Word stress in english phonetics

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
(word
accent) is greater prominence given to one or more syllables in a
word.

Stressed
and unstressed syllables differ in quantity (length) and quality.
They are longer when stressed and carry vowels of full formation.
When unstressed, they undergo reduction and become shorter.

Word
stress should be considered from the point of view of:

  1. its
    place in a sentence;

  2. its
    degree.

There
are two degrees of word stress in English:

  1. primary
    or strong (marked above the syllable);

  2. secondary
    or weak (marked under the syllable).

The
place of word stress depends on the quantity of syllables in a word.

Accented types of words

  1. Monosyllabic,
    disyllabic and trisyllabic words are stressed on the first syllable,
    e. g. phoneme,
    palate,
    prefix,
    pronoun,
    family,
    enemy,
    imitate,
    colony.

Note
1
.
In three-syllable words the stressed vowel is mostly read according
to the second type of the syllable, e. g. family.

Note
2.

In words with inseparable prefixes the stress falls on the syllable
next to the prefix: begin,
prepare.

  1. Most
    four-syllable words have the stress laid on the third syllable from
    the end, e. g. political,
    experiment,
    historical,
    geology.

  2. Compound
    nouns are stressed on the first component, the second though
    unstressed has a vowel of full formation, e. g. blackboard
    //.

Exceptions:
arm-chair,
ice-cream,
tape-recorder.

4.
Polysyllabic words have the primary stress on the third syllable from
the end and the secondary stress on the second pretonic syllable, e.
g. university,
assimilation,
possibility.

  1. The
    following groups of words have two primary stresses:

  • numerals
    (from 13 to 19): fourteen;

  • compound
    adjectives: well-known,
    good-looking;

  • composite
    verbs: get
    up,
    sit
    down,
    put
    on;

  • words
    with separable prefixes:

  1. implying
    negation: un-,
    in-, il-, ir-, non-, dis-
    ,
    e. g. unknown,
    inaccurate, irregular, non-aggressive, disbelief, illiterate;

  2. prefixes
    implying assistance: sub-,
    vice-,
    e.g. subtitle,
    vice-minister;

  3. prefixes
    with different meanings: mis
    — meaning ‘wrong’ (misunderstand); over
    — meaning ‘too much’ (overtired); pre
    — meaning ‘before’ (pre-revolutionary); inter
    — meaning ‘among’, ‘between’ (international); anti
    — meaning ‘against’ (antiwar).

Note.
Words listed under group 5 undergo variations in stress. In
utterances they lose one stress or the other. When they are used
attributively, the second stress is lost; when used predicatively,
the first stress is lost:

Attributively
Predicatively

Fourteen
years.
He’s fourteen.

A
hard-working
boy.
The boy
is hard-working.

A
well-planned
house.
The house
is well-planned.

A
well-bred
man.
The man
is well-bred.

English Intonation. Its Components.

The
sentence possesses definite phonetic features. Each feature performs
a definite task, and all of them work simultaneously. Thus,

  1. Sentences
    are usually separated from each other by pauses.
    If necessary, the sentence is subdivided into shorter word groups
    according to sense; these are called sense
    groups,

    or syntagms.

  2. The
    pitch of the voice does not stay on the same level while the
    sentence is pronounced; it fluctuates, rising and falling on the
    vowels and voiced consonants. The fluctuations of the voice pitch
    are called speech
    melody.

  3. The
    word that is most important for the meaning of the sentence, i. e.
    the word acting as its semantic centre, is made prominent by stress
    and a special moving
    tone
    .

  4. Other
    words, also essential for the meaning, are stressed
    but the pitch of these words remains unchanged.

  5. Form
    words, performing grammatical functions (such as articles,
    prepositions, auxiliary, modal and link verbs) are usually left
    unstressed;
    they are mostly pronounced in their reduced (weak) forms.

  6. Connected
    English speech comes as a series of closely knit groups of words,
    each group containing only one stressed syllable. The stressed
    syllables occur at approximately equal intervals of time. This
    interrelationship of stress and time makes rhythm.

  7. The
    rate
    of speech
    is
    not constant, but is made to suit the semantic weight of each sense
    group of the utterance.

