• Definitions
  • Letterpress
  • Spelling Bee
  • Words with friends
  • Apalabrados
  • Words of Wonders
  • Text to speech
  • Parts of speech
  • Numbers to words
  • Phonetic spelling
  • Terms of use

Modal title

How many syllables in homework .

Homework has 2 syllables and the stress is on the first syllable.

Syllables in homework

  • How many syllables in homework? 2 syllables
  • Divide homework into syllables: home-work
  • Stressed syllable in homework: home -work
  • Secondary stressed syllable: home- work
  • How to pronounce homework: howmwerk
  • IPA-notation: howˈmwɚˌk
  • Numbers of characters: 8 (e, h, k, m, o, o, r, w)
  • Unique letters: 7 (e, h, k, m, o, r, w)
  • Homework backwards: krowemoh
  • Homework sorted alphabetically: ehkmoorw

Words like homework

Homework in a sentence, last searches.

Logo for KU Libraries Open Textbooks

3 Chapter 3 – Syllable Stress in Words

INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, readers will learn about syllable stress in words. By the end of the chapter, readers will be able to…

  • explain the structure of a syllable
  • distinguish between stressed-timed languages like English and syllable timed-languages such as Mandarin Chinese and Spanish
  • notice three kinds of syllable stress in English words: primary, secondary, and unstressed syllables
  • learn rules for stressing the correct syllable in words
  • produce words and phrases with a variety of syllable stress

WHAT IS A SYLLABLE?

Individual speech sounds organize into groups or syllables.  So, we can think of syllables as a unit of speech.

Syllables have an organization or structure. All syllables have a vowel or a vowel-like consonant. For example, the word kitten has two syllables. The first syllable has the high front lax vowel [ι] and the second syllable has a vowel-like or syllabic consonant, which is indicated by a dot under the [ņ].

[kι – Ɂņ]

Syllables can also have consonants before and after the vowel. Consonants before the vowel form the onset of the syllable. In the word kitten , the velar stop [k] comes before the first vowel and the glottal stop [Ɂ] comes before the syllabic consonant [ņ] acting as a vowel.

The vowel and following consonants form a unit that is called the rhyme . The rhyme can be divided into a vowel or nucleus of a syllable and a coda , which is made up of consonants that follow the vowel nucleus.

In the diagram below, σ stands for “syllable.” The capital letters C and V stand for “consonant” and “vowel.”

This is the syllable structure for the word  strengths,  which is pronounced as [strɛŋθs].

image

https://opentext.ku.edu/app/uploads/sites/61/2023/09/Strenghts.mp3

Some speakers pronounce the word  strengths  with four consonants in the coda. The pronunciation looks like this [strɛŋgθs]. In his video, Andy McMillin pronounces the word with four consonants in the coda. Watch Andy McMillin’s video to hear this pronunciation and review the structure of the syllable.

STRESS-TIMED LANGUAGES AND THREE KINDS OF SYLLABLE STRESS

English is a stress-timed language, which means that the syllables in English vary in length, loudness, and vowel quality. This is in contrast to syllable-timed languages, which have syllables that do not vary as much as English syllables.

There are three kinds of syllable stress in English: primary stressed syllables, secondary stressed syllables, and unstressed syllables. Primary stressed syllables are louder and longer than the other syllables in the word. Unstressed syllables are reduced and short. Vowels that carry secondary stress are not as long or loud as the primary stressed vowels and not as reduced as an unstressed vowel.

By using the different syllable types, a kind of rhythm emerges. This rhythm is characteristic of North American English speech. 

This video from  Learn American English   introduces the difference between stress-timed languages and syllable-timed timed language. Most of the video is about the three kind of syllable stress.

A three-syllable word with all three kinds of stress is understand. 

un + der + stand

[ secondary stress ] + [ unstressed ] + [ primary stress ]

When you watch the video, look for the stress patterns of these words and notice how the pronunciation changes in the last syllable of the word estimate . If the last syllable carries primary stress (verb), then the syllable is not reduced. If the last syllable is unstressed, then the syllable is reduced.

  • ‘ɛs-tə- ˌ meιt
  • ‘ɛs-tə-mιt
  • ˌ æb-sə-‘lut-li

DETERMINING THE STRESSED SYLLABLE IN WORDS

English has complex word stress. There are rules and also exceptions. Here are three techniques for learning to stress the correct syllable.

  • Listen for stressed syllables
  • Use online dictionaries
  • Apply rules for word Stress

The best way to acquire syllable stress is to be aware of the different kinds in your own speech. As you listen to other speakers, use online dictionaries and apply rules, your speech will start to change.

Listening for Stressed Syllables

One way to determine which vowels are stressed is to listen for stress in the speech of native speakers. Click on the words below to hear the stressed syllable. Listen for the primary stress in the words listed below. The first line give the word. The next two lines show the syllable stress pattern.

PHO-to-graph

[primary stress] + [unstressed] + [secondary stress]

https://opentext.ku.edu/app/uploads/sites/61/2023/06/Photograph.mp3

Photographer

pho-TO-gra-pher

[unstressed] + [primary] + [unstressed] + [unstressed]

https://opentext.ku.edu/app/uploads/sites/61/2023/06/Photographer.mp3

Photographical

Pho-to-GRAPH-i-cal

[secondary stress] + [unstressed] + [primary stress] + [unstressed] + [unstressed]

https://opentext.ku.edu/app/uploads/sites/61/2023/06/Photographical.mp3

Online Dictionaries

A quick way to determine stressed and unstressed syllables is to use an online dictionary such as Dictionary.com or Merriam-Webster .  The pronunciation for these words come from Merriam-Webster .

