CONNECTED SPEECH SERIES

STRESS
In English language, some syllables and words are given more emphasis that the others. This is
known as stress. It is this phenomenon that gives English language its rhythmic nature.

Stress is the degree of emphasis placed on syllables or words while speaking. Based on this,
word stress and sentence stress will be considered.

Word Stress
Pronounce the words below
belly festival designer intervention sustain
You would have noticed that some syllables are distinct when compared to the others – these
are the stressed syllables.
For example, “ad-ven-ture” has three syllables and it is stressed on the second syllable.

A stressed syllable is louder, longer and said more clearly (on a higher pitch) than the others.

Basically, there are two types of syllables: stressed and unstressed syllables. However the
proper classification can be found below.
Unstressed syllables // (said with a low pitch)

Primary stressed syllable /ˈ/(said with a high pitch)

Secondary stress syllable / /(said with a high pitch)

Syllables and Stress Patterns in Words
Take a look at the following words
satisfaction responsibility congregation communication

Each of the words above has more than one stressed syllable – one with a higher pitch than the
others.
Stress pattern in words simply refers to the change of pitch or tone in the voice while
pronouncing words that have more than one syllable.
Stressed syllables are pronounced with a high pitch of the voice, while unstressed syllables are
said with a low pitch.

Say the stress patterns below.

rin-go
go-rin
rin-go-rin
go-rin-go
go-rin-go-go
go-rin-go-rin-go
Can you identify these patterns in words? Go ahead and write words that have the given stress
(tone) patterns above in front of each.
Activity
Pronounce the tone patterns and the word samples that come with each tone pattern.

rin-go teacher magic temper truthful

go-rin award deny pretend confuse

go-rin-go intention arena dominion imagine

go-rin-go-go exceptional community identical reciprocal

go-rin-go-rin-go determination procrastination communication