  8. The
    timbre
    of the voice changes in accordance with the emotions experienced by
    the speaker.

All
the phonetic features of the sentence enumerated above (speech
melody, sentence stress, tempo, rhythm, pauses and timbre) form a
complex unity, called intonation.

The
most important components of intonation from the linguistic point of
view are speech melody, sentence stress, and rhythm.

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Stress in phonetics, In linguistics , and particularly in phonology , emphasis or accent is the relative emphasis or prominence given to a particular syllable in a word or to a particular word in a phrase or sentence . This emphasis is usually caused by properties such as increased vowel volume and length, full vowel articulation , and changes in pitch. The terms emphasis and accentare often used synonymously in this context, but are sometimes differentiated. For example, when emphasis is produced only through tone, it is called pitch accent, and when produced only through length, it is called quantitative accent . [3] When caused by a combination of several intensified properties, it is termed accented or dynamic accent ; English uses what is called a variable stress accent .

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

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

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

The accent placed on words within sentences is called sentence accent or prosodic accent . This is one of the three components of prosody , along with rhythm and intonation . It includes phrasal stress (the standard emphasis of certain words in sentences or sentences ) and contrastive stress (used to highlight an item, a word, or part of a word, which is given a specific focus).

There are several ways in which stress manifests itself in the flow of speech, and this depends to some extent on which language is being spoken. Stressed syllables are often higher than unstressed syllables and may have a higher or lower pitch . Sometimes they can also be pronounced longer . Sometimes there are differences in the place or form of articulation – in particular, vowels in unstressed syllables may have a more central (or ” neutral “) tone.”) articulation, while those in stressed syllables have a more peripheral articulation. Tension can be perceived to varying degrees in different words in a sentence; sometimes the difference between the acoustic signals of stressed and unstressed syllables is minimal.

WORD STRESS

The first thing you need to do when checking the pronunciation of a word in the dictionary is to see which syllable is stressed. this is called word stress in English. Stress in phonetics

Not all languages ​​have stressed syllables and therefore many students tend to neglect this aspect and do not check it out. Some people naturally emphasize the last syllables, while others always emphasize the first. This is how our mother tongue can affect our English and it is a common mistake. This is the main reason why you are still speaking with a foreign accent! In English, however, word stress varies widely and contributes greatly to the understanding of a word.

It may even happen that, if we articulate a word incorrectly, but still emphasize the correct syllable, our interlocutor will understand us . Whereas, if we articulate too much and completely neglect the stress of words, it will make them difficult to understand.

In phonetics, the word stress is shown by this symbol (which looks like an apostrophe) : '. It is placed before the stressed syllable. Here are some examples of common words that students tend to mispronounce:

  • ACtion /‘æk·ʃən/
  • OPtion /ˈɑp·ʃən/
  • SIlence /ˈsaɪ·ləns/
  • diRECtion /dɪˈrɛk·ʃən/

In English, the word stress can sometimes be the only difference between a noun and a verb. Compare:

  • RECord /ˈɹɛk·ɝd/ (like a world record)
  • to reCORD /ɹɪˈkɔɹd/(make a recording of something)

We can see that the word stress has an impact not only on the intonation, power and length of a syllable, but also on its articulation. Stress in phonetics

The word stress can also be the only difference between an adjective and a verb:

  • PERfect /ˈpɝ·fɪkt/= perfect, impeccable
  • to perFECT /pɝˈfɛkt/= to make perfect

Because it is such an important topic in English pronunciation, we are preparing an entire article on the rules for the word stress.

Articulation

Breaking down a word to analyze each of its sounds is essential for learning to pronounce it well. Focus on sounds that don’t exist in your own language, as these will tend to be the most difficult. Discover our infographic of all American English sounds !

When we take the time to identify the sounds in English that don’t exist in our own language, it reduces the risk of making an embarrassing mistake! This can be the difference between asking for a bigCoke(the fizzy drink) and order a bigcock(penis).

For example, I was not aware of the existence of the so-called sound TH for years until I learned about the International Phonetic Alphabet (or the IPA). This means that I had spent about 8 years speaking English without even knowing all of its sounds… quite embarrassing, I know. But you can learn from my mistakes!