Dictionaries use their own versions of the International Phonetic Alphabet or other system to represent pronunciation in writing. You may want to learn the system of your favorite online dictionary. Here is an example from Merriam-Webster for the word economics.

ˌe – kə -ˈnä – miks

image

The lower line at the beginning of the word signals secondary stress. The raised line before the syllable [na] represents primary stress and the two dots or umlaut over the [a] simply refers to the [a] sound.

Listen to the pronunciation of this word and related words from Merriam-Webster dictionary.  Notice that the stress pattern changes.

Rules for Syllable/Word Stress

There are many rules for syllable stress.  The main point is that syllable stress is related to grammar . Some grammar categories that affect syllable stress are: nouns, suffixes, verbs, compound nouns, and suffixes.

Rules for Syllable Stress in Words

  • The Two-Syllable Noun Rule with exceptions
  • Suffix Rules
  • The Compound Noun Rule
  • The Two-Syllable Noun-Verb Rule

This short video from After School English gives some examples of these rules. The Suffix Rules are more complicated because English has many suffixes. Additional examples of the Suffix Rules are given below.

The Two-Syllable Noun Rule : The first syllable is stressed in most two-syllable nouns. There are a few exceptions.

Stress on First Syllable:

Exceptions:

Suffix Rules:  Some suffixes are stressed and other suffixes move the stress one or two syllables to the left of the word.

https://opentext.ku.edu/app/uploads/sites/61/2023/09/Stressed-Suffixes.mp3

  • Stress the syllable before suffixes for words ending in: “-cian,” -“tion,” “-sion,” “-ic,” and “-ical.”  
  • elec TRI cian
  • pre CI sion
  • radi A tion
  • moti VA tion
  • e LEC trical
  • proble MA tic
  • proble MA tical
  • me THOD ical
  • he RE tical

  3. Stress two syllables before suffixes such as “- ate ,” “- ary, ” and “- ize. “

  • COM pensate
  • co OR dinate
  • Vo CA bulary

https://opentext.ku.edu/app/uploads/sites/61/2023/09/suffixes-ate-ary-ize.mp3

Exceptions include docu MENT ary and CHAR acterize.

The Two-Syllable Noun/Verb Rule : In nouns, the first syllable has primary stress and the second syllable is unstressed. In verbs, the first syllable is unstressed and the second syllable has primary stress.

  • the RE cord
  • to pre SENT

The Compound Noun Rule : Compound nouns are two words that are put together, such as: “thunder” + “storm” = “thunderstorm.”  In the examples below, the first syllable in the first word has primary stress and the first syllable in the second word has secondary stress.  We can see this in the example for “thunderstorm.” The first syllable of the first word is THUN, which has primary stress. The first syllable of the second word is  STORM, which has secondary stress. The syllable “der” is unstressed. So, the stress pattern is:

thun  + der + storm

[ primary stress ] + [ unstressed ] + [ secondary stress ]

These examples from the video have PRIMARY stress on the first syllable of the word and secondary stress on the first syllable of the second word in the compound.

  • PLAY ground
  • BLACK board

UNSTRESSED SYLLABLES AND WORD REDUCTIONS

Unstressed syllables are important because they contribute to the rhythm of spoken English. They are also important because the vowel in unstressed syllables is reduced to a schwa or [ə], which is neither a high nor low vowel. It is neither a front nor back vowel. It is a mid, central vowel.

An example from the video Learn the American Accent uses the word banana to illustrate unstressed syllables. This word have two unstressed syllables, the first syllable and the last one.

The pronunciation of the word looks like [bə-næ-nə]. The unstressed syllables, [bə] and [nə], are shorter than the stressed syllable and pronounced with less volume. The stress pattern is:

[unstressed syllable] + [stressed syllable] + [unstressed syllable]

Unstressed Syllables

The sound of a vowel can change depending on whether the vowel is in a stressed or unstressed syllable. Specifically, the high vowels [i] and [u] and the low vowels [æ] and [a] can change to a schwa when they are in unstressed syllables. Consider this image from the video Learn the American Accent on unstressed syllables.

Vowel in Unstressed Syllables

image

Example  “object”

An example of the low back vowel [a] reducing to a schwa is in the word “object.” As a noun, the first syllable is stressed and sounds like [ AB-jekt ]. When the word is used as a verb, however, the stress moves to the second syllable. The first syllable of the verb is unstressed and sounds like a schwa [ əb-JEKT ].

Word Reductions

In speech, function words are typically reduced. Function words are prepositions, pronouns, helping verbs, articles, and conjunctions. Near the end of this video, the speaker illustrates word reduction with the preposition “for,” the pronouns “it” and “your”, the helping verbs “can” and “are,” and the prepositions “to” and “at.”

Consider these sentences:

  • I bought this for you.
  • I can do it.
  • What are you doing?
  • This is your book.
  • We’re meeting at noon.

SYLLABLE STRESS IN WORD FAMILIES

A good place to hear syllable stress is in word families. Word families are groups of words that share the same stem but have different suffixes and/or prefixes. The examples below are academic words that come from a list compiled by Avril Coxhead to create an Academic Wordlist. Notice how the suffixes affect the syllable stress in the words.

