Word stress
Students: Guranda iobashvili
Salome chachibaia
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.
Stress is relative prominence of syllables
In general, content
words are stressed!
Function words are left
unstressed
Listen to these words. Do you hear the
stressed syllable in each word?
PHO-to-graph
Pho-TO-graph-er
Pho-to-GRAPH-ic
Determining word stress
There are only two consistent, reliable rules about
word stress in English:
Only the vowel sound within a syllable is stressed;
stress is not applied to consonant sounds.
Any given word, even one with many syllables,
will only have one syllable that receives the
primary stress in speech.
Primary stress and Secondary Stress
Every word has one syllable that receives a primary stress—
that is, it is vocally emphasized more than any other syllable.
Some longer words also have a secondary stress, which is more
emphatic than the unstressed syllables but not as strong as the
primary stress. Some words can even have more than one
secondary stress.
Examples:
(primary stress in bold and the secondary stress in italics)
labo·ra·tor·y
mil·i·tar·y
Determining stress based on word type
Nouns and adjectives with two or more syllables
will have stress placed on the first syllable, while
verbs and prepositions tend to have their stress on
the second syllable.
While there are many examples that support this
convention, it is also very problematic because
there are many exceptions that contradict it.
Nouns and adjectives will have stress on the first
syllable
Nouns Adjectives
app·le diff·i·cult
bott·le
fa·vor·ite
litt·le
fam·i·ly
Some of the exceptions:
Nouns: Adjectives:
ba·na·na a·live
ca·nal ex·pen·sive
com·put·er com·plete
Verbs and prepositions will have stress on the
second syllable
Verbs Prepositions
be·come a·bout
com·pare a·cross
di·scuss a·long
Exceptions: gam·ble
can·cel
Noun or Verb
We commonly place stress on the first syllable of a noun. When a word can
operate as either a noun or a verb, we often differentiate the meanings by
shifting the stress from the second syllable to the first syllable.
Nouns Verbs
ob·ject Ob·ject
in·crease In·crease
reb·el reb·el
Exceptions: an·swer a·ttack chall·enge re·port
Word stress in compound words
Compound word is a combination of words treated as
single unit.
Compound nouns and compound verbs typically create
pronunciation patterns that help us determine which of their syllables
will have the primary stress.
Compound adjectives, on the other hand, are most often pronounced
as two separate words, with each receiving its own primary stress
Compound nouns
In compound noun stress is almost always placed on the
first syllable.
Examples:
back·pack (/ˈbækˌpæk/)
bath·room (/ˈbæθˌrum/)
draw·back (/ˈdrɔˌbæk/)
check-in (/ˈtʃɛkˌɪn/)
Reflexive pronouns are not technically compounds (“-self” and “-selves” are
suffixes that attach to a base pronoun), but they look and behave similarly. In these
words, -self/-selves receives the primary stress.
o my·self (/maɪˈsɛlf/)
o her·self (/hərˈsɛlf/)
Stress in single-word compound verbs
In a single-word compounds a verb is combined with a noun,
preposition, or another verb to create a new word.
For most single-word compound verbs, stress will be on the
first syllable.
down·load
test-drive
ba·by·sit
However, if the first element of the compound is a two-syllable
preposition, stress will be placed on the second element.
o·ver·heat
un·der·cook
un·der·line
Stress in prefixes
When the prefix re- means again, it receives a strong stress.
Re-do
Re-place
Re-tell
Re-make
If prefix “re-” does not mean again, it is unstressed.
Re-mind
Re-quire
Re-mark
Stress in suffixes “ify”
This suffix is used to form verbs, most often
from existing nouns or adjectives. The primary
-ic” and “-ical” stress is placed immediately before “-i-,”.
These two suffixes form adjectives
from the nouns to which they class·i·fy (/ˈklæs.əˌfaɪ/)
[Link] are always unstressed. dig·ni·fy (/ˈdɪg.nəˌfaɪ/)
For both, the primary stress is
placed on the syllable immediately
before “-ic-.”
For example: “ity”
ge·net·ic bi-o-log-i-cal
This suffix is used to create nouns from
la·con·ic an-a-tom-i-cal adjectives. The I is pronounced in an
re·a·lis·tic individual syllable, with the word’s primary
stress occurring immediately before it.
e·qual·i·ty
ce·leb·ri·ty
“-tion” “-sion”
When the words have these “-ate”
suffixes, stress goes to the This suffix is most often used to create verbs, but
syllable preceding the it can also form adjectives and nouns. In words
with three or more syllables, the primary stress is
suffix. placed two syllables before the suffix.
nom·i·na·tion For example:
re·a·li·za·tion
• fa·cil·i·tate
a·ver·sion • co·llab·o·rate
o·cca·sion • diff·e·ren·ti·ate
There are suffixes that usually do not affect the stress of
the base word at all. For example: -ness -hood -less
-age -ish -ous
Thank you for your attention!