In short, the analysis of the sounds that make up words is a fundamental step in their studies. Let’s take an example with the word “thought /θɔt/. Stress in phonetics

We can immediately see that the pronunciation of this word is very different from its spelling, so let’s take a closer look:

  • We see that it is composed of three phonemes:
    • /θ/;
    • /ɔ/; and
    • /t/
    • while the GHit’s silent.
  • Of all these, the one that does not exist in most languages ​​is“θ”!

This type of word-breaking exercise is called chunkingand is the basis for good learning. It allows you to understand how English is actually pronounced and to start speaking it with a better accent and, therefore, with more confidence.

So focus your efforts on these sounds, don’t be afraid to overdo it at first until you get used to it. Over time, it will become a habit and you will be able to pronounce even the most difficult words!

How to learn WORD STRESS?

 You can learn WORD STRESS in two ways.

The first is listening to the words. So when your teacher or a friend who knows English speaks a new word, pay attention to how the word is pronounced. Repeat the pronunciation of the word and this way you will naturally learn which syllable is stressed. Stress in phonetics

Another way for you to learn WORD STRESS is with the help of a dictionary. It may seem strange, but all the information you need about the pronunciation of a word is present in a good dictionary, whether physical or online.

SENTENCE STRESS 

Sentence stress is the term used to refer to the phenomenon in which a particular word is said more emphatically within a sentence.

This means that in English, a sentence is not spoken robotically, word for word, like the following example:

  • Marcia didn’t buy the red dress.

If spoken mechanically the sentence is meaningless. It is empty, strange, tasteless. It is just a simple repetition of words in sequence.

In a natural chat, we can emphasize one word or another in the sentence and thus communicate different things. That is, depending on the word we emphasize, we will communicate an idea in a very different and clearer way.

In short, this thing of emphasizing a word in a sentence is what we call sentence stress .

Sentence Stress in Practice

Listen to the way each sentence below is said. See how this actually works in practice.

  1. Marcia didn’t buy the red dress.
  2. Marcia didn’t buy the red dress.
  3. Marcia didn’t buy the red dress.
  4. Marcia didn’t buy the red dress.
  5. Marcia didn’t buy the red dress.
  6. Marcia didn’t buy the red dress .

At each moment, the word spoken more intensely changes the meaning of the central idea being communicated:

  1. I’m talking about Marcia. I’m not talking about Carol, Fátima or Patricia… I’m talking about Marcia.
  2. What I’m saying is that she didn’t. She took the dress, looked at it, tried it on, but didn’t buy it.
  3. She won the dress. She stole the dress. She found the dress on the street. Don’t even think she bought it, because that wasn’t it. She got the dress by other means. Stress in phonetics
  4. It wasn’t the red dress she wanted so badly, but it was another red dress that was in the store.
  5. There was no more red, so she bought the pink, the white, the blue, the black, the lilac, the yellow… Anyway, it was a dress of another color.
  6. She bought the red miniskirt, the red shirt, the red top; but not the red dress.

That’s how it is in English. There’s no way to escape! The main word of the sentence – the one that carries the central meaning of what is being said – will always be said in a stronger, more intense, emphatic way.

Depending on the word being emphasized within the sentence, the meaning ( the idea expressed ) may change completely.

The importance of SENTENCE STRESS

You’ve certainly reached a point in your English learning where you’ve heard about sentence stress. This subject usually comes into play when we are studying the pronunciation of the English language . So, let’s understand what sentence stress is.

For starters, remember that when we learn an English word, we have to learn a number of things about it: meaning, usage in the proper context, pronunciation, spelling , etc. Stress in phonetics

We also have to learn how the word is pronounced correctly. This means learning what the stressed syllable of the word is.

This stressed syllable thing is known in English as word stress . The syllables in bold in the words below indicate which syllable is stressed in each of them:

  • im by tant /ɪmˈpɔrtnt/
  • po lice  /pəˈlis/
  • com pu have /kəmˈpjutər/
  • communication / kəˌmjunɪˈkeɪʃn /
  • in teresting /ˈɪntrəstɪŋ/
  • di fference /ˈdɪfrəns/
  • Brazil / brəˈzɪl  /

Learning which syllable is stressed in a word is very important. So you will correctly pronounce the words you are learning. However, when learning English a much more important thing than learning word stress  is learning what we call  sentence stress .

