Stress

Word stress
A. Two syllable words
1. Verbs
1. Apply
arrive
receive
Assist
Borrow
Follow
2. Enter
Open
* Exceptions :
Permit /pә’mit/




A diphthong but /әu /
A long vowel
> 1 consonant

A short vowel
1 or no final consonant
2 . nouns
money
apple
advice
design
machine
* Exceptions :
insight
discord
3. Adjective (same rule as verbs )
Happy, Clever, Correct, Extreme
Exceptions
Present, perfect, honest


A diphthong
A long vowel

A short vowel
B. Three syllable words
1. Verbs
1. encounter
determine
consider
2. Understand
entertain
interrupt
recommend
Exceptions
Verbs ending in “ish”
Establish
Demolish
accomplish




A short vowel
> 1 consonant

A long vowel
A diphthong but /әu /
> 1 consonants
B. Three syllable words
2. Nouns
1. potato
disaster
volcano
tomorrow
advantage


A short vowel
A diphthong /әu /
A long vowel
A diphthong
> 1 consonants
{
2. quantity
cinema
animal
elephant
character


3. Heliport
accident
photograph


A short vowel
A diphthong /әu /
A short vowel
A long vowel
A diphthong
> 1 consonants
{
3. Adjective
(same rule as nouns )
Ex:
enormous
Absolute
Possible
Exceptions
Bilingual
redundant

C. Complex words
Prefixes
Most prefixes don’t affect the stress of the word
Ex: unhappy
Irregular
incorrect
But there are some exceptions
Nonsense
Semicircle
semibreve
II. Suffixes
Suffixes carrying stress
“ee” refugee
employee
Exception committee
“eer” career
engineer
volunteer
“ese” Vietnamese
Japanese
“ette” cigarette
Launderette

“ality; ility” personality
flexibility
ability
“esque; ique” picturesque
unique
technique
Note: the suffix “al” doesn’t affect the stress but for words ending in “ent”
Ex: Refuse  Refusal
Accidental, environmental, experimental, instrumental
Exception: Origin  original

2. The suffixes have stress preceding them
eous advantageous
graphy Geography, photography, ( photo, photograph, photographer )
ial commercial, proverbial
ic climatic, economic, scientific
ion/tion/sion perfection, nation, education
ious religious, delicious, injurious
ive/itive/ative relative, sensitive, informative, inventive
Note: ise/ize/fy/ate/logy/logist/cracy: the stress will falls on the third syllable from the end of the word
Ex: modernize, classify, liberate, democracy, technology, psychologist
D. Compound words
1. If the first part tends to be Adjectival, the stress goes on the second element
Ex: loudspeaker, bad-temper, second-class
Exceptions:
Superman, supermarket, superstructure, greenhouse, gentlemen, background, blackboard, blackmail, bluebell, blueprint (almost every word has the stress on “blue”)
2. However, if the second element tends to be a noun, the stress goes on the first element
Ex: typewriter, suitcase, laptop, network, sunrise
Levels of stress
Primary stress: We put a high mark ` before the syllable
Secondary stress: We put a low mark , before the syllable
Secondary stress only appears when the primary stress falls on the third syllable to the end of the word
Secondary stress precedes primary stress one syllable
Ex: conventional consumer conservation container
Note:
- We often have a weak vowel before the stress
In American English, the vowel “I” often becomes “ә” so we should be careful when we design the pronunciation test :
Ex: difficult resident president pesticide
priority resident president pesticide


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