Word Stress in English

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.
   

In this lesson we look at the most
important aspects of word stress, followed by a short quiz to check your
understanding:

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.

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

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

2 Stress on last syllable

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.

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

2 Stress on last syllable

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)

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 =