This sentence stress is fundamental in communicating in English. This should be taught to entry-level students from the first day of class. After all, this helps us to develop listening and also to speak more clearly.

Written English vs Spoken English

When we see a written sentence we can understand what it means because of the words and grammatical structure used. But as far as sentence stress is concerned , we can’t say what it really means. Because, only listening to it in a natural context will we know what the person really wants to communicate. Let’s take the sentence below as an example:

  • My older brother studied English years ago.

We can easily interpret the sentence as “ My older brother studied English years ago ”. However, in a real context depending on the word being emphasized the meaning will change.

To practice this, you can read the above sentence mechanically, without emotion, word for word. That way, you’ll notice that you’re not using any sentence stress .

Then you can read the same sentence emphasizing ( speaking more emphatically ) one word at a time. In addition, you can also imagine the meaning conveyed by emphasizing each word.

For example, read the sentence above emphasizing only the word “ my ”: MY older brother doesn’t study English . Then imagine what is actually being communicated by saying the sentence in this way: I am not referring to my brother, but to someone else’s brother.

For other uses, see Stress.

Primary stress
ˈ◌
IPA Number 501
Encoding
Entity (decimal) ˈ
Unicode (hex) U+02C8
Secondary stress
ˌ◌
IPA Number 502
Encoding
Entity (decimal) ​ˌ
Unicode (hex)  U+02CC

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

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

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

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

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

Phonetic realization[edit]

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

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

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

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

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

Word stress[edit]

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

Non-phonemic stress[edit]

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

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

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

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

Phonemic stress[edit]

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

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

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

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

Compounds[edit]

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

Levels of stress[edit]

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

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

Prosodic stress[edit]

Extra stress
ˈˈ◌

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

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

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

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

I didn’t take the test yesterday. (Somebody else did.)
I didn’t take the test yesterday. (I did not take it.)
I didn’t take the test yesterday. (I did something else with it.)
I didn’t take the test yesterday. (I took one of several. or I didn’t take the specific test that would have been implied.)
I didn’t take the test yesterday. (I took something else.)
I didn’t take the test yesterday. (I took it some other day.)

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

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

«Is it brunch tomorrow?»
«No, it’s dinner tomorrow.»

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

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

Stress and vowel reduction[edit]

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

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

Stress and rhythm[edit]

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

Historical effects[edit]

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

Stress «deafness»[edit]

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

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

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

Spelling and notation for stress[edit]

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

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

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

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

See also[edit]

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

References[edit]