Listen to the family of words related to CONCEPT . Notice the first syllable is stressed and pronounced as [kan-] when there are no suffixes. When the suffixes are added, the stressed syllable changes and the first syllable is reduced to [kən-].

  • con CEP tual
  • conceptuali ZA tion
  • con CEP tualize

https://opentext.ku.edu/app/uploads/sites/61/2023/06/CONCEPT.mp3

Here are more examples.

  • dis TRI bute
  • dis TRI buting
  • distri BU tion
  • redistri BU tion

https://opentext.ku.edu/app/uploads/sites/61/2023/06/distribute.mp3

  • specifi CA tion
  • speci FI city

https://opentext.ku.edu/app/uploads/sites/61/2023/06/specific.mp3

  • eco NO mics
  • e CO nomist
  • eco NO mical
  • uneco NO mical

https://opentext.ku.edu/app/uploads/sites/61/2023/06/economy.mp3

  • identifi CA tion
  • identi FI able
  • unidenti FI able

https://opentext.ku.edu/app/uploads/sites/61/2023/06/identity.mp3

A Short Introduction to English Pronunciation Copyright © by marcellinoberardo and marinagreene is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book

  • Professional development
  • Knowing the subject

Word stress

A language learner needs to engage with a word many times, preferably in different ways, in order to really learn it - identifying and practising word stress can provide one or two of those engagements.

Word stress - pronunciation article

  • Why word stress is important
  • What word stress is
  • Some 'rules' of word stress
  • How I help my students
  • In the classroom

Why word stress is important Mistakes in word stress are a common cause of misunderstanding in English. Here are the reasons why:

  • Even if the speaker can be understood, mistakes with word stress can make the listener feel irritated, or perhaps even amused, and could prevent good communication from taking place.

These three reasons tell me that word stress is an important part of the English language, and it is something I should help my students with. What word stress is When we stress syllables in words, we use a combination of different features. Experiment now with the word 'computer'. Say it out loud. Listen to yourself. The second syllable of the three is stressed. What are you doing so that the listener can hear that stress?

  • It is l-o-n-g-e-r - com p-u-ter
  • It is LOUDER - comPUTer
  • It has a change in pitch from the syllables coming before and afterwards. The pitch of a stressed syllable is usually higher.
  • It is said more clearly -The vowel sound is purer. Compare the first and last vowel sounds with the stressed sound.
  • It uses larger facial movements - Look in the mirror when you say the word. Look at your jaw and lips in particular.

It is equally important to remember that the unstressed syllables of a word have the opposite features of a stressed syllable! Some 'rules' of word stress There are patterns in word stress in English but, as a rule (!), it is dangerous to say there are fixed rules. Exceptions can usually be found.

  • Here are some general tendencies for word stress in English:

How I help my students Students can be alarmed when they meet words which are similar but have different stress patterns:

A useful thing you can do is to help students see connections with other word families. Patterns can usually be found, for example:

There are some recognised differences in word stress which depend on the variety of English being used, for example:

These differences are noted in good learner dictionaries. If words like these come up in class, point them out to students. Ask if there are similar cases of differences in word stress in their own language - this will heighten awareness and interest. In the classroom

  • Raise awareness & build confidence You can use the same questions with your students that I have used in this article. These will help to raise the students' awareness of word stress and its importance. Some learners love to learn about the 'technical' side of language, while others like to 'feel' or 'see' the language more, hearing the music of word stress or seeing the shapes of the words. Try to use a variety of approaches: helping students to engage with English in different ways will help them in their goal to become more proficient users of the language. Build students' confidence by drawing their attention to the tendencies and patterns in word stress that do exist.
  • Mark the stress Use a clear easy-to-see way of marking stress on the board and on handouts for students. I use the big circle - small circle (O o) method. It is very easy to see and has the added advantage of identifying the number of syllables in the word, as well as the stressed syllable. Students also need to be aware of the way dictionaries usually mark stress - with a mark before the stressed syllable, e.g. 'apple. By knowing this, students will be able to check word stress independently.
  • Cuisenaire rods These different sized, small coloured blocks are great for helping students to 'see' the word stress. The students build the words using different blocks to represent stressed and unstressed syllables. (Children's small building blocks are a good substitute!)
  • Integrate word stress into your lessons You don't need to teach separate lessons on word stress. Instead, you can integrate it into your normal lessons. The ideal time to focus students' attention on it is when introducing vocabulary. Meaning and spelling are usually clarified for students but the sound and stress of the word can all too often be forgotten. Quickly and simply elicit the stress pattern of the word from the students (as you would the meaning) and mark it on the board. Drill it too! Students can use stress patterns as another way to organise and sort their vocabulary. For example, in their vocabulary books they can have a section for nouns with the pattern O o , and then a section for the pattern o O . Three syllable words can be sorted into O o o (Saturday, hospital) and o O o (computer, unhappy). Remember what I noted before: The more times students mentally engage with new vocabulary, the more they are likely to actually learn it. Engaging students through word stress helps to reinforce the learning of the words.
  • "How many parts/syllables are there in my name?"
  • "Which is the strongest - the first or second?"
  • "Is it Em ma or Em ma ?"

