not an optional extra that you can add to the English language if you want. It
is part of the language! English speakers use word stress to
communicate rapidly and accurately, even in difficult conditions. If, for
example, you do not hear a word clearly, you can still understand the word
because of the position of the stress.
Think again
about the two words photograph and photographer. Now imagine
that you are speaking to somebody by telephone over a very bad line. You
cannot hear clearly. In fact, you hear only the first two syllables of one of
these words, photo… Which word is it, photograph or photographer? Of
course, with word stress you will know immediately which word it is because in
reality you will hear either PHOto… or phoTO… So without hearing the whole
word, you probably know what the word is ( PHOto…graph or phoTO…grapher). It’s magic! (Of course, you
also have the ‘context’ of your conversation to help you.)
This is a simple
example of how word stress helps us understand English. There are many, many
other examples, because we use word stress all the time, without thinking about
it.
Where do I Put Word Stress?
There are some
rules about which syllable to stress. But…the rules are rather complicated!
Probably the best way to learn is from experience. Listen carefully to spoken
English and try to develop a feeling for the «music» of the language.
When you learn a
new word, you should also learn its stress pattern. If you keep a vocabulary
book, make a note to show which syllable is stressed. If you do not know, you
can look in a dictionary. All dictionaries give the phonetic spelling of a
word. This is where they show which syllable is stressed, usually with an
apostrophe (‘) just before or just after the stressed syllable.
(The notes at the front of the dictionary will explain the system used.) Look
at (and listen to) this example for the word plastic. There are 2 syllables.
Syllable #1 is stressed.
example |
phonetic spelling: |
phonetic spelling: |
PLAS TIC |
||
/plæs’tIk/ |
/’plæs tIk/ |
Rules of Word Stress in English
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.
1
Stress on first syllable
rule |
example |
Most 2-syllable |
PRESent, |
Most 2-syllable |
PRESent, |
2
Stress on last syllable
rule |
example |
Most 2-syllable |
to 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.
3
Stress on penultimate syllable (penultimate = second from end)
rule |
example |
Words ending |
GRAPHic, |
Words ending |
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.
4
Stress on ante-penultimate syllable (ante-penultimate = third from end)
rule |
example |
Words ending |
deMOcracy, |
Words ending |
CRItical, |
5
Compound words (words with two parts)
rule |
example |
For compound nouns, |
BLACKbird, |
For compound adjectives, |
bad-TEMpered, |
For compound verbs, |
to underSTAND, |
In
linguistics, stress
is
the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a
word. It comprises five features:
It is l-o-n-g-e-r –
com-p-u-ter
It is LOUDER — comPUTer
It has a change in pitch from
the syllables coming before and afterwards. The pitch of a stressed
syllable is usually higher.
It is said more clearly. The
vowel sound is purer. Compare the first and last vowel sounds with
the stressed sound.
It uses larger facial
movements. Look in the mirror when you say the word. Look at your jaw
and lips in particular.
Degrees of word stress
English is
commonly believed to have three levels of stress – primary
stress
(in stressed syllable), secondary
stress (in half-stressed syllables), and weak (in unstressed
syllables).
The mark
(`) is used to indicate primary stress, secondary stress is marked by
(,).
A large group of polysyllabic simple words nave both primary and
secondary word stresses, eg ,conver`sation.
Position of the word stress
Word stress in English as well
as in Ukrainian is free, in the sense that the primary stress is not
tied to any particular syllable in all the words. But it always falls
on a particular syllable of any given word. The position of the word
stress is the product of its historical development.
Some ‘rules’ of word
stress
There are patterns in word
stress in English but, as a rule (!), it is dangerous to say there
are fixed rules. Exceptions can usually be found.
Here are some general
tendencies for word stress in English:
1. In a
monosyllabic
word
(a word that consists of a single syllable like cat) and most
disyllabic
words
(a word consisting of two syllables like monkey) the stress falls on
the initial syllable, eg `apple, `table, `happy (the exceptions are
ho`tel, la`goon).
2. In most
polysyllabic
words
stress falls on the third syllable from the end of the word, e.g.
`family, `cinema.
This stress pattern is
especially typical of polysyllabic words with suffixes:
—
ify classify, terrify, humidify, personify, solidify
—
ate operate, exaggerate, associate, integrate, certificate
—
ize apologize, criticize, recognize, computerize
—
logy biology, sociology, anthropology, psychology
—
graphy / grapher autobiography, photography, geographer
—
logist biologist
But exceptions are usually
found.
The stress falls on the second
syllable from the end of the word before the following suffixes:
—
ial memorial, financial, artificial, essential
—
ual visual, unusual, intellectual, individual
—
ian Canadian, vegetarian, pedestrian, politician
—
sion explosion, occasion, conclusion, permission
—
tion definition, production, situation, qualification
—
ient ancient, sufficient, efficient, deficient, proficient
—
cious delicious, conscious, suspicious, judicious
—
tious ambitious, cautious, superstitious, conscientious
—
ic academic, energetic, fantastic, terrific, realistic
—
ary secretary, necessary, contemporary, vocabulary
—
ous dangerous, mysterious, spontaneous, simultaneous
—
ible edible, flexible, incredible, impossible
—
ity ability, necessity, publicity, possibility, humidity
—
meter kilometer, parameter, speedometer, thermometer
The stress falls on the final
syllable by the following suffixes:
—
ee employee, refugee, trainee, referee
—
eer engineer, career, volunteer
— ese Chinese, Japanese,
Portuguese
— ique unique, antique,
technique
3. 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:
Noun |
Verb |
Example |
record present conduct desert |
record present suspect desert |
The bank recorded a new He They’re The The |
4. Most
words of more that four syllables have two stresses: primary
and secondary.
The primary stress usually falls either on the third or second
syllable from the end.
In words
with the primary stress on the third syllable the secondary stress
usually falls on the first syllable, eg ,deco`ration.
If the
primary stress falls on the fourth or fifth syllable the secondary
stress is very commonly on the second syllable: ar,ticu`lation,
ex,perimen`tation.
Consequently
the position of the secondary stress is often that of the primary
stress in the original word, i.e. in the word from which the
derivative word is formed: ‘possible
— possi`bility, ap`preciate — ap,preci`ation.
5. Some
English words have two
primary stresses,
the second being the nuclear one.
The
following groups of words have two primary stresses:
(a)
polysyllables with separable prefixes haying a distinct meaning of
their own:
—
negative prefixes un-, dis-. non-, in- (and its variants ir-. il-,
im), eg: ,un’able,
,un’known,
,unem’phatic,
,unpre’pared,
,disap’pear,
,discon`nect,
,disbe’lief,
,non’smoker,
,non’final,
,non’union,
,incon’venient,
,in`artistic,
,in’accurate,
,il`literate,
,il’legal,
,imma’terial,
,ir`regular,
,ir`responsible.
re-
(meaning repetition), eg: ,re’wi’ie,
,re`organize,
,reu’nite
mis-
(meaning wrong), eg: ,misunder’stand,
,mis’print,
,mis’count
pre-
(meaning ‘before’, ‘earlier’), eg: ,pre’paid,
,pre-‘war,
,prehis’toric
ex-
(meaning ‘former’), eg: ,ex-‘minister,
,ex-‘champion,
,ex-‘husband
under-,
sub-
(meaning ‘subordinate’), eg: ,under`charge,
,under`secretary,
,sub`conscious,
,subdi`vide
inter-
(meaning ‘among’), eg: ,inter`course,
,inter`change,
,inter`view
— some
other rarely used prefixes like
anti-, vice», ultra-, out-,
eg antifascist,
vice-president, ultra-fashionable, outspread.
Note that
very
common words with these prefixes
sometimes lose the stress on
the prefix in everyday usage, eg; un’usual,
im’possibie, mis’take; the
stress on the prefix is also lost in words which are not used without
these prefixes, eg dis’
courage
(v), dis’dain.
(b)
numerals from 13 to 19 including (otherwise in oral speech they might
be easily mixed with such numerals as 30, 40,
50…
90).
(c)
compound numerals, eg ‘twenty-‘
three.
(d)
compound adjectives,
eg: ‘well-‘known,
‘absent-‘minded, ‘kind-‘hearted.
(e)
compound verbs consisting of a verb followed by a post-position or a
preposition-like adverb which changes the primary meaning of the verb
and as a result of it becomes very important and obtains a strong
stress, eg to ‘give
‘in, to ‘put ‘on, to ‘take ‘off, to ‘try ‘on.
6.
Word
stress in compounds (words composed of separable root morphemes)
depends on the semantic weight of the elements. When the first
element determines, restricts the second one or introduces some
contrast it is stressed while the second element of the compound
remains unstressed though the stressed vowel of the second element
retains its qualitative and quantitative prominence.
This is the
case with the majority of compound nouns. They are usually
single-stressed, eg: ‘reading-room,
‘writing-table, apple-tree, ‘suitcase, ‘raincoat, ‘music-hall,
‘blackboard, ‘fountain-pen, ‘deadline,
‘classroom,
‘software,
‘typewriter,
‘policeman,
‘airplane,
‘bus
station, ‘air
conditioner, ‘sports
car, ‘credit
card, ‘stock
market, ‘Great
wall.
This type
of word stress in compound nouns differentiates compounds from word
combinations in which every word has a stress, compare:
‘blackbird
‘goldfish
‘strong-box |
‘black
‘black
‘gold ‘strong |
Double-stressed
compound nouns are comparatively rare. In such compounds both
elements are equally important, eg ‘gas-‘stove,
‘gas-‘ring, ‘absent-‘mindedness, ‘ice-‘cream.
Compound
adjectives have generally two stresses for both elements are equally
significant in them, eg: ‘clean-‘shaven,
‘well-‘bred, ‘bare-‘footed, ‘broad-‘shouldered; ‘first-‘class,
‘home-‘made, ‘bad-‘tempered, ‘good-‘natured, ‘absent-‘minded,
‘clean-‘shaven, ‘close-‘shaded, ‘old-‘fashioned.