  1. ^ Fry, D.B. (1955). «Duration and intensity as physical correlates of linguistic stress». Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 27 (4): 765–768. Bibcode:1955ASAJ…27..765F. doi:10.1121/1.1908022.
  2. ^ Fry, D.B. (1958). «Experiments in the perception of stress». Language and Speech. 1 (2): 126–152. doi:10.1177/002383095800100207. S2CID 141158933.
  3. ^ a b Monrad-Krohn, G. H. (1947). «The prosodic quality of speech and its disorders (a brief survey from a neurologist’s point of view)». Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. 22 (3–4): 255–269. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0447.1947.tb08246.x. S2CID 146712090.
  4. ^ Kochanski, Greg; Shih, Chilin; Jing, Hongyan (2003). «Quantitative measurement of prosodic strength in Mandarin». Speech Communication. 41 (4): 625–645. doi:10.1016/S0167-6393(03)00100-6.
  5. ^ Mirakyan, Norayr (2016). «The Implications of Prosodic Differences Between English and Armenian» (PDF). Collection of Scientific Articles of YSU SSS. YSU Press. 1.3 (13): 91–96.
  6. ^ San Duanmu (2000). The Phonology of Standard Chinese. Oxford University Press. p. 134.
  7. ^ mankind in the Collins English Dictionary
  8. ^ Publishers, HarperCollins. «The American Heritage Dictionary entry: mankind». www.ahdictionary.com. Retrieved 2023-04-04.
  9. ^ «paper bag» in the Collins English Dictionary
  10. ^ Ladefoged (1975 etc.) A course in phonetics § 5.4; (1980) Preliminaries to linguistic phonetics p 83
  11. ^ Beckman, Mary E. (1986). Stress and Non-Stress Accent. Dordrecht: Foris. ISBN 90-6765-243-1.
  12. ^ R. Silipo and S. Greenberg, Automatic Transcription of Prosodic Stress for Spontaneous English Discourse, Proceedings of the XIVth International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS99), San Francisco, CA, August 1999, pages 2351–2354
  13. ^ Kochanski, G.; Grabe, E.; Coleman, J.; Rosner, B. (2005). «Loudness predicts prominence: Fundamental frequency lends little». The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 118 (2): 1038–1054. Bibcode:2005ASAJ..118.1038K. doi:10.1121/1.1923349. PMID 16158659. S2CID 405045.
  14. ^ Roca, Iggy (1992). Thematic Structure: Its Role in Grammar. Walter de Gruyter. p. 80.
  15. ^ Dupoux, Emmanuel; Peperkamp, Sharon; Sebastián-Gallés, Núria (2001). «A robust method to study stress «deafness»«. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 110 (3): 1606–1618. Bibcode:2001ASAJ..110.1606D. doi:10.1121/1.1380437. PMID 11572370.
  16. ^ a b Rahmani, Hamed; Rietveld, Toni; Gussenhoven, Carlos (2015-12-07). «Stress «Deafness» Reveals Absence of Lexical Marking of Stress or Tone in the Adult Grammar». PLOS ONE. 10 (12): e0143968. Bibcode:2015PLoSO..1043968R. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0143968. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 4671725. PMID 26642328.
  17. ^ 3:439, 2012, 1-15., Ulrike; Knaus, Johannes; Orzechowska, Paula; Wiese, Richard (2012). «Stress ‘deafness’ in a language with fixed word stress: an ERP study on Polish». Frontiers in Psychology. 3: 439. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00439. PMC 3485581. PMID 23125839.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  18. ^ Dupoux, Emmanuel; Sebastián-Gallés, N; Navarrete, E; Peperkamp, Sharon (2008). «Persistent stress ‘deafness’: The case of French learners of Spanish». Cognition. 106 (2): 682–706. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2007.04.001. hdl:11577/2714082. PMID 17592731. S2CID 2632741.
  19. ^ Payne, Elinor M. (2005). «Phonetic variation in Italian consonant gemination». Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 35 (2): 153–181. doi:10.1017/S0025100305002240. S2CID 144935892.
  20. ^ a b Лопатин, Владимир Владимирович, ed. (2009). § 116. Знак ударения. Правила русской орфографии и пунктуации. Полный академический справочник (in Russian). Эксмо. ISBN 978-5-699-18553-5.
  21. ^ Some pre-revolutionary dictionaries, e.g. Dahl’s Explanatory Dictionary, marked stress with an apostrophe just after the vowel (example: гла’сная). See: Dahl, Vladimir Ivanovich (1903). Boduen de Kurtene, Ivan Aleksandrovich (ed.). Толко́вый слова́рь живо́го великору́сского языка́ [Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language] (in Russian) (3rd ed.). Saint Petersburg: M.O. Wolf. p. 4.
  22. ^ Каплунов, Денис (2015). Бизнес-копирайтинг: Как писать серьезные тексты для серьезных людей (in Russian). p. 389. ISBN 978-5-000-57471-3.
  23. ^ Aharoni, Amir (2020-12-02). «אז איך נציין את מקום הטעם». הזירה הלשונית – רוביק רוזנטל. Retrieved 2021-11-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

External links[edit]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some patterns may be easier for students to cope with.

2) Make word stress visible

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

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

3) Correct mistakes in word stress often.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4) Use playful activities to teach or practice pronunciation

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

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

Stage 1 — Lead-in

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

Stage 2 — Language presentation and clarification

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

Example:

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

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

Teacher than asks some CCQs to check students’ understanding.

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

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

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

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

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

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Arrangement of stress in the text in Russian

ударение в английском языке как ставится

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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

ударение в английском языке как ставится

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

ударение в английском языке как ставится

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:

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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:

  1. 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.

  2. 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:

  1. 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.)
  2. 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:
vocabulary A

transcription:
dictionaryB

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/

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