Conservatorio Superior de Msica de Murcia

Manuel Massotti Littel

UNIT 3: ENGLISH PROSODY

ACADEMIC YEAR 2015/2016

Teacher: Mara del Valle

UNIT 3: ENGLISH PROSODY

1- Introducing syllables (pages 3-8)

2- Introducing word stress (pages 9-26)

2.1- Stress in two-syllable words
2.2- Stress in longer words
2.3- Families of words with moving stress patterns

3- Introducing sentence stress (pages 27-30)

How many syllables* does the word chocolate have?

-2 -3
-4
Answer: 2
/k.lt/

* Phonetic syllables !!

I went to an interesting restaurant on Wednesday.

First I had chicken with a lot of different vegetables.
Then I had a piece of chocolate cake. In general, I
dont like chocolate, but the cake was lovely.
How many syllables do the underlined words have?

English normally reduces post-tonic schwas: The after

the stressed syllable dissapears

INteresting

REStaurant

WEDnesday

/ ,

DIfferent

VEgetables

CHOcolate

GEneral

LOvely

3 syllables

2 syllables
2 syllables

2 syllables
3 syllables

2 syllables
2 syllables

2 syllables
5

i WENT to an INteresting REStaurant on WEDnesday.

FIRST i had CHIcken with a LOT of DIfferent
VEgetables. THEN i had a PIECE of CHOcolate CAKE.
In GEneral, i DONT like CHOcolate, but the CAKE was
LOvely.

I went to an interesting restaurant on Wednesday.

First

had

chicken

with

lot

of

different

vegetables. Then I had a piece of chocolate cake. In

general, I dont like chocolate, but the cake was
lovely.

Ex. She sells sea shells on the sea shore

= 8 syllables

1. Walter walked towards the waiter.

8 syll.

2. Betty bought a better bit of butter

10 syll.

3. The fat cat sat on the vets wet hat

9 syll.

If a word has more than one syllable, you give stress to one of the
syllables. To give it stress, do one or more of these to the syllable:

thirteen
fourteen
sixteen
eighteen
nineteen

thirty
fourty
sixty
eighty
ninety

10

11

12

KEY: eightieth, twentieth, thirtieth, yesterday, seventy,

sixtieth, fortieth, holiday, Saturday, ninetieth, fiftieth
13

Where do these words come

from?
- Artist
- Player
- Dislike
- Art
- Play
- Like

Where is the stress in?

-

Artist
Player
Dislike
Artist
Player
Dislike

Many two-syllable words come from a one-syllable word. The stress

stays where it was:

14

NOUNS AND ADJECTIVES:

Stress on the 1st syllable (E.g: brother, famous)
- Exceptions: Asleep, mistake, machine, alone

PATTERN
The artists most famous picture
shows some women and children
in a lovely forest
with a purple mountain behind
15

VERBS:
Stress on the 2nd syllable (E.g.: Repeat, forget, regret, relax)
- Exceptions: 1. Cancel, copy
2. Verbs ending in er and en (E.g.: Answer, enter,
open, offer, listen, happen)

PATTERN:
Escape to Scotland,
forget about work,
just relax

and enjoy the scenery!

16

17

NOUN-VERB WORDS (Change of stress!!):

NOUN / VERB

NOUN / VERB

REcord / reCORD

PREsent /preSENT

CONtrast / conTRAST

PROduce / proDUCE

DEsert / deSERT

PROtest / proTEST

EXport /exPORT

REbel / reBEL

OBject / obJECT
- Exceptions (no change of stress): Answer, picture, promise,
reply, travel, visit,

18

19

We can build longer words by adding parts to the beginning or

end of shorter words. Usually, this does not change the stress:

20

2.2. Stress in longer words

These endings (suffixes) do not change the stress:
comfort, comfortable
read, readable
-
bag, baggage
pass, passage
-
magic, magical

scot, scottish

weak, weaken
wood, wooden

amaze, amazing
interest, interesting
-
-
wonder, wonderful
speech, speechless
use, useful
child, childless

write, writer
social, socialism

familiar, familiarize

These beginings (prefixes) do not change the stress:

possible, impossible

stressed, unstressed
-

pay, underpay
-
21

China Chinese

million millionaire
maintain entertain (verbs)

engine engineer

cigar cigarette

employ employee

crusade, parade

picture picturesque
antique, technique

four fourteen

22

These endings (suffixes) ATTRACT the stress to the PENULTIMATE

slyllable of the word:

-ial
tutor
tutorial

-cian
music
musician

-ic
drama
dramatic

-tion
consider
consideration

23

These endings (suffixes) ATTRACT the stress to the ANTEPENULTIMATE

slyllable of the word:

-ate
-y

celebrate, integrate
separate, desolate
curious curiosity
music musicology
astral astronomy
photo photography

24

25

2.3. Families of words with moving stress patterns:

photograph photographic
economy

economics

photography

economically

nation

nationalization

nationality

civil

civility

civilisation

26

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