Compound
adjectives with only one stress on the first element occur when the
second element is semantically weak, and add little meaning to the
first element, eg ‘spring-like,
‘childlike, ‘oval-shaped, ‘square-shaped, ‘yellowish-looking,
‘bottle-shaped, ‘heavy- looking.
Compound
verbs have stresses on both elements as they are of equal semantic
significance, but more strongly on the second word, eg ‘give
‘in — ‘give ‘out, ‘turn ‘on — ‘turn ‘out.
Their noun equivalents have
stress on the first part, compare:
Noun: |
Verb: |
Here’s
She’s a
Where’s There |
He
She
Can I
,Hold I’ll |
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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)
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.
What is word stress?
Word stress, also called lexical stress, is the emphasis a speaker places on a specific syllable in a multi-syllable word.
Word stress is especially hard for non-native speakers to master. While there are a few conventions and general rules governing which syllable is stressed in a word based on its spelling alone, these conventions are often unreliable.
Before we look at these conventions and their exceptions, let’s discuss how we can indicate syllables and word stress in writing.
Indicating syllables in writing
In this section, we’ll be using different symbols to indicate syllable division in words. For the normal spelling of words, we’ll be using a symbol known as an interpunct ( · ) (also called a midpoint, middle dot, or centered dot). For example, the word application would appear as app·li·ca·tion.
When the pronunciation of a word is transcribed using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), there are three different symbols we use. For syllables that receive the primary stress, we use a short vertical line above and immediately before the syllable being emphasized ( ˈ ); for secondary stress, we use the same vertical line, but it appears below and before the syllable ( ˌ ); and, while this guide usually does not mark them in IPA transcriptions, we will indicate unstressed syllables in this section with periods. Using application as an example again, its pronunciation would be transcribed in IPA as /ˌæp.lɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/.
Written syllables vs. spoken syllables
The syllable breakdowns in the written “dictionary” form of words are often divided slightly differently compared to the phonetic “spoken” form used in IPA transcriptions.
Specifically, the written form divides syllables according to established syllable “types,” based on spelling patterns such as double consonants, short vowels contained within two consonants, and vowel digraphs. The spoken form, on the other hand, divides syllables according to the phonetic pronunciation of the word, and the difference between these two can sometime lead to syllable breakdowns that don’t look like they correspond to one another. For example, the word learning is divided in the dictionary as learn·ing, but it is divided as /ˈlɜr.nɪŋ/ in IPA transcription—the placement of the first N is not the same.
Because this part of the guide is more concerned with the phonetic placement of word stress rather than the technical breakdown of syllables (as found in dictionary entries), the examples we use will try to match the written form as closely as possible to the spoken form. Looking at the learning example again, we would divide the syllables as lear·ning to match its IPA transcription. Just be aware that these will often be slightly different to what one may find in a dictionary. For more technical information on how syllables are formed and divided within words, check out the chapter on Syllables.
Primary vs. secondary stress
Every word has one syllable that receives a primary stress—that is, it is vocally emphasized more than any other syllable. Some longer words also have a secondary stress, which is more emphatic than the unstressed syllables but not as strong as the primary stress. (Some words can even have more than one secondary stress.)
Let’s look at some examples, with the primary stress in bold and the secondary stress in italics:
- ab·sen·tee (/ˌæb.sənˈti/)
- cem·e·ter·y (/ˈsɛm.ɪˌtɛr.i/)
- dis·be·lief (/ˌdɪs.bɪˈlif/)
- in·for·ma·tion (/ˌɪn fərˈmeɪ ʃən/)
- labo·ra·tor·y (/ˈlæb.rəˌtɔr.i/; the initial O is usually silent)
- mil·i·tar·y (/ˈmɪl.ɪˌtɛr.i/)
- or·din·ar·y (/ˈɔr.dənˌɛr.i/)
- sec·re·tar·y (/ˈsɛk.rɪˌtɛr.i/)
- tem·po·rar·y (/ˈtɛm.pəˌrɛr.i/)
- un·a·pol·o·get·ic (/ˌʌn.əˌpɑl.əˈʤɛt.ɪk/)
Unfortunately, secondary stress is extremely unpredictable. Primary stress, on the other hand, can often be predicted according to a few different conventions.
Determining word stress
There are only two consistent, reliable rules about word stress in English:
- 1. Only the vowel sound within a syllable is stressed; stress is not applied to consonant sounds.
- 2. Any given word, even one with many syllables, will only have one syllable that receives the primary stress in speech. Some longer words also receive a secondary stress, which we’ll look at more closely further on. (By definition, single-syllable words only ever have a single stress, though certain function words can be unstressed altogether, which we’ll discuss later.)
However, determining which syllable is emphasized in a given word is not always straightforward, as a word’s spelling is usually not enough on its own to let us know the appropriate stress. There are a few general conventions that can help make this easier to determine, but there are many exceptions and anomalies for each.
Determining stress based on word type
One common pronunciation convention many guides provide is that nouns and adjectives with two or more syllables will have stress placed on the first syllable, while verbs and prepositions tend to have their stress on the second syllable. While there are many examples that support this convention, it is also very problematic because there are many exceptions that contradict it.
Let’s look at some examples that support or contradict this convention.
Nouns and adjectives will have stress on the first syllable
Nouns |
Adjectives |
---|---|
app·le (/ˈæp.əl/) bott·le (/ˈbɑt.əl/) busi·ness (/ˈbɪz.nɪs/; the I is silent) cherr·y (/ˈʧɛr.i/) cli·mate (/ˈklaɪ.mɪt/) crit·ic (/ˈkrɪt.ɪk/) dia·mond (/ˈdaɪ.mənd/) el·e·phant (/ˈɛl.ə.fənt/) en·ve·lope (/ˈɛnvəˌloʊp/) fam·i·ly (/ˈfæm.ə.li/) In·ter·net (/ˈɪn.tərˌnɛt/) knowl·edge (/ˈnɑl.ɪʤ/) mu·sic (/ˈmju.zɪk/) pa·per (/ˈpeɪ.pər/) sam·ple (/ˈsæm.pəl/) satch·el (/ˈsætʃ.əl/) ta·ble (/ˈteɪ.bəl/) tel·e·phone (/ˈtɛl.əˌfoʊn /) ton·ic (/ˈtɑn.ɪk/) win·dow (/ˈwɪn.doʊ/) |
clev·er (/ˈklɛv.ər/) comm·on (/ˈkɑm.ən/) diff·i·cult (/ˈdɪf.ɪˌkʌlt/) fa·vor·ite (/ˈfeɪ.vər.ɪt/) fem·i·nine (/ˈfɛm.ə.nɪn/) funn·y (/ˈfʌn.i/) happ·y (/ˈhæp.i/) hon·est (/ɑn.ɪst/) litt·le (/ˈlɪt.əl/) mas·cu·line (/ˈmæs.kju.lɪn/) narr·ow (/ˈnær.oʊ/) or·ange (/ˈɔr.ɪnʤ/) pleas·ant (/ˈplɛz.ənt/) pre·tty (/ˈprɪ.ti/) pur·ple (/ˈpɜr.pəl/) qui·et (/ˈkwaɪ.ət/) sim·ple (/ˈsɪm.pəl/) sub·tle (/ˈsʌt.əl/) trick·y (/ˈtrɪk.i/) ug·ly (/ˈʌg.li/) |
As we said already, though, there are many exceptions to this convention for both nouns and adjectives. Let’s look at some examples:
Nouns |
Adjectives |
---|---|
ba·na·na (/bə.ˈnæ.na/) ca·nal (/kə.ˈnæl/) com·put·er (/kəm.ˈpju.tər/) de·fence (/dɪ.ˈfɛns/) des·sert (/dɪ.ˈzɜrt/) di·sease (/dɪ.ˈziz/) ex·tent (/ɪk.ˈstɛnt/) ho·tel (/hoʊ.ˈtɛl/) ma·chine (/mə.ˈʃin/) pi·a·no (/pi.ˈæ.noʊ/) po·ta·to (/pə.ˈteɪˌtoʊ/) re·ceipt (/rɪ.ˈsit/) re·venge (/rɪ.ˈvɛnʤ/) suc·cess (/sɪk.ˈsɛs/) |
a·live (/ə.ˈlaɪv/) a·noth·er (/əˈnʌð.ər/) com·plete (/kəm.ˈplit/) dis·tinct (/dɪsˈtinkt/) e·nough (/ɪ.ˈnʌf/) ex·pen·sive (/ɪk.ˈspɛn.sɪv/) ex·tinct (/ɪk.ˈtiŋkt/) i·ni·tial (/ɪ.ˈnɪ.ʃəl/) in·tense (/ɪn.ˈtɛns/) po·lite (/pəˈlaɪt/) re·pet·i·tive (/rɪ.ˈpɛt.ɪ.tɪv/) un·think·a·ble (/ʌnˈθɪŋk.ə.bəl/) |
Verbs and prepositions will have stress on the second syllable
Verbs |
Prepositions |
---|---|
a·pply (/əˈplaɪ/) be·come (/bɪˈkʌm/) com·pare (/kəmˈpɛr/) di·scuss (/dɪˈskʌs/) ex·plain (/ɪkˈspleɪn/) ful·fil (/fʊlˈfɪl/) in·crease (/ɪnˈkris/) ha·rass (/həˈræs/) la·ment (/ləˈmɛnt/) ne·glect (/nɪˈglɛkt/) pre·vent (/prɪˈvɛnt/) qua·dru·ple (/kwɑˈdru.pəl/) re·ply (/rɪˈplaɪ/) suc·ceed (/səkˈsid/) tra·verse (/trəˈvɜrs/) un·furl (/ʌnˈfɜrl/) with·hold (/wɪθˈhoʊld/) |
a·bout (/əˈbaʊt/) a·cross (/əˈkrɔs/) a·long (/əˈlɔŋ/) a·mong (/əˈmʌŋ/) a·round (/əˈraʊnd/) be·hind (/bɪˈhaɪnd/) be·low (/bɪˈloʊ/) be·side (/bɪˈsaɪd/) be·tween (/bɪˈtwin/) de·spite (/dɪˈspaɪt/) ex·cept (/ɪkˈsɛpt/) in·side (/ˌɪnˈsaɪd/) out·side (/ˌaʊtˈsaɪd/) un·til (/ʌnˈtɪl/) u·pon (/əˈpɑn/) with·in (/wɪðˈɪn/) with·out (/wɪðˈaʊt/) |
As with nouns and adjectives, there are a huge number of exceptions that have primary stress placed on the first or third syllable. In fact, almost every verb beginning with G, H, J, K, L, and M has its primary stress placed on the first syllable, rather than the second.
