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Understanding Syllable Stress

This document provides guidance on determining syllable stress in English words. It discusses 7 guidelines for placing stress: 1) most 2-syllable nouns stress the first syllable; 2) 2-syllable verbs and adjectives stress the root; 3) suffixes can affect stress; 4) the first word is stressed in compound nouns; 5) the second word is stressed in 2-word verbs; 6) the last syllable is stressed in reflexive pronouns; 7) longer words follow the patterns for 2-syllable words. Examples are given to illustrate each guideline. The document also notes how stress changes meaning, and discusses prefixes, roots, suffixes, and exceptions to the guidelines.

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Daniel Valenzuela
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762 views27 pages

Understanding Syllable Stress

This document provides guidance on determining syllable stress in English words. It discusses 7 guidelines for placing stress: 1) most 2-syllable nouns stress the first syllable; 2) 2-syllable verbs and adjectives stress the root; 3) suffixes can affect stress; 4) the first word is stressed in compound nouns; 5) the second word is stressed in 2-word verbs; 6) the last syllable is stressed in reflexive pronouns; 7) longer words follow the patterns for 2-syllable words. Examples are given to illustrate each guideline. The document also notes how stress changes meaning, and discusses prefixes, roots, suffixes, and exceptions to the guidelines.

Uploaded by

Daniel Valenzuela
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
  • Syllable Stress
  • Pretest
  • Meaning Changes
  • Vowels are Stressed
  • The Flipside of Stress
  • Consider this…
  • Vowel Reduction in Unstressed Endings
  • Reduced Vowels – C, pg 64
  • Reduced Vowels – D, pg 64
  • Need to Identify Syllables
  • What's in a Word?
  • More…what's in a word?
  • Importance of Stress Identification
  • Guideline 1 - Nouns
  • Exception in Nouns
  • Guideline 2 – Verbs and Adjectives
  • Guideline 2 - cont’d
  • Guideline 3 - The Power of Suffixes
  • Guideline 4
  • Guideline 5
  • Guideline 6
  • Guideline 7
  • More Guidelines to Come…

Syllable Stress

How to decide which sound to stress.

Pretest
Afford
Afford 2
Offered
Offered 2
Offering
Offering -3
Develop
Develop -3
Superstitious
Superstitious - 4

Pretest contd
Distribution
Distribution 4
Television
Television -4
Promise
Promise -2
Protect
Protect -2
Preference
Preference 2

More Pretest!
Prefer
Prefer 2
Responsibility
Responsibility 6
Refrigerator
Refrigerator 5
Characterizes
Characterizes 5
Understand
Understand -3

Pretest
Misunderstand
Misunderstand - 4
Unintelligible
Unintelligible - 6
Individual
Individual 5
Individuality
Individuality - 7

Meaning Changes
The meaning changes when you change the

location of the stressed syllable.


Look at the desert.

Look at the dessert.

He gave me a message.
He gave me a massage.
He lives in a jeep now.

He lives in Egypt now.

Vowels are Stressed


The stressed syllables can be identified as

long and high because the vowels are long


and the pitch is high.

The Flipside of Stress


Unstressed syllables sound weaker than

stressed syllables.
They are harder to hear clearly because
unstressed vowels are low in pitch and short.
Problem
Moment
Roses
Human

Consider this
ball

balloon
fast
breakfast
late
chocolate
men
women
social society
recorder
a record

Vowel Reduction in Unstressed Endings.


1.

Stress lands on first syllable with these


endings
See page 63

2.

climate
ate
garbage age
engine ine
patient tient
grammar ar

Vowel in unstressed ending becomes //


or //

Ex.C page 64
Ex.D page 64

Reduced Vowels C., pg 64


table, vegetable, unfortunate, relate, page,

cottage, rain, mountain, place, palace, canal,


electrical
ice, justice, mile fertile, engine, fine, bite,
favourite, alive, negative
today, total, mouse, famous, season, alone,
plant, instant, prevent, recent

Reduced Vowels D, pg 64
examine, determine, medicine, margarine
practice, prejudice, promise
definite, prerequisite, opposite
missile, imbecile

Need to Identify Syllables


How many syllables in these words?
Easy
Pronunciation
Damaged
Piece
People
Ambiguous

Whats in a Word?
Prefix unhappy un + happy
Suffix development develop + ment
How powerful are affixes?
able to change meaning
able to change grammatical functions

e.g., from noun verb

Morewhats in a word?
Find the Root
its the center of the word
it carries the basic meaning
Example
care, careful, carefully, careless, caring, carefree,
A root usually is one or two syllables long
Compounds?
more than one root
policeman, gas station

In order to understand what principles guide

the placement of stress, the identification of


prefixes, roots and suffixes is important.

Guideline 1 - Nouns
Most 2 syllable nouns have stress on the first
syllable.
Table, Number,Distance,Office
Even names
Alice, Barbara, Julie, Thomas
Annette? Renee?

Exception
Some nouns are stressed on the root, as we
do not usually stress a prefix.
belief
success
mistake
excuse
result

Guideline 2 Verbs and Adjectives


For two syllable verbs and adjectives, stress the
root.
When the second syllable is the root in
Verbs:
appear, conclude, discard, reserve, believe
Adjectives:
alive, enough, remote

Guideline 2 - contd
When the first syllable is the root in :
Verbs:
to harden, to straighten, to suffer, to offer
Adjectives:
useful, cloudy, thirsty, pleasant, solid, jealous
For adverbs and prepositions, stress the root.
quickly, perhaps, except, often

Guideline 3
The Power of Suffixes
Stress in words with more than 2 syllables depends on
their suffix.
See page 69 for list of stress-related suffixes
For other [Link] does not change but remains
on the same syllable as other forms of the same
word
-able, -al, -ed, -en, -er, -est, -ful, -ing, -ish, -ist, -ism,
-less, -ly, -ment, -ness, -ous, -y
Examples
officially official
professional profession
punishment punish

Guideline 4
Compound nouns
Stress on the first word
firemen
air conditioning
wastepaper basket
What about White House vs. white house?

Guideline 5
Two word verbs what are they?
Stress lands on the second word
pick up, turn off, drop out, do over
What about a turn off, a drop out?

Guideline 6
Reflexive pronouns
Stress the last syllable
myself, yourself, himself,
themselves, ourselves, yourselves

Guideline 7
What ifmore than 2 syllables?
Extension of Guideline 1
if a noun stress the first syllable.
Extension of Guideline 2
if a verb or adjective, put stress on the root.
Extension of Guideline 3
Stress the same way as the related word, if
suffix does not affect stress.

More Guidelines to Come


record vs. record
separate vs separate
interesting vs. interesting

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