Then you can question students about their own names - this will give them a personalised connection to the issue of word stress, with a word they will never forget! Conclusion Any work on aspects of pronunciation can take a long time to show improvements and be challenging for both the students and the teacher, but working on word stress can be fun and over time will help your students to be better understood and more confident speakers. Further reading Sound Foundations by Adrian Underhill Pronunciation by Dalton and Seidlholfer How to Teach Pronunciation by Gerald Kelly Teaching English Pronunciation by Joanne Kenworthy

Hi please assist I need confirmation on the the below

Hi please be so kind to assist me with the following words i need stress pattern for them for example Character-Ooo Remove? Celebrities’? Currency? Killing? Silly? Waste? Product? Action? Figures? Fight?

  • Log in or register to post comments

You'll find those easily on any of the open dictionaries that have the stress marked (often with an apostrophe before the main stressed syllable), and an example of how the word is pronounced. I often use the Macmillan one, or the Cambridge one, but there are lots more out there! Good luck with word stress!

TeachingEnglish team

The list of words

Stress in a word.

What rule for blood, flood?

Hi, I am following a prononciation course and I see that your article is very helpful. I'd like to thank you for that.

I heard about alphabet vowels and relative vowels. Could someone can explain it?

Thanks in advance.

what rule for blood, flood?

Amazing article.

This article is really helpful. Thank you so much. God bless you!

This article was very helpful.  Many thanks.

"It is important"

I've read your article. I completely agree with you.This article is very important to the students who has problem with pronunciation.You gave very good ways of stressing correctly and interesting activities in the classroom.Teachers can use your methods in each lesson of them. I have learnt more information about word stress which I didn't know before.Thanks for your interesting article.

Research and insight

Browse fascinating case studies, research papers, publications and books by researchers and ELT experts from around the world.

See our publications, research and insight

Lesson 11 – Syllables and word stress

We are moving beyond the phonetic sounds of English now. We’re going to focus on some other important parts of pronunciation:

A good way to practice these aspects of pronunciation is to do a practice called shadowing or parroting. The term “parroting” gets its name from how parrots copy human voices.

When you are practicing you should choose something a video to listen to and repeat everything they say about or or two seconds later.

Here is another video. The parrot doesn’t say much but the woman has an expressive voice. Try parroting her. I recommend that in the YouTube setting you change the playback speed to 0.5.

Write the IPA for the following sentences.

Find the answer at the bottom of the lesson.

Words are divided into syllables. The vowel is the main unit of a syllable. If you count the separate vowel units then you know how many syllables there are.

One-syllable words

Two-syllable words, how many syllables are in these words.

  • pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis http://www.aepronunciation.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/11-3-3.mp3

Word Stress

In words with more than one syllable, some syllables are stressed and some are unstressed .

Stressed syllable

You put a stress mark in front of the stressed syllable. In both of the examples below, the second syllable is stressed.

  • a’bandon
  • un’tie

Stressed word

You can even have stressed words in a phrase.

  • ‘ball game
  • put ‘on

Primary stress and secondary stress

In longer words you often have a strong stress and a weak stress. The strong stress is called the primary stress and it uses a high mark ( ‘ ) before the strongly stressed syllable. The weak stress is called the secondary stress and it uses a low mark ( ˌ ) before the weakly stressed syllable.

  • ˌmultipli’cation
  • comˌmuni’cation

Stress Patterns

‘1-2-3

1-‘2-3

ˌ1-2-‘3

‘1-2-3-4

1-‘2-3-4

  • catastrophe

ˌ1-2-‘3-4

ˌ1-2-‘3-4-5

  • mathematical
  • indeterminate

1-ˌ2-3-‘4-5

  • communication
  • pronunciation

Multi-word stress rules

Compound nouns.

If you have two nouns in a single word, then the first noun is stressed.

This is true even when the two words are separated:

  • train station
  • birthday party
  • apartment building

Phrasal verbs

If you have a verb plus an adverb, then the adverb is stressed:

Verb + Adverb

However, this may change if the verb takes an object.

If you have a phrasal verb with a preposition, then the verb is stressed, not the preposition.

Verb + Preposition

  • look at  –  ‘look at the ‘bird
  • listen to  –  ‘listen to ‘music

Other compound words

Generally if you have an adjective plus a noun, both words are stressed:

However, if the two words become a single meaning, then the first word is stressed. Compare the following examples:

Check out this page for more.

Sometimes there are interesting differences in meaning when you stress different words:

  • English teacher
  • baby doctor

Find five more example words for each of the stress patterns above.

Answer to IPA dictation problem

dɛlə hæd bɛn seɪvɪŋ fɚ mʌnθs  bəd ɑl ʃi hæd wəz wʌn dɑlɚ ɛn eɪɾi sɛvən sɛnts

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

My English Language

English language resources for efl students and teachers.

My English Language

Syllables and Stress

Syllables and stress are two of the main areas of spoken language. Pronouncing words with the stress on the correct syllables will help you improve your spoken English, make your sentences easier to understand and help you sound more like a native speaker .

English syllables are stress-timed. English is classed as a ‘stress-based’ language, which means the meanings of words can be altered significantly by a change in word stress and sentence stress. This is why it is important to learn how to use word stress in English and develop an understanding of sentence stress and English stress patterns.