Let’s look at a few examples:
Verbs |
Prepositions |
---|---|
ar·gue (/ˈɑr.gju/) beck·on (/ˈbɛk.ən/) can·cel (/ˈkæn.səl/) dom·i·nate (/ˈdɑm.əˌneɪt/) en·ter·tain (/ˌɛn.tərˈteɪn/) fas·ten (/ˈfæs.ən/) gam·ble (/ˈgæm.bəl/) hin·der (/ˈhɪn.dər/) i·so·late (/ˈaɪ.səˌleɪt/) jin·gle (/ˈʤɪŋ.gəl/) kin·dle (/ˈkɪn.dəl/) leng·then (/ˈlɛŋk.θən/) man·age (/ˈmæn.ɪʤ/) nour·ish (/ˈnɜr.ɪʃ/) or·ga·nize (/ˈɔr.gəˌnaɪz/) per·ish (/ˈpɛr.ɪʃ/) qua·ver (/ˈkweɪ.vər/) ram·ble (/ˈræm.bəl/) sa·vor (/ˈseɪ.vər/) threat·en (/ˈθrɛt.ən/) un·der·stand (/ˌʌn.dərˈstænd/) van·ish (/ˈvæn.ɪʃ/) wan·der (/ˈwɑn.dər/) yo·del (/ˈjoʊd.əl/) |
af·ter (/ˈæf.tər/) dur·ing (/ˈdʊr.ɪŋ/) in·to (/ˈɪn.tu/) on·to (/ˈɑn.tu/) un·der (/ˈʌn.dər/) |
Initial-stress-derived nouns
As we saw previously, we commonly place stress on the first syllable of a noun. When a word can operate as either a noun or a verb, we often differentiate the meanings by shifting the stress from the second syllable to the first (or initial) syllable—in other words, these nouns are derived from verbs according to their initial stress.
Let’s look at a few examples of such words that change in pronunciation when functioning as nouns or verbs:
Word |
Noun |
Verb |
---|---|---|
contest |
con·test (/ˈkɑn.tɛst/) Meaning: “a game, competition, or struggle for victory, superiority, a prize, etc.” |
con·test (/kənˈtɛst/) Meaning: “to dispute, contend with, call into question, or fight against” |
desert |
des·ert (/ˈdɛz.ərt/) Meaning: “a place where few things can grow or live, especially due to an absence of water” |
de·sert (/dɪˈzɜrt/) Meaning: “to abandon, forsake, or run away from” |
increase |
in·crease (/ˈɪn.kris/) Meaning: “the act or process of growing larger or becoming greater” |
in·crease (/ɪnˈkris/) Meaning: “to grow larger or become greater (in size, amount, strength, etc.)” |
object |
ob·ject (/ˈɑb.ʤɛkt/) Meaning: “any material thing that is visible or tangible” |
ob·ject (/əbˈʤɛkt/) Meaning: “to present an argument in opposition (to something)” |
permit |
per·mit (/ˈpɜr.mɪt/) Meaning: “an authoritative or official certificate of permission; license” |
per·mit (/pərˈmɪt/) Meaning: «to allow to do something» |
present |
pres·ent (/ˈprɛz.ənt/) Meaning: “the time occurring at this instant” or “a gift” |
pre·sent (/prɪˈzɛnt/) Meaning: “to give, introduce, offer, or furnish” |
project |
proj·ect (/ˈprɑʤ.ɛkt/) Meaning: “a particular plan, task, assignment, or undertaking” |
pro·ject (/prəˈʤɛkt/) Meaning: “to estimate, plan, or calculate” or “to throw or thrust forward” |
rebel |
reb·el (/ˈrɛb.əl/) Meaning: “a person who revolts against a government or other authority” |
re·bel (/rɪˈbɛl/) Meaning: “to revolt or act in defiance of authority” |
record |
rec·ord (/ˈrɛk.ərd/) Meaning: “information or knowledge preserved in writing or the like” or “something on which sound or images have been recorded for subsequent reproduction” |
re·cord (/rəˈkɔrd/) Meaning: “to set down in writing or the like” |
refuse |
ref·use (/ˈrɛf.juz/) Meaning: “something discarded or thrown away as trash” |
re·fuse (/rɪˈfjuz/) Meaning: “to decline or express unwillingness to do something” |
subject |
sub·ject (/ˈsʌb.ʤɛkt/) Meaning: “that which is the focus of a thought, discussion, lesson, investigation, etc.” |
sub·ject (/səbˈʤɛkt/) Meaning: “to bring under control, domination, authority” |
Although this pattern is very common in English, it is by no means a rule; there are just as many words that function as both nouns and verbs but that have no difference in pronunciation. For instance:
Word |
Noun |
Verb |
---|---|---|
amount |
a·mount (/əˈmaʊnt/) |
a·mount (/əˈmaʊnt/) |
answer |
an·swer (/ˈæn.sər/) |
an·swer (/ˈæn.sər/) |
attack |
a·ttack (/əˈtæk/) |
a·ttack (/əˈtæk/) |
challenge |
chall·enge (/ˈtʃæl.ɪnʤ/) |
chall·enge (/ˈtʃæl.ɪnʤ/) |
contact |
con·tact (/ˈkɑn.tækt/) |
con·tact (/ˈkɑn.tækt/) |
control |
con·trol (/kənˈtroʊl/) |
con·trol (/kənˈtroʊl/) |
forecast |
fore·cast (/ˈfɔrˌkæst/) |
fore·cast (/ˈfɔrˌkæst/) |
monitor |
mon·i·tor (/ˈmɑn.ɪ.tər/) |
mon·i·tor (/ˈmɑn.ɪ.tər/) |
pepper |
pep·per (/ˈpɛp.ər/) |
pep·per (/ˈpɛp.ər/) |
report |
re·port (/rɪˈpɔrt/) |
re·port (/rɪˈpɔrt/) |
respect |
re·spect (/rɪˈspɛkt/) |
re·spect (/rɪˈspɛkt/) |
support |
su·pport (/səˈpɔrt/) |
su·pport (/səˈpɔrt/) |
witness |
wit·ness (/ˈwɪt.nɪs/) |
wit·ness (/ˈwɪt.nɪs/) |
worry |
worr·y (/ˈwɜr.i/) |
worr·y (/ˈwɜr.i/) |
Word stress in compound words
Compound nouns and compound verbs typically create pronunciation patterns that help us determine which of their syllables will have the primary stress. Compound adjectives, on the other hand, are most often pronounced as two separate words, with each receiving its own primary stress, so we won’t be looking at them here.
We’ll also briefly look at reflexive pronouns. Although these aren’t technically compounds, they have a similarly predictable stress pattern.
Compound nouns
A compound noun is a noun consisting of two or more words working together as a single unit to name a person, place, or thing. Compound nouns are usually made up of two nouns or an adjective and a noun, but other combinations are also possible, as well.
In single-word compound nouns, whether they are conjoined by a hyphen or are simply one word, stress is almost always placed on the first syllable. For example:
- back·pack (/ˈbækˌpæk/)
- bath·room (/ˈbæθˌrum/)
- draw·back (/ˈdrɔˌbæk/)
- check-in (/ˈtʃɛkˌɪn/)
- foot·ball (/ˈfʊtˌbɔl/)
- hand·bag (/ˈhændˌbæɡ/)
- green·house (/ˈgrinˌhaʊs/)
- hair·cut (/ˈhɛrˌkʌt/)
- log·in (/ˈsʌn.ɪnˌlɔ/)
- mo·tor·cy·cle (/ˈmoʊ.tərˌsaɪ kəl/)
- on·look·er (/ˈɑnˌlʊkər/)
- pas·ser·by (/ˈpæs.ərˌbaɪ/)
- son-in-law (/ˈsʌn.ɪnˌlɔ/)
- ta·ble·cloth (/ˈteɪ.bəlˌklɔθ/)
- wall·pa·per (/ˈwɔlˌpeɪ.pər/)
- web·site (/ˈwɛbˌsaɪt/)
One notable exception to this convention is the word af·ter·noon, which has its primary stress on the third syllable: /ˌæf.tərˈnun/.
Single-word compound verbs
The term “compound verb” can refer to a few different things: phrasal verbs, which consist of a verb paired with a specific preposition or particle to create a new, unique meaning; prepositional verbs, in which a preposition connects a noun to a verb; combinations with auxiliary verbs, which form tense and aspect; and single-word compounds, in which a verb is combined with a noun, preposition, or another verb to create a new word. For the first three types of compound verbs, each word is stressed individually, but single-word compounds have a unique pronunciation pattern that we can predict.
For most single-word compound verbs, stress will be on the first syllable. However, if the first element of the compound is a two-syllable preposition, stress will be placed on the second element. For example:
- air-con·dit·ion (/ˈeɪr.kənˌdɪʃ.ən/)
- ba·by·sit (/ˈbeɪ.biˌsɪt/)
- cop·y·ed·it (/ˈkɑ.piˌɛd.ɪt/)
- day·dream (/ˈdeɪˌdrim/)
- down·load (/ˈdaʊnˌloʊd/)
- ice-skate (/ˈaɪsˌskeɪt/)
- jay·walk (/ˈʤeɪˌwɔk/)
- kick-start (/ˈkɪkˌstɑrt/)
- o·ver·heat (/ˌoʊ.vərˈhit/)
- proof·read (/ˈprufˌrid/)
- stir-fry (/ˈstɜrˌfraɪ/)
- test-drive (/ˈtɛstˌdraɪv/)
- un·der·cook (/ˌʌndərˈkʊk/)
- wa·ter·proof (/ˈwɔ.tərˌpruf/)
Reflexive Pronouns
Reflexive pronouns are not technically compounds (“-self” and “-selves” are suffixes that attach to a base pronoun), but they look and behave similarly. In these words, -self/-selves receives the primary stress.
