Word Stress in English

Word stress is your magic key to understanding spoken English. Native speakers of English use word stress naturally. Word stress is so natural for them that they don't even know they use it. Non-native Nonspeakers, who speak English to native speakers without using word stress, encounter two problems:

They find it difficult to understand native speakers, especially those speaking fast. The native speakers may find it difficult to understand them.

Understanding Syllables
 To

understand word stress, it helps to understand syllables. Every word is made from syllables. Each word has one, two, three or more syllables.

Words dog Green quite quiet Orange table interesting Realistic exceptional dog green quite qui-et quior-ange orta-ble tain-ter-est-ing in-ter-estre-al-is-tic re-al-isun-ex-cepun-ex-ceptiontion-al

number of syllables 1 1 1 2 2 2 4 4 5

Notice that with a few rare exceptions every syllable contains at least one vowel (a, e, i, o or u) or vowel sound.

What is Word Stress?

In English, we do not say each syllable with the same force or strength. In one word, we accentuate ONE syllable. We say one syllable very loudly (big, strong, important) and all the other syllables very quietly.

Let's take 3 words: photograph, photograph, photographer and photographic. photographic.

Do they sound the same when spoken? No. Because we accentuate (stress) ONE syllable in each word. And it is not always the same syllable. So the shape of each word is different.

Words PHO TO GRAPH

shape

total syllables

stressed syllable

3
PHO

#1 #2

TO GRAPH ER

4
PHOTOGRAPH IC

#3

There are two very important rules about word stress:

One word, one stress. (One word cannot have two stresses. So if you hear two stresses, you have heard two words, not one word.)  The stress is always on a vowel.


Where do I Put Word Stress?

Rules of Word Stress in English

There are two very simple rules about word stress:

 

One word has only one stress. We can only stress vowels, not consonants.

1 Stress on first syllable

rule Most 2syllable nouns Most 2syllable verbs example PRESent, Digest,EXport, OBject preSENT, diGEST, expORT, obJECT

Stress on penultimate syllable (penultimate = second from end)

rule Words ending in ic Words ending in sion and -tion example GRAPHic, geoGRAPHic, geoLOGic teleVIsion, reveLAtion

4 Stress on ante-penultimate syllable ante(ante(ante-penultimate = third from end) rule Words ending in -cy, -ty, -phy and -gy Words ending in -al example deMOcracy, dependaBIlity, phoTOgraphy, geOLogy CRItical, geoLOGical

5 Compound words (words with two parts)

rule For compound nouns, the stress is on the first part For compound adjectives, the stress is on the second part For compound verbs, the stress is on the second part example BLACKbird, GREENhouse bad-TEMpered, oldFASHioned to underSTAND, to overFLOW

Remember!
This rules will help you understand where to put the stress. But do not rely on them too much, because there are many exceptions. It is better to try to "feel" the music of the language and to add the stress naturally.

THE END