Word Stress in English

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

1. They find it difficult to understand native speakers, especially those speaking

fast.
2. The native speakers may find it difficult to understand them.

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

word number of syllables

dog dog 1

green green 1

quite quite 1

quiet qui-et 2

orange or-ange 2

table ta-ble 2

expensive ex-pen-sive 3

interesting in-ter-est-ing 4

realistic re-al-is-tic 4

unexceptional un-ex-cep-tion-al 5

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

What is Word Stress?

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

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

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

PHO TO GRAPH 3 #1

PHO TO GRAPH ER 4 #2

PHO TO GRAPH IC 4 #3

This happens in ALL words with 2 or more syllables: TEACHer, JaPAN, CHINa,
aBOVE, converSAtion, INteresting, imPORtant, deMAND, etCETera, etCETera,
etCETera

The syllables that are not stressed are weak or small or quiet. Native speakers of
English listen for the STRESSED syllables, not the weak syllables. If you use word
stress in your speech, you will instantly and automatically improve your
pronunciation and your comprehension.

Try to hear the stress in individual words each time you listen to English - on the
radio, or in films for example. Your first step is to HEAR and recognise it. After that,
you can USE it!

There are two very important rules about word stress:

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

Why is Word Stress Important?

Word stress is not used in all languages. Some languages, Japanese or French for
example, pronounce each syllable with eq-ual em-pha-sis. Other languages, English
for example, use word stress.

Word stress is not an optional extra that you can add to the English language if you
want. It is part of the language! English speakers use word stress to communicate
rapidly and accurately, even in difficult conditions. If, for example, you do not hear a
word clearly, you can still understand the word because of the position of the stress.

Think again about the two words photograph and photographer. Now imagine that
you are speaking to somebody by telephone over a very bad line. You cannot hear
clearly. In fact, you hear only the first two syllables of one of these words, photo...
Which word is it, photograph or photographer? Of course, with word stress you will
know immediately which word it is because in reality you will hear either PHOto... or
phoTO... So without hearing the whole word, you probably know what the word is (
PHOto...graph or phoTO...grapher). It's magic! (Of course, you also have the
'context' of your conversation to help you.)

This is a simple example of how word stress helps us understand English. There are
many, many other examples, because we use word stress all the time, without thinking
about it.

Where do I Put Word Stress?

There are some rules about which syllable to stress. But...the rules are rather
complicated! Probably the best way to learn is from experience. Listen carefully to
spoken English and try to develop a feeling for the "music" of the language.

When you learn a new word, you should also learn its stress pattern. If you keep a
vocabulary book, make a note to show which syllable is stressed. If you do not know,
you can look in a dictionary. All dictionaries give the phonetic spelling of a word.
This is where they show which syllable is stressed, usually with an apostrophe (') just
before or just after the stressed syllable. (The notes at the front of the dictionary will
explain the system used.) Look at (and listen to) this example for the word plastic.
There are 2 syllables. Syllable #1 is stressed.

example phonetic spelling: phonetic spelling:

dictionary A dictionary B

PLAS TIC

/plæs'tIk/ /'plæs tIk/

Rules of Word Stress in English

There are two very simple rules about word stress:

1. One word has only one stress. (One word cannot have two stresses. If you
hear two stresses, you hear two words. Two stresses cannot be one word. It is
true that there can be a "secondary" stress in some words. But a secondary
stress is much smaller than the main [primary] stress, and is only used in long
words.)

2. We can only stress vowels, not consonants.

Here are some more, rather complicated, rules that can help you understand where to
put the stress. But do not rely on them too much, because there are many exceptions.
It is better to try to "feel" the music of the language and to add the stress naturally.

1 Stress on first syllable

rule example

Most 2-syllable nouns PRESent, EXport, CHIna, TAble

Most 2-syllable adjectives PRESent, SLENder, CLEVer, HAPpy

2 Stress on last syllable

rule example

Most 2-syllable verbs to preSENT, to exPORT, to deCIDE, to beGIN

There are many two-syllable words in English whose meaning and class change with
a change in stress. The word present, for example is a two-syllable word. If we
stress the first syllable, it is a noun (gift) or an adjective (opposite of absent). But if
we stress the second syllable, it becomes a verb (to offer). More examples: the words
export, import, contract and object can all be nouns or verbs depending on whether
the stress is on the first or second syllable.

3 Stress on penultimate syllable (penultimate = second from end)

rule example

Words ending in -ic GRAPHic, geoGRAPHic, geoLOGic

Words ending in -sion and -tion teleVIsion, reveLAtion

For a few words, native English speakers don't always "agree" on where to put the
stress. For example, some people say teleVIsion and others say TELevision. Another
example is: CONtroversy and conTROversy.

4 Stress on ante-penultimate syllable (ante-penultimate = third from end)

rule example

Words ending in -cy, -ty, -phy and deMOcracy, dependaBIlity, phoTOgraphy,

-gy geOLogy
Words ending in -al CRItical, geoLOGical

5 Compound words (words with two parts)

rule example

For compound nouns, the stress is on the first part BLACKbird, GREENhouse

For compound adjectives, the stress is on the second bad-TEMpered, old-

part FASHioned

For compound verbs, the stress is on the second part to underSTAND, to overFLOW