Word Stress

Terminology:

! Prefix: ___________________________________________________________

! Suffix: ___________________________________________________________

! Root / Stem: ______________________________________________________

! e.g. ! ! anti-dis-establish-ment-arian-ism !!
! ! ! __ __ ___ ___ ___ ___

! Compound Words: _________________________________________________

! e.g. : ____________________________________________________________

Stressed syllables are longer, louder, and more high pitched. They will have a full, clear
vowel.

Unstressed Syllables are softer, shorter, with neutral pitch. They usually have reduced
or weaker vowels. e.g. /ə/ - “schwa”

Exercise 1. What is the stress pattern?

Word Stress Pattern

tea-cher

beau-ti-ful

un-der-stand

con-ti-nue

con-ti-nu-a-tion

black-board

Stress determines the pronunciation of vowels. Stressed syllables will have the full
vowel sound, and unstressed will have reduced vowels.

! For example, listen to the word banana. How many different vowel sounds do
! you hear? Which ones are in the stressed syllable?

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 Word Stress

Photograph! ! ! ! Photography!! ! Photographer

See Endings Table. Very different spellings, but the same pronunciation because they
are unstressed, and therefore reduced vowels.

Exercise 2. Try to say these words with the stress as marked. Work with a partner.

de.sign ! a.bout ! af.ter

va.nil.la ! Ca.na.da ! graf.fi.ti

in.dif.fe.rent !A.ri.zo.na ! a.vai.la.ble

u.ni.ver.si.ty !ca.fe.te.ri.a ! la.bo.ra.to.ry

“Rules” for Stress Placement

! There are no real rules for where the stress falls in a word. There are some
! things that work for MANY words, though.

1. Stress the first syllable of many nouns. e.g. library, laboratory, television

2. Stress the root of verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions. e.g. appear, define,
employ, incredible, before, quickly

3. Stress words of more than one syllable according to the suffix. (See table 6-1)

4. Stress compound nouns on the first word. e.g. gas station, policeman, highway
! (First word, not always first syllable)

5. Stress phrasal verbs on the last word, such as pick up, look into, take off.

How do dicationaries indicate what syllable is stressed?

banana ¦bə nanə¦

The little raised line before “na” shows you that “na” is the stressed syllable. The symbol
goes before the stressed symbol.

2
 Word Stress

Word Where do you think the Check a dictionary

stress is?