- my·self (/maɪˈsɛlf/)
- her·self (/hərˈsɛlf/)
- him·self (/hɪmˈsɛlf/)
- it·self (/ɪtˈsɛlf/)
- one·self (/wʌnˈsɛlf/)
- your·self (/jərˈsɛlf/)
- your·selves (/jərˈsɛlvz/)
- them·selves (/ðəmˈsɛlvz/)
Word stress dictated by suffixes
While the stress in many words is very difficult to predict, certain suffixes and other word endings will reliably dictate where stress should be applied within the word. This can be especially useful for determining the pronunciation of longer words. (There are still some exceptions, but much fewer than for the other conventions we’ve seen.)
For the suffixes we’ll look at, primary stress is either placed on the suffix itself, one syllable before the suffix, or two syllables before the suffix. Finally, we’ll look at some suffixes that don’t affect a word’s pronunciation at all.
Stress is placed on the suffix itself
“-ee,” “-eer,” and “-ese”
These three suffixes all sound similar, but they have different functions: “-ee” indicates someone who benefits from or is the recipient of the action of a verb; “-eer” indicates someone who is concerned with or engaged in a certain action; and “-ese” is attached to place names to describe languages, characteristics of certain nationalities, or (when attached to non-place names) traits or styles of particular fields or professions.
For example:
-ee |
-eer |
-ese |
---|---|---|
ab·sen·tee (/ˌæbsənˈti/) a·tten·dee (/əˌtɛnˈdi/) de·tai·nee (/dɪˈteɪˈni/) in·ter·view·ee (/ɪnˌtər.vyuˈi/) li·cen·see (/ˌlaɪ.sənˈsi/) mort·ga·gee (/ˌmɔr.gəˈʤi/) pa·ro·lee (/pə.roʊˈli/) ref·e·ree (/ˌrɛf.əˈri/) ref·u·gee (/ˌrɛf.jʊˈʤi/) trai·nee (/treɪˈni/) warr·an·tee (/ˌwɔr.ənˈti/) |
auc·tio·neer (/ˌɔk.ʃəˈnɪər/) com·man·deer (/ˌkɑ.mənˈdɪər/) dom·i·neer (/ˌdɑm.ɪˈnɪər/) en·gi·neer (/ˌɛn.ʤɪˈnɪər/) moun·tai·neer (/ˌmaʊn.tɪˈnɪər/) prof·i·teer (/ˌprɑf.ɪˈtɪər/) pupp·e·teer (/ˌpʌp.ɪˈtɪər/) rack·e·teer (/ˌræk.ɪˈtɪər/) vol·un·teer (/ˌvɑl.ɪnˈtɪər/) |
Chi·nese (/tʃaɪˈniz/) Jap·a·nese (/ˌʤæp.əˈniz/) jour·na·lese (/ˌʤɜr.nəˈliz/) Leb·a·nese (/ˌlɛb.əˈniz/) le·ga·lese (/ˌli.gəˈliz/) Mal·tese (/ˌmɔlˈtiz/) Por·tu·guese (/ˌpɔr.tʃəˈgiz/) Si·a·mese (/ˌsaɪ.əˈmiz/) Tai·wa·nese (/ˌtaɪ.wɑˈniz/) Vi·et·na·mese (/viˌɛt.nɑˈmiz/) |
(The word employee usually follows this same pattern, but it is one of a few words that has its primary stress on different syllables depending on dialect and personal preference.)
Some other words that feature the “-ee” ending also follow the same pattern, even though they are not formed from another base word. For instance:
- chim·pan·zee (/ˌtʃɪm.pænˈzi/)
- guar·an·tee (/ˌgær.ənˈti/)
- jam·bo·ree (/ˌʤæm.bəˈri/)
- ru·pee (/ru.ˈpi/)
Be careful, though, because other words don’t follow the pattern. For example:
- ap·o·gee (/ˈæp.əˌʤi/)
- co·ffee (/ˈkɔ.fi/)
- co·mmit·tee (/kəˈmɪt.i/)
- kedg·e·ree (/ˈkɛʤ.əˌri/)
- te·pee (/ˈti.pi/)
“-ology”
This suffix is used to denote fields of scientific study or discourse; sets of ideas, beliefs, or principles; or bodies of texts or writings. Primary stress is placed on the syllable in which “-ol-” appears. For example:
- a·strol·o·gy (/əˈstrɑl.ə.ʤi/)
- bi·ol·o·gy (/baɪˈɑl.ə.ʤi/)
- car·di·ol·o·gy (/ˌkɑr.diˈɑl.ə.ʤi/)
- e·col·o·gy (/ɪˈkɑl.ə.ʤi/)
- ge·ol·o·gy (/ʤiˈɑl.ə.ʤi/)
- i·de·ol·o·gy (/ˌaɪ.diˈɑl.ə.ʤi/)
- lex·i·col·o·gy (/ˌlɛk.sɪˈkɑl.ə.ʤi/)
- meth·o ·dol·o·gy (/ˌmɛθ.əˈdɑl.ə.ʤi/)
- neu·rol·o·gy (/nʊˈrɑl.ə.ʤi/)
- psy·chol·o·gy (/saɪˈkɑl.ə.ʤi/)
- ra·di·ol·o·gy (/reɪ.diˈɑl.ə.ʤi/)
- so·ci·ol·o·gy (/ˌsoʊ.siˈɑl.ə.ʤi/)
- tech·nol·o·gy (/tɛkˈnɑl.ə.ʤi/)
- u·rol·o·gy (/jʊˈrɑl.ə.ʤi/)
- zo·ol·o·gy (/zuˈɑl.ə.ʤi/)
“-osis”
This suffix is used to form the names of diseases, conditions, and other medical processes. Stress is placed on the syllable in which “-o-” appears
- ac·i·do·sis (/ˌæs.ɪˈdoʊ.sɪs/)
- cir·rho·sis (/sɪˈroʊ.sɪs/)
- di·ag·no·sis (/ˌdaɪ.əgˈnoʊ.sɪs/)
- en·do·me·tri·o·sis (/ˌɛn.doʊˌmi.triˈoʊ.sɪs/)
- fib·ro·sis (/faɪˈbroʊ.sɪs/)
- hyp·no·sis (/hɪpˈnoʊ.sɪs/)
- mi·to·sis (/maɪˈtoʊ.sɪs/)
- ne·cro·sis (/nəˈkroʊ.sɪs/)
- os·te·o·po·ro·sis (/ˌɑs.ti.oʊ.pəˈroʊ.sɪs/)
- prog·no·sis (/prɑgˈnoʊ.sɪs/)
- sym·bi·o·sis (/ˌsɪm.biˈoʊ.sɪs/)
- tu·ber·cu·lo·sis (/tʊˌbɜr.kjəˈloʊ.sɪs/)
Stress is placed on syllable immediately before the suffix
“-eous” and -“ious”
These two suffixes are both used to form adjectives meaning “having, characterized by, or full of,” most often attaching to base nouns.
In many cases, the E and I are pronounced individually, but for many other words they are silent, instead serving to mark a change in pronunciation for the previous consonant. For example:
-eous |
-ious |
---|---|
ad·van·ta·geous (/ˌæd vənˈteɪ.ʤəs/) boun·te·ous (/ˈbaʊn.ti.əs/) cou·ra·geous (/kəˈreɪ.ʤəs/) dis·cour·te·ous (/dɪsˈkɜr.ti.əs/) ex·tra·ne·ous (/ɪkˈstreɪ.ni.əs/) gas·e·ous (/ˈgæs.i.əs/) hid·e·ous (/ˈhɪd.i.əs/) ig·ne·ous (/ˈɪg.ni.əs/) misc·e·lla·ne·ous (/ˌmɪs.əˈleɪ.ni.əs/) nau·seous (/ˈnɔ.ʃəs/) out·ra·geous (/aʊtˈreɪ.ʤəs/) pit·e·ous (/ˈpɪt.i.əs/) righ·teous (/ˈraɪ.tʃəs/) si·mul·ta·ne·ous (/ˌsaɪ.məlˈteɪ.ni.əs/) vi·tre·ous (/ˈvɪ.tri.əs/) |
am·phib·i·ous (/æmˈfɪb.i.əs/) bo·da·cious (/boʊˈdeɪ.ʃəs/) con·ta·gious (/kənˈteɪ.ʤəs/) du·bi·ous (/ˈdu.bi.əs/) ex·pe·diti·ous (/ˌɛk spɪˈdɪʃ.əs/) fa·ce·tious (/fəˈsi.ʃəs/) gre·gar·i·ous (/grɪˈgɛər.i.əs/) hi·lar·i·ous (/hɪˈlɛr.i.əs/) im·per·vi·ous (/ɪmˈpɜr.vi.əs/) ju·dici·ous (/ʤuˈdɪʃ.əs/) la·bor·i·ous (/ləˈbɔr.i.əs/) my·ster·i·ous (/mɪˈstɪr.i əs/) ne·far·i·ous (/nɪˈfɛr.i.əs/) ob·vi·ous (/ˈɑb.vi.əs/) pro·digi·ous (/prəˈdɪʤ.əs/) re·bell·ious (/rɪˈbɛl.jəs/) su·per·sti·tious (/ˌsu.pərˈstɪ.ʃəs/) te·na·cious (/teˈneɪ.ʃəs/) up·roar·i·ous (/ʌpˈrɔr.i.əs/) vi·car·i·ous (/vaɪˈkɛər.i.əs/) |
“-ia”
This suffix is used to create nouns, either denoting a disease or a condition or quality.
In most words, the I is pronounced individually. In other words, it becomes silent and indicates a change in the pronunciation of the previous consonant. (In a handful of words, I blends with a previous vowel sound that is stressed before the final A.)