The English language is heavily stressed with each word divided into syllables. Here are some examples of English words with different numbers of syllables. These sets of words are followed by a series of examples using the correct stress placement:

Words with one syllable  

The, cold, quite, bed, add, start, hope, clean, trade, green, chair, cat, sign, pea, wish, drive, plant, square, give, wait, law, off, hear, trough, eat, rough, trout, shine, watch, for , out, catch, flight, rain, speech, crab, lion, knot, fixed, slope, reach, trade, light, moon, wash, trend, balm, walk, sew, joke, tribe, brooch

Words with two syllables

Party, special, today, quiet, orange, partner, table, demand, power, retrieve, doctor , engine, diet, transcribe, contain, cabbage , mountain, humour, defend, spatial, special, greedy, exchange, manage, carpet, although, trophy, insist, tremble, balloon, healthy, shower, verbal, business, mortgage, fashion, hover, butcher, magic, broken

Words with three syllables

Fantastic, energy, expensive, wonderful, laughable, badminton, idiot, celery, beautiful, aggression, computer, journalist, horrify , gravity, temptation, dieting, trampoline, industry, financial , distinguished, however, tremendous, justify, inflation, creation, injustice, energise, glittering, tangible, mentalise, laughable, dialect, crustacean, origin

Words are made up of syllables  – image source

Words with four syllables

Understanding, indecisive,  conversation , realistic, moisturising, American , psychology, gregarious, independence, affordable, memorandum, controversial, superior, gymnasium, entrepreneur, traditional, transformation,  remembering , establishment, vegetation, affectionate, acupuncture, invertebrate

Words with five syllables

Organisation, uncontrollable, inspirational, misunderstanding , conversational, opinionated, biological, subordination, determination, sensationalist, refrigerator, haberdashery, hospitality, conservatory, procrastination, disobedience, electrifying, consideration, apologetic, particularly, compartmentalise, hypochondria

Words with six syllables

Responsibility, idiosyncratic, discriminatory, invisibility, capitalisation, extraterrestrial, reliability, autobiography, unimaginable, characteristically, superiority, antibacterial, disciplinarian, environmentalist, materialism, biodiversity, criminalisation, imaginatively, disobediently

Words with seven syllables

Industrialisation, multiculturalism, interdisciplinary, radioactivity, unidentifiable, environmentalism, individuality, vegetarianism , unsatisfactorily, electrocardiogram

English Stress Patterns

When thinking about syllables and stress in English, usually we find that one syllable of a word is stressed more than the others. There are always one or more stressed syllables within a word and this special stress placement helps words and sentences develop their own rhythm .

Syllables and stress patterns in English help to create the sounds , pronunciations and rhythms that we hear all around us.

Word Stress in English

We come to recognise these English syllables and stress patterns in conversations in real life interactions and on the radio and television . Using the correct stressed syllables within a word is an important part of speech and understanding.

Pronouncing words with the right word stress will make your language sound more natural to native speakers. Here are some words from the previous lists with the stressed syllable in bold:

Two syllable words stress patterns:

Qui et,  par ty,  spe cial, to day ,  or ange,  part ner,  ta ble, de mand ,  po wer, re trieve ,  en gine,   di et,  gree dy, ex change , man age, car pet, al though, re lax, com fort

Three syllable words stress patterns:

Fan tas tic,  en ergy, ex pen sive, ag gre sion,  won derful,  laugh able, bad minton,  cel ery, temp ta tion, trampo line,  in dustry, din tin guished, fi nan cial, how ev er, tre men dous, li brary

Four syllable words stress patterns:

Under stand ing, inde cis ive, conver sat ion, rea l is tic,  mois turising, Am er ican, psy cho logy, inde pen dence, entrepren eur, transfor ma tion,  fas cinating, com fortable

Five syllable words stress patterns:

Uncon troll able, inspir at ional, misunder stand ing, conver sat ional, o pin ionated, bio log ical, alpha bet ical, subordi nat ion, re fri gerator,  hab erdashery, hospi tal ity

Six syllable words stress patterns:

Responsi bil ity, idiosyn crat ic, invisi bil ity, capitali sat ion, dis crim inatory or discrimi nat ory, antibac ter ial, superi or ity, autobi og raphy, ma ter ialism, biodi ver sity, criminalis at ion, i mag inatively,

Seven syllable words stress patterns:

Industriali sat ion, multi cul turalism, interdisci plin ary, radioact iv ity, uni den tifiable, environ men talism, individu al ity, vege tar ianism, unsatis fac torily, electro card iogram

Image source

Syllables and Stress Patterns in English Speech

Using clear syllables and stress patterns is an important part of speech. The correct word stress in English is crucial for understanding a word quickly and accurately.

Even if you cannot hear a word well and are not familiar with the context, you can often still work out what the word is, simply from listening to which syllable is stressed.

In the same way, if a learner pronounces a word differently from the accepted norm, it can be hard for a native speaker to understand the word. The word or sentence might be grammatically correct, but if they have used the wrong (or an unexpected) stress pattern or the wrong stressed syllables, it could make it unintelligible to a native.

English Word Stress Rules

Here are some general rules about word stress in English:

  • Only vowel sounds are stressed (a,e,i,o,u).
  • A general rule is that for two syllable words, nouns and adjectives have the stress on the first syllable, but verbs have the stress on the second syllable.

For example:  ta ble (noun),  spec ial (adjective), de mand  (verb).

