Word and Syllable Stress

The trick to speaking English with clarity and impact is understanding the melody and rhythm that is specific to English but differs in other languages. Without the music of the English language, pronunciation is a mistake. --Erin Corrigan, Pronunciation Specialist

What is word stress?

Word stress is used in English to communicate rapidly and accurately in all kinds of conditions. Even when you don't hear a word correctly, you can still understand the word because of the position of the stress--and the context of the conversation.

For example, if you are speaking in a windstorm and all you hear of a word is "photo..." how do you know if the word is "photograph" or "photographer"?

You know it is "photograph" if the first syllable is stressed: PHO-to-graph. You know it is "photographer" if the second syllable is stressed: pho-TO-grapher.

Also, there are words, like "present," "contract," "object," "export" and "import," where the meaning changes depending on which syllable you stress.

What is syllable stress?

Every word contains at least one syllable (unit of pronunciation), and each syllable contains one vowel or vowel sound. For example, in English, the word "fantastic," has three syllables: fan, tas, and tic.

In both English, one word has one stress. In other words, one of the syllables is said more noticeably than the others. (If you hear two stresses, you are actually hearing two words.) In the word "fantastic," TAS is the stressed syllable.

We can "stress" (give a syllable more emphasis) by:

saying that syllable a little more loudly,
saying that syllable a little longer thant the others, or
changing the pitch of our voice.

There are three different kinds of stress within words. Some words that have three or more syllables include all three kinds of stress, but many times there is a primary stress and several schwas.

--Syllables with primary stress are higher, louder and longer than other syllables in the word.

--Syllables with secondary stress are lower, softer and shorter than the primary syllable.

--The schwa is always the syllable of weak stress, so it is extremely short and soft, and the mouth is completely relaxed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MrftJ1bGlA

Which syllables do w stress?

In English, there are no accent marks to help us know which syllable to stress. In fact, the syllables that are stressed seem almost random. However, here are a few rules that usually work:

Many times, in 2-syllable nouns or adjectives, the first syllable is stressed:

present (PREH zuhnt) slender (SLEHN dur)

export (EHKS port) clever (CLEH vur)

table (TAY buhl) happy (HA pee)

Unless the first syllable is de-, re-, ex-, in-, po-, pro-, or a-. (In these cases, these first syllables are usually not accented.

delay (dee-LAY)

explore (ehks-PLOR)

In compound nouns (nouns with two parts), stress the first part:

blackboard (BLAK bord)

greenhouse (GREEN hows)

brainstorm (BRAYN storm)

- For compound adjectives, the stress is on the second part:

bad-tempered (bad TEHM purd)

old-fashioned (ohld FA shuhnd)

In most 2-syllable verbs, the last syllable is stressed:

present (pree ZEHNT)

export (ehks PORT)

begin (bee GIHN)

decide (dee SAID)

For compound verbs, stress the second part:

understand (uhn dur STAND)

overflow (oh vur FLOW)

Stress the last syllable when 2 vowel letters are together in the last syllable of a word:

complain (kuhm PLAYN)

conceal (kuhn SEEL)

When a word has a suffix or prefix, stress the root word:

boxes (BAHK suhz)

untie (uhn TAI)

rated (RAY tuhd)

When two of the same consonants are together in a word, the syllable before the double consonants is accented:

beginner (bee GIH nur)

letter (LEH dur)

missing (MIH seeng)

The syllable before the suffixes -ion, -pity, -ic, -ical, -ian, -ial, or -ious is stressed:

affection (uh FEHK shuhn)

serendipity (sair uhn DIH puh dee)

delicious (duh LIH shuhs)

tropical (TRAH puh kuhl)

imagination (uh ma juh NAY shuhn)

graphic (GRA fuhk)

geographic (jee oh GRA fuhk)

Stress the third syllable from the end in words ending in "cy," "ty," "phy," "gy," and "al."

democracy (duh MAH kruh see)

reliability (ree lai uh BIH luh dee)

photography (fuh TAH gruh fee)

microbiology (mai croh bai AH luh gee)

critical (KRIH duh kuhl)

geology (jee AH luh jee)

geological (jee uh LAH juh kuhl)

The last syllable in words ending in -ee or -oo (except for coffee and committee)

agree (uh GREE)

payee (pay YEE)

addressee (a dreh SEE)

In words with 3 or more syllables, one of the first 2 syllables is usually accented:

accident (AK suh duhnt)

determine (dee TUR muhn)

Why does it matter?

Actually, changing the syllable you stress in a word can literally change the meaning of the word. For example, object (AHB jehkt) is a noun, but object (uhb JEHKT) is a verb. Likewise, export (EHKS port), import (IHM port) and contract (KAHN tract) are all nouns, but export (ehks PORT), import (ihm PORT) and contract (cuhnTRAKT) are all verbs.