For example:
- ac·a·de·mi·a (/ˌæk.əˈdi.mi.ə/)
- bac·ter·i·a (/bæk.ˈtɪər.i.ə/)
- cat·a·to·ni·a (/ˌkæt.əˈtoʊ.ni.ə/)
- de·men·tia (/dɪˈmɛn.ʃə/)
- en·cy·clo·pe·di·a (/ɛnˌsaɪ.kləˈpi.di.ə/)
- fan·ta·sia (/fænˈteɪ.ʒə/)
- hy·po·ther·mi·a (ˌhaɪ.pəˈθɜr.mi.ə/)
- in·som·ni·a (/ɪnˈsɑm.ni.ə/)
- leu·ke·mi·a (/luˈki.mi.ə/)
- mem·or·a·bil·i·a (/ˌmɛm.ər.əˈbɪl.i.ə/)
- no·stal·gia (/nɑˈstæl.ʤə/)
- par·a·noi·a (/ˌpær.əˈnɔɪ.ə/)
- re·ga·li·a (/rɪˈgeɪ.li.ə/)
- su·bur·bi·a (/səˈbɜr.bi.ə/)
- tri·vi·a (/ˈtrɪ.vi.ə/)
- u·to·pi·a (/juˈtoʊ.pi.ə/)
- xen·o·pho·bi·a (/ˌzɛn.əˈfoʊ.bi.ə/)
“-ial”
The suffix “-ial” is used to form adjectives from nouns, meaning “of, characterized by, connected with, or relating to.” Like “-ia,” I is either pronounced individually or else becomes silent and changes the pronunciation of the previous consonant. For example:
- ad·ver·bi·al (/ædˈvɜr.bi.əl/)
- bac·ter·i·al (/bækˈtɪr.i.əl/)
- con·fi·den·tial (/ˌkɑn.fɪˈdɛn.ʃəl/)
- def·e·ren·tial (/ˌdɛf.əˈrɛn.ʃəl/)
- ed·i·tor·i·al (/ˌɛd.ɪˈtɔr.i.əl/)
- fa·mil·i·al (/fəˈmɪl.jəl/)
- gla·cial (/ˈgleɪ.ʃəl/)
- in·flu·en·tial (/ˌɪn.fluˈɛn.ʃəl/)
- ju·di·cial (/ʤuˈdɪʃ.əl/)
- me·mor· i·al (/məˈmɔr.i.əl/)
- o·ffici·al (/əˈfɪʃ.əl/)
- pro·ver·bi·al (/prəˈvɜr.bi.əl/)
- ref·e·ren·tial (/ˌrɛf.əˈrɛn.ʃəl/)
- su·per·fi·cial (/ˌsu.pərˈfɪʃ.əl/)
- terr·i·tor·i·al (/ˌtɛr.ɪˈtɔr.i.əl/)
- ve·stig·i·al (/vɛˈstɪʤ.i.əl/)
“-ic” and “-ical”
These two suffixes form adjectives from the nouns to which they attach. For both, the primary stress is placed on the syllable immediately before “-ic-.” For example:
-ic |
-ical |
---|---|
a·tom·ic (/əˈtɑm.ɪk) bur·eau·crat·ic (/ˌbjʊər.əˈkræt.ɪk) cha·ot·ic (/keɪˈɑt.ɪk/) dem·o·crat·ic (/ˌdɛm.əˈkræt.ɪk/) en·er·get·ic (/ˌɛn.ərˈʤɛt.ɪk/) for·mu·la·ic (/ˌfɔr.mjəˈleɪ.ɪk/) ge·net·ic (/ʤəˈnɛt.ɪk/) hyp·not·ic (/hɪpˈnɑt.ɪk/) i·con·ic (/aɪˈkɑn.ɪk/) ki·net·ic (/kəˈnɛt.ɪk/) la·con·ic (/leɪˈkɑn.ɪk/) mag·net·ic (/mægˈnɛt.ɪk/) no·stal·gic (/nəˈstæl.ʤɪk) opp·or·tu·nis·tic (/ˌɑp.ər.tuˈnɪs.tɪk/) pe·ri·od·ic (/ˌpɪər.iˈɑd.ɪk/) re·a·lis·tic (/ˌri.əˈlɪs.tɪk/) sym·pa·thet·ic (/ˌsɪm.pəˈθɛt.ɪk/) ti·tan·ic (taɪˈtæn.ɪk/) ul·tra·son·ic (/ˌʌl.trəsɑn.ɪk/) vol·can·ic (/vɑlˈkæn.ɪk/) |
an·a·tom·i·cal (/ˌæn.əˈtɑm.ɪ.kəl) bi·o·log·i·cal (/ˌbaɪ.əˈlɑʤ.ɪ.kəl/) chron·o·log·i·cal (/ˌkrɑn.əˈlɑʤ.ɪ.kəl/) di·a·bol·i·cal (/ˌdaɪ.əˈbɑl.ɪ.kəl/) e·lec·tri·cal (/ɪˈlɛk.trɪ.kəl/) far·ci·cal (/ˈfɑr.sɪ.kəl/) ge·o·graph·i·cal (/ʤi.əˈgræf.ɪ.kəl/) his·tor·i·cal (/hɪˈstɔr.ɪ.kəl/) in·e·ffec·tu·al (/ˌɪn.ɪˈfɛk.tʃu.əl/) lack·a·dai·si·cal (/ˌlæk.əˈdeɪ.zɪ.kəl/) mu·si·cal (/ˈmju.zɪ.kəl/) nau·ti·cal (/ˈnɔ.tɪ.kəl/) op·ti·cal (/ˈɑp.tɪ.kəl/) par·a·dox·i·cal (/pær.əˈdɑks.ɪ.kəl/) psy·cho·an·a·lyt·i·cal (/ˌsaɪ.koʊ.æn.əˈlɪt.ɪ.kəl/) rhe·tor·i·cal (/rɪˈtɔr.ɪ.kəl/) sy·mmet·ri·cal (/sɪˈmɛt.rɪ.kəl/) ty·ran·ni·cal (/tɪˈræn.ɪ.kəl/) um·bil·i·cal (/ʌmˈbɪl.ɪ.kəl/) ver·ti·cal (/ˈvɜr.tɪ.kəl/) whim·si·cal (/ˈwɪm.zɪ.kəl/) zo·o·log·i·cal (ˌzoʊ.əˈlɑʤ.ɪ.kəl/) |
While this pattern of pronunciation is very reliable, there are a few words (mostly nouns) ending in “-ic” that go against it:
- a·rith·me·tic* (/əˈrɪθ.mə.tɪk/)
- her·e·tic (/ˈhɛr.ɪ.tɪk/)
- lu·na·tic (/ˈlu.nə.tɪk/)
- pol·i·tics (/ˈpɑl.ɪ.tɪks/)
- rhet·o·ric (/ˈrɛt.ə.rɪk/)
(*This pronunciation is used when arithmetic is a noun. As an adjective, it is pronounced a·rith·me·tic [/ˌæ.rɪθˈmɛ.tɪk/].)
“-ify”
This suffix is used to form verbs, most often from existing nouns or adjectives. While the primary stress is placed immediately before “-i-,” the second syllable of the suffix, “-fy,” also receives a secondary stress. For instance:
- a·cid·i·fy (/əˈsɪd.əˌfaɪ/)
- be·at·i·fy (/biˈæt.əˌfaɪ/)
- class·i·fy (/ˈklæs.əˌfaɪ/)
- dig·ni·fy (/ˈdɪg.nəˌfaɪ/)
- e·lec·tri·fy (/ɪˈlɛk.trəˌfaɪ/)
- fal·si·fy (/ˈfɔlsə.faɪ/)
- horr·i·fy (/ˈhɔr.əˌfaɪ/)
- i·den·ti·fy (/aɪˈdɛn.təˌfaɪ/)
- mag·ni·fy (/ˈmægnəˌfaɪ/)
- no·ti·fy (/ˈnoʊ.təˌfaɪ/)
- ob·jec·ti·fy (/əbˈʤɛk.təˌfaɪ/)
- per·son·i·fy (/pərˈsɑn.əˌfaɪ/)
- rat·i·fy (/ˈræt.əˌfaɪ/)
- so·lid·i·fy (/səˈlɪd.əˌfaɪ/)
- tes·ti·fy (/ˈtɛs.təˌfaɪ/)
- ver·i·fy (/ˈvɛr.əˌfaɪ/)
“-ity”
This suffix is the opposite of “-ic(al)”—that is, it is used to create nouns from adjectives. The I is pronounced in an individual syllable, with the word’s primary stress occurring immediately before it. For instance:
- a·bil·i·ty (/əˈbɪl.ɪ.ti/)
- ba·nal·i·ty (/bəˈnæl.ɪ.ti/)
- ce·leb·ri·ty (/səˈlɛb.rɪ.ti/)
- dis·par·i·ty (/dɪˈspær.ɪ.ti/)
- e·qual·i·ty (/əˈkwɑl.ɪ.ti/)
- func·tion·al·i·ty (/ˌfʌŋk.ʃənˈæl.ɪ.tɪ/)
- gen·e·ros·i·ty (/ˌʤɛn.əˈrɑs.ɪ.ti/)
- hu·mid·i·ty (/hjuˈmɪd.ɪ.ti/)
- i·niq·ui·ty (/ɪˈnɪk.wɪ.ti/)
- jo·vi·al·i·ty (/ʤoʊ.vi.ˈæl.ɪ.ti/)