  • Words ending in ‘ic’, ‘tion’ or ‘sion’ always place their stress on the penultimate (second to last) syllable. (e.g. super son ic, At lan tic, dedi ca tion, at ten tion, transfor ma tion, compre hen sion).
  • Words ending in ‘cy’, ‘ty’, ‘gy’ and ‘al’ always place their stress on the third from last syllable. (e.g. acc oun tancy, sin cer ity, chro nol ogy, inspi rat ional, hypo the tical).
  • Words ending in ‘sm’ with 3 or fewer syllables have their stress on the first syllable (e.g. pri sm, schi sm, aut ism, bot ulism,  sar casm) unless they are extensions of a stem word. This is often the case with words ending ‘ism’.
  • Words ending in ‘ism’ tend to follow the stress rule for the stem word with the ‘ism’ tagged onto the end (e.g. can nibal = can nibalism, ex pre ssion = ex pre ssionism, fem inist = fem inism, oppor tun ist = oppor tun ism).
  • Words ending in ‘sm’ with 4 or more syllables tend to have their stress on the second syllable (e.g. en thu siasm, me ta bolism).

Words ending in ‘ous’

  • Words ending in ‘ous’ with 2 syllables have their stress on the first syllable (e.g. mon strous, pi ous, an xious, pom pous, zeal ous,  con scious,  fa mous, gra cious, gor geous, jea lous, joy ous).
  • English words ending in ‘ous’ with 4 syllables usually have their stress on the second syllable (e.g. gre gar ious, a non ymous, su per fluous, an dro gynous, car niv orous, tem pes tuous, lux ur ious, hil ar ious, con tin uous, cons pic uous). There are some exceptions using different stressed syllables, such as sacri leg ious, which stresses the 3rd syllable.

Words ending in ‘ous’ with 3 or more syllables do not always follow a set stress pattern. Here are some common English words with 3 syllables ending in ‘ous’ and their stress placement:

Words ending in ‘ous’ with stress on first syllable

fab ulous, friv olous, glam orous,  cal culus, du bious, en vious, scan dalous, ser ious, ten uous, chiv alrous, dan gerous, fur ious

Words ending in ‘ous’ with stress on second syllable

e nor mous, au da cious, fa ce tious, di sas trous, fic ti cious, hor ren dous, con ta gious, am bit ious, cou ra geous

Stress can changing the meaning of a word

Remember, where we place the stress in English can change the meaning of a word . This can lead to some funny misunderstandings – and some frustrating conversations!

Words that have the same spelling but a different pronunciation and meaning are called heteronyms . Here are a few examples of words where the stressed syllable changes the meaning of the word:

The word ‘object’ is an example of an English word that can change meaning depending on which syllable is stressed. When the word is pronounced ‘ ob ject’ (with a stress on the first syllable) the word is a noun meaning an ‘item’, ‘purpose’ or ‘person/thing that is the focus’ of a sentence.

For example:

  • She handed the lady a rectangular ob ject made of metal
  • He was the ob ject of the dog’s affection
  • The ring was an ob ject of high value
  • The ob ject of the interview was to find the best candidate for the job
  • The ob ject was small and shiny – it could have been a diamond ring!

But if the same word is pronounced ‘ob ject ‘ (with the stress on the second syllable) the word is now a verb , meaning ‘to disagree with’ something or someone.

  • They ob ject to his constant lateness
  • The man ob ject ed to the size of his neighbour’s new conservatory
  • She strongly ob jects to being called a liar
  • We ob ject to the buildings being demolished
  • No one ob ject ed to the proposal for more traffic lights

Original image source

When the word ‘present’ is pronounced ‘ pre sent’ (with the stress on the first syllable) the word is a noun meaning ‘a gift’ or an adjective meaning ‘here / not absent’.

  • She handed him a beautifully wrapped pre sent
  • The book was a pre sent from their grandparents
  • Everyone was pre sent at the meeting

But when the word is pronounced ‘pre sent’ (with the stress on the second syllable) the word is now a verb meaning ‘to introduce’ something or someone, ‘to show’ or ‘to bring to one’s attention’. It can also be used when talking about presenting a TV or radio show (i.e. to be a ‘presenter’).

  • May I pre sent Charlotte Smith, our new store manager
  • Bruce Forsyth used to pre sent ‘Strictly Come Dancing’
  • I’d like to pre sent my research on the breeding habits of frogs
  • They pre sent ed the glittering trophy to the winner
  • She was pre sent ed with the Oscar
  • This new situation pre sents a problem

To present or a present? Image source

Another example of an English word changing meaning depending on where you place the stress is the word ‘project’. This can be the noun when the stressed syllable is at the start – ‘ pro ject’ (a task).

  • They started work on the research pro ject immediately
  • She looked forward to her next pro ject – repainting the house
  • He enjoyed writing restaurant reviews – it was his current passion pro ject

However, this word becomes a verb when the stressed syllables moves to the end – ‘to pro ject ‘ (to throw/launch, to protrude, to cause an image to appear on a surface, or to come across/make an impression).

  • The object was pro ject ed into the air at high velocity
  • The film will be pro ject ed onto the screen
  • The chimney pro jects  3 metres from the roof
  • She always pro jects  herself with confidence

Stress patterns in compound words 

Compound words  are single words made up of two distinct parts. They are sometimes hyphenated. Here are examples of stress patterns in compound words in English:

  • Compound nouns have the stress on the first part: e.g.  sugar cane,  beet root,  hen house,  trip wire, light house,  news paper, port hole, round about, will power
  • Compound adjectives and verbs have the stress on the second part: e.g. whole hearted , green- fingered , old- fashioned , to under stand , to in form , to short- change , to over take

English sentence stress 

Once you understand word stress in English, you need to think about sentence stress . This means deciding which words to stress as part of the sentence as a whole. Stressed syllables can create a distinctive, rhythmic pattern within a sentence. This is how English stress patterns are related to the rhythm of English  and help create the ‘music’ of a language .