- le·gal·i·ty (/liˈgæl.ɪ.ti/)
- ma·jor·i·ty (/məˈʤoʊr.ɪ.ti/)
- nor·mal·i·ty (/noʊrˈmæl.ɪ.ti/)
- ob·scur·i·ty (/əbˈskʊər.ɪ.ti/)
- prac·ti·cal·i·ty (/præk.tɪˈkæl.ɪ.ti/)
- qual·i·ty (/ˈkwɑl.ɪ.ti/)
- rec·i·proc·i·ty (/ˌrɛs.əˈprɑs.ɪ.ti/)
- scar·ci·ty (/ˈskɛr.sɪ.ti/)
- tech·ni·cal·i·ty (/ˌtɛk.nɪˈkæl.ɪ.ti/)
- u·na·nim·i·ty (/ˌju.nəˈnɪm.ɪ.ti/)
- ve·loc·i·ty (/vəˈlɑs.ɪ.ti/)
“-tion” and “-sion”
These two syllables are used to create nouns, especially from verbs to describe an instance of that action. Depending on the word, the /ʃ/ or /tʃ/ sounds made by “-tion” and the /ʃ/ or /ʒ/ sounds made by “-sion” will be part of the stressed syllable or the final unstressed syllable. For example:
-tion |
-sion |
---|---|
au·diti·on (/ɔˈdɪʃ.ən/) bi·sec·tion (/baɪˈsɛk.ʃən/) can·ce·lla·tion (/ˌkæn.sɪˈleɪ.ʃən/) di·screti· on (/dɪˈskrɛʃ.ən/) ex·haus·tion (/ɪgˈzɔs.tʃən/) flo·ta·tion (/floʊˈteɪ.ʃən/) grad·u·a·tion (/ˌgræʤ.uˈeɪ.ʃən/) hos·pi·tal·i·za·tion (/ˌhɑs.pɪ.təl.ɪˈzeɪʃ.ən/) ig·ni·tion (/ɪgˈnɪʃ.ən/) jur·is·dic·tion (/ˌʤʊər.ɪsˈdɪk.ʃən/) lo·co·mo·tion (/ˌloʊ.kəˈmoʊ,ʃən/) mod·i·fi·ca·tion (/ˌmɑd.ə.fɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/) nom·i·na·tion (/ˌnɑm.əˈneɪ.ʃən/) ob·struc·tion (/əbˈstrʌk.ʃən/) pros·e·cu·tion (/ˌprɑs.ɪˈkyu.ʃən/) re·a·li·za·tion (/ˌri.ə.ləˈzeɪ.ʃən/) se·cre·tion (/sɪˈkri.ʃən/) tra·diti·on (/trəˈdɪʃ.ən/) u·ni·fi·ca·tion (/ˌju.nə.fɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/) vi·bra·tion (/vaɪˈbreɪ.ʃən/) |
a·bra·sion (/əˈbreɪ.ʒən) a·ver·sion (/əˈvɜr.ʒən/) co·llisi·on (/kəˈlɪʒ.ən/) com·pul·sion (/kəmˈpʌl.ʃən/) di·ffu·sion (/dɪˈfju.ʒən/) di·men·sion (/dɪˈmɛn.ʃən/) e·ro·sion (/ɪˈroʊ.ʒən/) fu·sion (/ˈfju.ʒən/) i·llu·sion (/ɪˈlu.ʒən/) in·va·sion (/ɪnˈveɪ.ʒən/) man·sion (/ˈmæn.ʃən/) ob·sessi·on (/əbˈsɛʃ.ən/) o·cca·sion (/əˈkeɪ.ʒən/) per·cussi·on (/pərˈkʌʃ.ən/) pro·pul·sion (/prəˈpʌl.ʃən) re·missi·on (/rɪˈmɪʃ.ən/) sub·ver·sion (/səbˈvɜr.ʒən/) su·spen·sion (/səˈspɛn.ʃən/) trans·fu·sion (/trænsˈfju.ʒən/) ver·sion (/ˈvɜr.ʒən/) |
The word television is an exception to this rule, and in most dialects it has the primary stress placed on the first syllable: /ˈtɛl.əˌvɪʒ.ən/.
Stress applied two syllables before the suffix
“-ate”
This suffix is most often used to create verbs, but it can also form adjectives and nouns. In words with three or more syllables, the primary stress is placed two syllables before the suffix. For example:
- ac·cen·tu·ate (/ækˈsɛn.tʃuˌeɪt/))
- bar·bit·ur·ate (/bɑrˈbɪtʃ.ər.ɪt/)
- co·llab·o·rate (/kəˈlæb.əˌreɪt/)
- diff·e·ren·ti·ate (/ˌdɪf.əˈrɛn.ʃiˌeɪt/)
- e·nu.me·rate (/ɪˈnu.məˌreɪt/)
- fa·cil·i·tate (/fəˈsɪl.ɪˌteɪt/)
- ge·stic·u·late (/ʤɛˈstɪk.jəˌleɪt/)
- hu·mil·i·ate (/hjuˈmɪl.iˌeɪt/)
- in·ad·e·quate (/ɪnˈæd.ɪ.kwɪt/)
- le·git·i·mate (/lɪˈʤɪt.əˌmɪt/)
- ma·tric·u·late (/məˈtrɪk.jəˌleɪt/)
- ne·cess·i·tate (/nəˈsɛs.ɪˌteɪt/)
- o·blit·e·rate (/əˈblɪt.əˌreɪt/)
- par·tic·i·pate (/pɑrˈtɪs.ɪ.ɪt/)
- re·frig·er·ate (/rɪˈfrɪʤ.əˌreɪt/)
- stip·u·late (/ˈstɪp.jəˌleɪt/)
- tri·an·gu·late (/traɪˈæŋ.gjə.leɪt/)
- un·for·tu·nate (/ʌnˈfɔr.tʃə.nɪt/)
- ver·te·brate (/ˈvɜr.tə.brɪt/)
“-cy”
This suffix attaches to adjectives or nouns to form nouns referring to “state, condition, or quality,” or “rank or office.” For example:
- a·dja·cen·cy (/əˈʤeɪ.sən.si/)
- a·gen·cy (/ˈeɪ.ʤən.si/)
- bank·rupt·cy (/ˈbæŋk.rʌpt.si/)
- com·pla·cen·cy (/kəmˈpleɪ.sən.si/)
- de·moc·ra·cy (/dɪˈmɑk.rə.si/)
- ex·pec·tan·cy (/ɪkˈspɛk.tən.si/)
- flam·boy·an·cy (/flæmˈbɔɪ.ən.si/)
- fre·quen·cy (/ˈfri.kwən.si/)
- in·sur·gen·cy (/ɪnˈsɜr.ʤən.si/)
- in·fan·cy (/ ˈɪnfən.si/)
- lieu·ten·an·cy (/luˈtɛn.ən.si/)
- ma·lig·nan·cy (/məˈlɪg.nən.si/)
- pro·fici·en·cy (/prəˈfɪʃ.ən.si/)
- re·dun·dan·cy (/rɪˈdʌn.dən.si/)
- su·prem·a·cy (/səˈprɛm.ə.si/)
- trans·par·en·cy (/trænsˈpɛər.ən.si/)
- va·can·cy (/ˈveɪ.kən.si/)
Unlike some of the other suffixes we’ve looked at so far, this one has a number of exceptions. For these, the primary stress is placed three syllables before the suffix:
- ac·cur·a·cy (/ˈæk.jər.ə.si/)
- can·di·da·cy (/ˈkæn.dɪ.də.si/)
- com·pe·ten·cy (/ˈkɑm.pɪ.tən.si/)
- del·i·ca·cy (/ˈdɛl.ɪ.kə.si/)
- ex·trav·a·gan·cy (/ɪkˈstræv.ə.gən.si/)
- im·me·di·a·cy (/ɪˈmi.di.ə.si/)
- in·ti·ma·cy (/ˈɪn.tɪ.mə.sɪ/)
- lit·er·a·cy (/ˈlɪt.ər.ə.sɪ/)
- le·git·i·ma·cy (/lɪˈʤɪt.ə.mə.si/)
- occ·u·pan·cy (/ˈɑk.jə.pən.si/)
- pres·i·den·cy (/ˈprɛz.ɪ.dən.si/)
- rel·e·van·cy (/ˈrɛl.ɪ.vən.si/)
- surr·o·ga·cy (/ˈsɜr.ə.gə.si/)
Unfortunately, there are no patterns in these words to let us know that their primary stress will be in a different place; we just have to memorize them.
“-phy”
This ending is actually a part of other suffixes, most often “-graphy,” but also “-trophy” and “-sophy.” The primary stress in the word will appear immediately before the “-gra-,” “-tro-,” and “-so-” parts of the words. For example:
- a·tro·phy (/ˈæ.trə.fi/)
- bib·li·og·ra·phy (/ˌbɪb.liˈɑg.rə.fi/)
- cal·lig·ra·phy (/kəˈlɪg.rə.fi/)
- dis·cog·ra·phy (/dɪsˈkɑɡ.rə.fi/)
- eth·nog·ra·phy (/ɛθˈnɑg.rə.fi/)
- fil·mog·ra·phy (/fɪlˈmɑɡ.rə.fi/)
- ge·og·ra·phy (/ʤiˈɑɡ.rə.fi/)
- i·co·nog·ra·phy (/ˌaɪ.kəˈnɑg.rə.fi/)
- or·thog·ra·phy (/ɔrˈθɑg.rə.fi/)
- phi·los·o·phy (/fɪˈlɑs.ə.fi/)
- pho·tog·ra·phy (/fəˈtɑg.rə.fi/)
- ra·di·og·ra·phy (/ˌreɪ.dɪˈɑɡ.rə.fɪ/)
- so·nog·ra·phy (/səˈnɑg.rə.fi/)
- the·os·o·phy (/θɪˈɑs.ə.fi/)
- ty·pog·ra·phy (/taɪˈpɑg.rə.fi/)
Suffixes that don’t affect word stress
While many suffixes dictate which syllable is stressed in a word, there are others that usually do not affect the stress of the base word at all. Let’s look at some examples of these (just note that this isn’t an exhaustive list):
“-age” |
“-ish”* |
“-hood” |
“-less” |
“-ness” |
“-ous” |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
an·chor·age brok·er·age cov·er·age e·quip·age her·mit·age lev·er·age or·phan·age me·ter·age pa·tron·age sew·er·age vic·ar·age |
am·a·teur·ish ba·by·ish car·toon·ish dev·il·ish fe·ver·ish hea·then·ish og·re·ish pur·pl·ish tick·l·ish va·ga·bond·ish yell·ow·ish |
a·dult·hood broth·er·hood fath·er·hood like·li·hood moth·er·hood neigh·bor·hood par·ent·hood sis·ter·hood vic·tim·hood wo·man·hood |
ar·mor·less bo·di·less col·or·less di·rec·tion·less e·mo·tion·less feath·er·less hu·mor·less lim·it·less mean·ing·less o·dor·less pen·ni·less re·gard·less struc·ture·less tick·et·less vi·bra·tion·less win·dow·less |
ad·ven·tur·ous·ness bash·ful·ness com·pet·i·tive·ness de·ceit·ful·ness e·ffec·tive·ness fa·ce·tious·ness glo·ri·ous·ness hid·e·ous·ness il·lust·ri·ous·ness jag·ged·ness king·li·ness li·ti·gious·ness mean·ing·ful·ness nerv·ous·ness o·blique·ness per·sua·sive·ness quea·si·ness re·morse·less·ness sub·ver·sive·ness to·geth·er·ness u·biq·ui·tous·ness venge·ful·ness war·i·ness youth·ful·ness zeal·ous·ness |
an·al·o·gous blas·phe·mous can·cer·ous dan·ger·ous fi·brous glam·or·ous li·bel·ous mu·ti·nous o·dor·ous per·il·ous ran·cor·ous scan·dal·ous treach·er·ous val·or·ous |
Inflectional suffixes (suffixes that form plurals, change verb tense, create comparative ajectives and adverbs, etc.) do not affect word stress either. Let’s look at a few examples:
- a·maze→a·maz·ing (creates the present participle / gerund)
- blank·et→blank·et·ed (creates the past tense)
- com·pro·mise→com·pro·mis·es (creates the third-person singular form)
- drows·y→drows·i·er (creates the comparative form)
- hap·py→hap·pi·est (creates the superlative form)
- re·sponse→re·spons·es (creates the plural form)
*“-ish” at the end of verbs
The examples of the suffix “-ish” that we looked at previously were all adjectives formed from various parts of speech (usually nouns). However, “-ish” can also appear naturally at the end of verbs—that is, it doesn’t attach to existing base words, but is rather the result of the word’s evolution in English. For these verbs, primary stress always occurs on the syllable immediately before “-ish.” For example:
- a·ston·ish (/əˈstɑn.ɪʃ/)
- bran·dish (/ˈbræn.dɪʃ/)
- cher·ish (/ˈtʃɛr.ɪʃ/)
- de·mol·ish (/dɪˈmɑl.ɪʃ/)
- ex·tin·guish (/ɪkˈstɪŋ.gwɪʃ/)
- fur·nish (/ˈfɜr.nɪʃ/)
- gar·nish (/ˈgɑr.nɪʃ/)
- im·pove·rish (/ɪmˈpɑv.rɪʃ/; the E is silent)
- lan·guish (/ˈlæŋ.gwɪʃ/)
- nour·ish (/ˈnɜr.ɪʃ/)
- pub·lish (/ˈpʌb.lɪʃ/)
- re·plen·ish (/rɪˈplɛn.ɪʃ/)
- tar·nish (/ˈtɑr.nɪʃ/)
Unstressed Words (Function Words)
We discussed earlier how words have at least one primary stress centered around a vowel sound; however, this is not always the case. This is because English consists of two types of words: content words and function words.
Content words (also known as lexical words) communicate a distinct lexical meaning within a particular context—that is, they express the specific content of what we’re talking about at a given time. These include nouns, adjective, adverbs, and most verbs. Content words will always have at least one syllable that is emphasized in a sentence, so if a content word only has a single syllable, it will always be stressed.
Function words (also known as structure words) primarily serve to complete the syntax and grammatical nuance of a sentence. These include pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, articles, determiners, and auxiliary verbs. In contrast to content words, single-syllable function words are commonly (but not always) unstressed in a sentence—since they are not providing lexical meaning integral to the sentence, we often “skip over” them vocally. Take the following sentence:
- “Bobby wants to walk to the playground.”
The particle to, the preposition to, and the definitive article the are all said without (or without much) stress. The content words (Bobby, wants, walk, and playground), on the other hand, each have at least one syllable that is emphasized.
Let’s look at some single-syllable function words that can either be stressed or unstressed in a given sentence:
Function Word |
Stressed |
Unstressed |
---|---|---|
a |
/eɪ/ |
/ə/ |
an |
/æn/ |
/ən/ |
am |
/æm/ |
/əm/ |
are |
/ɑr/ |
/ər/ |
be |
/bi/ |
/bɪ/ |
can |
/kæn/ |
/kən/ |
could |
/kʊd/ |
/kəd/ |
do |
/du/ |
/dʊ/ or /də/ |
have |
/hæv/ |
/həv/ |
of |
/ʌv/ or /ɑv/ |
/əv/ or /ə/ |
or |
/ɔr/ |
/ər/ |
should |
/ʃʊd/ |
/ʃəd/ |
the |
/ði/ |
/ðə/ or /ðɪ/ |
to |
/tu/ |
/tə/ |
was |
/wɑz/ |
/wəz/ |
were |
/wɜr/ |
/wər/ |
would |
/wʊd/ |
/wəd/ |
Words with multiple pronunciations
It is not uncommon for English words to have more than one pronunciation even when there is no change in meaning, especially between different regional dialects. This difference usually occurs in the pronunciation of certain vowel or consonant sounds, but it can also affect which syllable in the word receives the primary stress.
For example:
Word |
Pronunciation 1 |
Pronunciation 2 |
---|---|---|
address (noun) |
a·ddress /əˈdrɛs/ |
add·ress /ˈæd.rɛs/ |
adult |
a·dult /əˈdʌlt/ |
ad·ult /ˈæd.ʌlt/ |
advertisement |
ad·ver·tise·ment /ˌæd.vərˈtaɪz.mənt/ (AmE) |
ad·ver·tise·ment /ædˈvɜr.tɪz.mənt/ (BrE) |
applicable |
app·li·ca·ble /ˈæp.lɪ.kə.bəl/ |
a·ppli·ca·ble /əˈplɪ.kə.bəl/ |
café |
ca·fé /kæˈfeɪ/ (AmE) |
ca·fé /ˈkæˈfeɪ/ (BrE) |
Caribbean |
Car·i·bbe·an /ˌkær.əˈbi.ən/ |
Ca·ribb·e·an /kəˈrɪb.i.ən/ |
chauffeur |
chau·ffeur /ˈʃoʊ.fər/ |
chau·ffeur /ʃoʊˈfɜr/ |
composite |
com·pos·ite /kəmˈpɑz.ɪt/ (AmE) |
com·pos·ite /ˈkɑm.pəz.ɪt/ (BrE) |
controversy |
con·tro·ver·sy /ˈkɑn.trəˌvɜr.si/ |
con·trov·er·sy /kənˈtrɑv.er.si/ (BrE) |
employee |
em·ploy·ee /ɛmˈplɔɪ.i/ |
em·ploy·ee /ɛm.plɔɪˈi/ |
fiancé(e) |
fi·an·cé(e) /ˌfi.ɑnˈseɪ/ |
fi·an·cé(e) /fiˈɑn.seɪ/ |
garage |
ga·rage /gəˈrɑʒ/ (AmE) |
gar·age /ˈgær.ɑʒ/ (BrE) |
kilometer |
ki·lom·e·ter /kɪˈlɑm.ɪ.tər/ |
kil·o·me·ter /ˈkɪl.əˌmi.tər/ |
lingerie |
lin·ge·rie /ˌlɑn.ʒəˈreɪ/ (AmE) |
lin·ge·rie /ˈlæn.ʒə.ri/ (BrE) |
preferable |
pref·er·a·ble /ˈprɛf.ər.ə.bəl/ |
pre·fer·a·ble /prɪˈfɜr.ər.ə.bəl/ |
transference |
trans·fer·ence /trænsˈfɜr.əns/ |
trans·fer·ence /ˈtræns.fər.əns/ |
Unfortunately, there’s no way to predict when a word will have different stress patterns, as they are often the result of variations in regional dialects, rather than the origin of the words themselves. If you hear someone pronounce a word with an intonation you haven’t heard before, check a reliable dictionary to see what is the most common pronunciation.
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.
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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:
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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.
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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/
Word stress is the specific stressed syllable in the pronunciation of a particular word.
A great number of words in English only have one syllable (for example go, eat, wait, eight, house, prince, friends, thieves, straight, etc.). In these cases the stress can only be located in that syllable.
In longer words the stress can lie in any syllable:
- First syllable: doctor; handicap; testimony; capitalism;
- Second syllable: alone; important; comparison; sophisticated;
- Third syllable: understand; controversial; university;
- Fourth syllable: configuration; experimental; responsibility
While on the subject, as in all aspects of language, a constantly-evolving mode of communication among human beings, the stress on words can also shift over time.[1]
IPA symbol[edit | edit source]
In IPA the primary stress is marked with a small raised vertical line preceding the stressed syllable: doctor /ˈdɒktər/, hotel /həʊˈtel/, experience /ɪkˈspɪərɪəns/, professional /prəˈfeʃənəl/.
Secondary stress[edit | edit source]
Long words may have an extra stress, the second most stressed syllable in the word.
The secondary stress is marked with a small lowered vertical line preceding the stressed syllable: information /ˌɪnfərˈmeɪʃən/, understand /ˌʌndərˈstænd/, represent /ˌreprɪˈzent/.
Words with secondary stress are pronounced as if they were two different words, and one of them has the primary stress: infor-mation, under-stand, repre-sent. If a word has two secondary stresses it is pronounced as three small words: onomatopoeia /ˌɒnəˌmætəˈpiːə/ ono-mato-poeia; heterosexuality /ˌhetərəˌsekʃuːˈælətiː/ hetero-sexu-ality.
Some general rules[edit | edit source]
First syllable | Second syllable | |
---|---|---|
Nouns | coffee — expert — water | canal — hotel |
Verbs | argue — follow | agree — complain — regret |
Nouns, etc.[edit | edit source]
What is said here about nouns is also valid for other parts of speech, except verbs.