English speakers tend to put stress on the most important words in a sentence in order to draw the listener’s attention to them. The most important words are the words that are necessary for the meaning of the sentence. Sentence stress is just as important as word stress for clarity. For example:

‘The cat sat on the mat while eating its favourite food’

The most important words here are: ‘cat’, ‘mat’, ‘eating’ and ‘food’. Even if you only hear those words, you would still be able to understand what is happening in the sentence simply from hearing which words are stressed.

Clearly, it is the nouns and verbs that are the most important parts of the sentence , as these are the ‘content words’ that help with meaning. Content words are usually stressed.

The adjectives , adverbs and conjunctions all add flavour to the sentence, but they are not absolutely necessary to understand the meaning. These ‘helper’ words are usually unstressed.

In our example sentence: ‘The cat sat on the mat while eating its favourite food’ , we have already used the word ‘cat’ so we do not need to emphasise the word ‘its’ (or ‘he/she’ if you want to give the cat a gender), because we already know who is eating the food (i.e. the cat).

English word stress within a sentence

Stress patterns affect words and sentences in English.

The stress on a word (the word stress) is the emphasis placed on that word. In the sentence below, “I never said he ate your chocolate”, the stressed word will change the meaning or implication of the sentence:

Stressing the first word ‘I’ implies that I (the speaker) never said it. It might be true or it might not be true – the point is, I never said it – someone else did.

Stressing the second word ‘never’ emphasises that I never said it. There was never an occasion when I said it (whether it is true or not).

Stressing the third word ‘said’ means that I never  said it. He might have eaten your chocolate, but I didn’t say it. I might have thought it, but I never said it out loud (I may only have implied it).

Stressing the fourth word ‘he’ means I didn’t say it was  him that ate your chocolate, only that someone did.

Stressing the fifth word ‘ate’ means I didn’t say he had eaten it. Perhaps he took it and threw it away or did something else with it.

Stressing the sixth word ‘your’ means it wasn’t your chocolate he ate –  it could have been someone else’s chocolate.

Stressing the seventh word ‘chocolate’ emphases that it was not your chocolate he ate – he ate something else belonging to you.

So the sentence stress in English makes all the difference to the meaning of the whole sentence. The stressed word in the sentence is the one we should pay the most attention to.

Stress placement affects the whole understanding of the English language. This issue is strongly related to the rhythm of English . Getting the right word stress , sentence stress and rhythm leads to the perfect communication of your intended message.

So who ate your chocolate? –  image source

Stressed Vowel Sounds and Weak Vowels in English

The necessary words in an English sentence are stressed more by increasing the length and clarity of the vowel sound .

In contrast, the unnecessary words are stressed less by using a shorter and less clear vowel sound. This is called a ‘weak’ vowel sound .

In fact, sometimes the vowel sound is almost inaudible. For example, the letter ‘a’ in English is often reduced to a muffled ‘uh’ sound. Grammarians call this a ‘shwa’ or /ə/.

You can hear this ‘weak’ vowel sound at the start of the words ‘about’ and ‘attack’ and at the end of the word ‘banana’. They can sound like ‘ubout’, ‘uttack’ and ‘bananuh’ when spoken by a native English speaker. The article ‘a’ as a single word is also unstressed and reduced in this way to a weak ‘uh’ sound.

For example: ‘Is there a shop nearby?’ sounds like ‘Is there-uh shop nearby?’ This shwa can also be heard in other instances, such as in the word ‘and’ when it is used in a sentence. For example: ‘This book is for me and you’ can sound sound like ‘This book is for me un(d) you’.

The reason for this weak stress pattern in English is to help the rhythm and speed of speech . Using this weak ‘uh’ sound for the vowel ‘a’ helps the speaker get ready for the next stressed syllable by keeping the mouth and lips in a neutral position.

To pronounce the ‘a’ more clearly would require a greater opening of the mouth, which would slow the speaker down.

The giraffe on the right holds its mouth and lips in a neutral position, ready to speak again – image source

As English is a stress-timed language , the regular stresses are vital for the rhythm of the language , so the vowel sounds of unstressed words in English often get ‘lost’.

In contrast, syllable-timed languages (such as Spanish) tend to work in the opposite way, stressing the vowel sounds strongly, while the consonants get ‘lost’.

Click on the highlighted text to learn more about how English word stress and sentence stress relates to the  rhythm of English  and intonation in English .

What do you think about syllables and stress in English?

Do you find the syllables and stress patterns a difficult part of learning a new language?

Have you had any funny misunderstandings from stressing the wrong syllable in English? We’d love to hear your stories!

Are there any English words or sentences with odd stressed syllables or difficult stress patterns that you would like advice on?

Can you think of good way to remember or practise correct English word stress and sentence stress?

Do you have any ideas to help EFL students improve their understanding of syllables and stress?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments box.

116 thoughts on “ Syllables and Stress ”

Thank You very Much For this information.. It Helps a lot..

Can you suggest me a song which its lyrics has syllables and pattern?

A good way to practise the syllables and patterns of the English language is to use nursery rhymes and children’s songs. These usually have simple vocabulary so the student can listen to the patterns rather than concentrate on the meaning. http://www.myenglishlanguage.com/2012/08/24/teach-efl-using-nursery-rhymes/

Another useful tool for music fans is pop music from the 1950s and 1960s. Artists like Elvis Presley have simple, effective lyrics that are easy to understand, leaving the listener free to focus on the sounds of the words.