Two syllables[edit | edit source]
- Two-syllable nouns often, but not always, have the stress on the first syllable:
- Nouns: coffee — country — effort — engine — exit — expert — export — increase — level — morning — number — people — pepper — problem — record — rescue — second — sentence — system — water
- Other parts of speech: after — any — central — little — many — mental — only — other — over — something — very
Exceptions:
- Nouns: aˈmount — atˈtack — atˈtempt — caˈnal — conˈtrol — deˈfence — deˈmand — diˈsease — eˈclipse — efˈfect — exˈcept — exˈtinct — hoˈtel — Juˈly — maˈchine — poˈlice — reˈceipt — reˈply — reˈport — reˈsearch — reˈsult — sucˈcess — supˈport
- Other parts of speech: aˈbove — aˈbout — aˈgain — aˈgainst — aˈhead — aˈlone — alˈthough — aˈmong — aˈround — aˈware — aˈway — beˈcause — beˈfore — beˈhind — beˈlow — beˈtween — eˈnough — perˈhaps — toˈday — unˈtil — uˈpon — withˈin — withˈout
Three syllables[edit | edit source]
- Stress in the first syllable
- animal — benefit — company — definite — ˈexerˌcise — family — general — gentlemen — government — handicap — recipe — secretaryBrE — yesterday
- Stress in the second syllable:
- aˈnother — beˈhavior — comˈposer — Deˈcember — deˈparture — deˈtective — eˈmotion — eˈxample — exˈpensive — goˈrilla — reˈmainder
- Stress in the third syllable:
- ˌafterˈnoon — ˌanyˈmore — ˌengiˈneer — ˌguaranˈtee — ˌoverˈseas — ˌrefuˈgee — ˌsevenˈteen — ˌvolunˈteer
Four or more syllables[edit | edit source]
- Stress in the first syllable
- actually — ˈmiliˌtaryAmE — necessary — ˈsecreˌtaryAmE — television
- Stress in the second syllable:
- acˈtivity — exˈperience — deˈvelopment — poˈlitical — seˈcurity
- In nouns ending -isation or -ization, we stress the /eɪ/:
- ˈciviˌlise – ˌciviliˈsation; ˈimprovise – improviˈsation; organise – organiˈsation; privatise – privatiˈsation;
- Stress in the third syllable:
- ˌcateˈgorical — ˌcontroˈversial — ˌenterˈtainment — ˌindisˈtinguishable — ˌinforˈmation — ˌinterˈmittent — ˌreproˈducible — ˌuniˈversity
- Stress in the fourth syllable:
- ˌcharacteˈristic — conˌfiguˈration — ˌetymoˈlogical — matriculate
Verbs[edit | edit source]
Two syllables[edit | edit source]
- verbs with two syllables often, but not always, have the stress on the second:
- aˈgree — apˈply — arˈrive — beˈcome — beˈgin — beˈlieve — comˈpare — comˈplain — comˈply — deˈcide — deˈclare — deˈfy — deˈpend — disˈcuss — enˈjoy — exˈplain — exˈport — forˈget — imˈprove — inˈclude — inˈcrease — inˈvite — preˈpare — preˈtend — preˈvent — proˈvide — reˈceive — reˈcord — reˈfer — reˈfuse — reˈgret — reˈmain — reˈpeat — reˈply — reˈport — reˈspect — reˈsult — reˈturn — reˈveal — reˈwind — sugˈgest
Exceptions: answer — argue — cancel — centerAmE/centreBrE — colorAmE/colourBrE — differ — edit — enter — exit — figure — follow — happen — issue — level — limit — matter — market — offer — open — order — question — reason — silence — study — value — visit
Three syllables[edit | edit source]
- Stress in the first syllable
- benefit — evidence — dominate — educate — hesitate — indicate — influence — multiply
- Many verbs ending in «-iseBrE/-ize»: civilise/civilize — organise/organize — realise/realize — recognise/recognize
- Stress in the second syllable
- conˈtinue — conˈsider — deˈvelop — reˈcover — reˈmember
- Stress in the third syllable
- decomˈpose — recomˈmend — underˈstand
Four or more syllables[edit | edit source]
- Stress in the second syllable
- apˈpreciate — apˈpropriate — asˈsociate — coˈmunicate — exˈperiment — iˈdentify — exˈperience — eˈvaluate
- Some verbs ending in «-iseBrE/-ize»: comˈmercialise/comˈmercialize — faˈmiliarise/faˈmiliarize — priˈoritise/priˈoritize
- Stress in the third syllable
- deconˈtaminate — ˌmanuˈfacture
The letter e[edit | edit source]
There are many words which have «e» in the first syllable. In many cases if you know the stress you can predict the pronunciation and viceversa
Stress in first syllable | Stress in second syllable | |
---|---|---|
/e/ | general — level — yesterday | technique |
/ɪ/ | pretty | belief — prepare — refuse |
- Most words with the first e pronounced like /ɪ/ are stressed in the second syllable.
- Nouns: belief — December — defence — demand — departure — detective — eclipse — ellipse — emotion — example — except — expensive — experience — extinct — receipt — report — research — result
- Verbs: become — begin — believe — decide — declare — defy — depend — enjoy — evaluate — explain — experience — prepare — pretend — prevent — receive — recover — refer — refuse — regret — remain — remember — repeat — reply — report — respect — return — reveal — rewind
- Other parts of speech: because — before — between
- When the first e is the stressed syllable, it is usually pronounced /e/:
- Nouns: beggar — benefit — celery — ceremony — effort — engine — exercise — exit — expert — general — gentlemen — level — mechanism — pepper — recipe — record — rescue — second — secretary — sentence — vegetable — yesterday
- Verbs: detonate — edit — educate — enter — exit — hesitate — level
- Other parts of speech: central — definitely — federal — mental
This is particularly noticeable in many verbs which have the same spelling for the noun; See Heteronym.
- export (v.) — export (n.); record (v.) — record (n.);
Exceptions:
- First syllable
- /ɪ/: England — English — pretty
- /iː/: decent — detail — even — female — legal — Peter — previous — recent — region — retail — secret — sequence — vehicle
- Second syllable
- /iː/: replay
- /e/: technique
- Third syllable
- /e/: celebration
Heteronyms[edit | edit source]
Many heteronyms have a difference in stress. In many cases a noun is stressed in the first syllable and a verb is stressed in the second.
- Noun-verb
- ˈattribute (n.) — atˈtribute (v.); ˈcontract (n.) — conˈtract (v.); ˈexport (n.) — exˈport (v.); ˈinsult (n.) — inˈsult (v.); ˈrecord (n.) — reˈcord (v.);
- Other
- aˈrithmetic (n.) — arithˈmetic (adj.); ˈinvalid (n.) — inˈvalid (adj.);
Minimal pairs[edit | edit source]
- ˈdif ˈfer — deˈfer; ˈinsight — inˈcite; ˈinsult (n.) — inˈsult (v.)
Many words that appear to be minimal pairs, with only stress as a difference, also have a vowel change. For example the noun «ˈexport» is pronounced with /e/ and the verb «exˈport» is pronounced with /ɪ/.
Variant pronunciations[edit | edit source]
Some words may be pronounced with stress in different syllables. In some cases there is a regional variation.
- address/addressAmE — adult/adult — advertisementBrE/advertisementAmE — compositeBrE/compositeAmE — controversy (traditional pronunciation, both BrE and AmE)/controversy (new pronunciation, peculiarly BrE)[2] — kilometre/kilometre — transferenceBrE/transferenceAmE
This is particularly noticeable in French borrowings.
- balletBrE/balletAmE — chauffeurBrE/chauffeurAmE — fiancé(e)BrE/fiancé(e)AmE — garageBrE/garageAmE — lingerieBrE/lingerieAmE
Many words that have a secondary stress in American English don’t pronunce that vowel in British English:
- cemetery /ˈseməˌteriː/AmE — /ˈsemətriː/BrE
- military /ˈmɪləˌteriː/AmE — /ˈmɪlətriː/BrE
- ordinary /ˈɔːrdənˌeriː/AmE — /ˈɔːrdənriː/BrE
- secretary /ˈsekrəˌteriː/AmE — /ˈsekrətriː/BrE
- temporary /ˈtempəreriː/AmE — /ˈtemprəriː/BrE
- laboratory /ˈlæbrəˌtɔːriː/AmE — /ləˈbɒrətriː/BrE
In other cases the vowel is a schwa in British English.
- adversary /ˈædvərˌseriː/AmE — /ˈædvərsəriː/BrE
- capillary: /ˈkæpəˌleriː/AmE — /kəˈpɪləriː/BrE
- category /ˈkætəɡɔːriː/AmE — /ˈkætəɡəriː/BrE
- customary /ˈkʌstəˌmeriː/ — /ˈkʌstəməriː/BrE
- literary /ˈlɪtəˌreriː/AmE — /ˈlɪtərəriː/BrE
- necessary /ˈnesəˌseriː/AmE — /ˈnesəsəriː/
- rosemary /ˈrəʊzˌmeriː/AmE — /ˈrəʊzməriː/BrE
Other words don’t have a secondary accent even if they end in «ry»:
- adultery /əˈdʌltəriː/
- delivery /dɪˈlɪvəriː/
See also Varisyllabic words.
Unstressed words[edit | edit source]
- Main article: Weak form
Many common words can be unstressed in a sentence. For example, «ˌI can ˈswim» has stresses in «I» and in «swim». In «ˌYes, ˌI ˈcan» all words are stressed.
Anticipated pronunciation difficulties depending on L1[edit | edit source]
Preconceived ideas and other interferences from L1 obviously interfere in many cases with how students perceive — and pronounce — sounds/words in English. The following sections aims to point out some of the most typical difficulties teachers and students may encounter regarding pronunciation.
Spanish[edit | edit source]
Many Spanish speakers think that all English words are stressed in the first syllable, and they pronounce *canal, *hotel, *perhaps, *between, or *preliminary. Even the word cartel is pronounced “cártel» by many people when speaking Spanish.[3]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Crystal, David, “A pronounced change in British speech» PDF format
- ↑ The Telegraph, The ‘conTROversy’ over changing pronunciations, 5 Feb 2011
- ↑ Real Academia Española, Diccionario de la lengua española (DLE) cartel2
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