Do any readers have other suggetsions for great listening practice?

Best wishes, Catherine

Thanks so much,its help a lot,now i have cover all the problems on this topic

Hi Utile, I’m really glad you found the article helpful! You might also our articles on Phonology and Speaking/Listening skills 🙂

hi would u tell me how syllables relates to stress , rhythm, and intonation???please

Hi Asmaa, Stress determines which syllable is emphasised the most and the least during speech, rhythm concerns the gaps between syllables during speech and intonation is all about voice pitch (e.g. the voice rises at the end of a sentence to form a question). We will be publishing an article about this topic soon, so watch this space 🙂 Best wishes, Catherine

why is word like nation sounds (sh)?

The ‘tion’ at the end of many English words is thought to have developed from Norman French influence (you can see our History of English section for more about the influence of the Norman Conquest ). English words ending in ‘tion’ are usually pronounced with a ‘sh’ sound but when the letter ‘s’ precedes the ‘tion’, the word is normally pronounced with a ‘ch’ sound. For example, ‘intention’ and ‘position’ have a ‘sh’ sound, but ‘question’ and ‘suggestion’ have a ‘ch’ sound’. I hope this helps 🙂

How would you break procrastination? since I blv the type of English you speak would influence the pronunciation.Which syllable would then be stressed?

Hi Sherin, the word ‘procrastination’ follows the 5 syllable pattern for a word ending in ‘tion’, so the stress comes on the 4th or penultimate syllable – procrastiNAtion (just like the word ‘pronunciAtion’).

thanks for the information.

You’re welcome, Victor. I hope you enjoy the rest of our Phonology section where we have more information on rhythm and intonation in English 🙂 Best wishes, Catherine

Great job here.

Thanks, Dayo. I’m glad you found the article useful.

Hi. which syllable carries the stress in this words? Pronunciation, homogenous, determination, education. Thanks

Hi Olakunle, thanks for your question. These words are pronounced as follows with the stress falling on the letters in bold :

Pronunci a tion, hom o genous, determi na tion, edu ca tion

Ho mo genous (4 syllables) is pronounced with the stress on the second syllable. There is another very similar word, homo gen eous (5 syllables) which is pronounced with the stress on the third syllable. The difference is all in the extra ‘e’.

The words ending in ‘ation’ always have a stress on the penultimate syllable (‘a’)

I hope this helps!

I cant close this page without saying a big thank you. infanct you make me understand this concept to the best of my knowledge.

Thanks for your comment, Idasho – that’s great you found the article so useful. You might also enjoy our Rhythm of English page. 🙂

Thank you so so much. Pls I still need clarity on words ending n with ‘sm” and “ous” Thank you

Thanks for your comment, Amy. We have added a section about words ending in ‘sm’ and ‘ous’ in the English Stress Rules section. I hope this helps.

wow! this is great and really helpful. can there be stress on other parts of speech in a sentence other than nouns and verbs? if yes, examples pls

I’m glad you found the page useful! Normally a sentence stresses the nouns and verbs because these are the most important ‘content’ words. Other words can also be stressed, such as adjectives and adverbs. For example: ‘She bought a big, red car’ – here the adjectives ‘big’ and ‘red’ and the noun ‘car’ would all normally be stressed. In the sentence: ‘They walked quickly to the office’ the adverb ‘quickly’ would also be stressed alongside the verb ‘walked’ and the noun ‘office’.

Structural words, such as conjunctions and prepositions, are rarely stressed. The exception to this is when emphasising a point or correcting information. For example: ‘He cooked chicken and beef for dinner’ – here the most important aspect of the sentence is not that he cooked dinner (that information is expected or already known by the listener), but that he cooked both meats. Stressing the conjunction ‘and’ helps us understand this meaning.

I hope that helps!

hi admin, what about words ending in “ing”. How are they stressed

Hi Ijeoma, the ‘ing’ ending adds another syllable to the word but the ‘ing’ ending is always unstressed. For example: ‘drive’ (1 syllable) becomes ‘ dri ving’ (2 syllables) and ‘ mois turise’ (3 syllables) becomes ‘ mois turising’ (4 syllables).

i really love this. pls what is the stress of the word that end wit MENT example goverment

Thank you very much for this knowledge you imparted on me.. feel like staying here forever

Thanks for your comment, Marcell. I’m really pleased the article helped you! It means a lot to know that learners are benefiting from the content. You might also find our pages on intonation and rhythm of English useful. Good luck with your language learning!

In the word ‘government’ the stress is on the first syllable: gov ernment. This is because ‘ment’ is used here as a suffix and does not change the stress of the original word ( gov ern – gov ernment). ‘Ment’ is often used as a suffix like this to change a verb into a noun, but the new word will always follow its original stress rule – the ‘ment’ is never stressed.

Other examples of this: ‘an nounce ‘ – ‘an nounce ment’, ‘disap point ‘ – ‘disap point ment’, ‘com mit ‘ – ‘com mit ment’, ‘de vel op’ – ‘de vel opment’.

For words ending in ‘ment’ where the ‘ment’ part is not a suffix, the stress can be more difficult to place. Here are some examples: ce ment , fig ment, aug ment , sed iment, par liament, im ped iment, com pliment.

If the word is longer than 2 syllables and the ‘ment’ is not a suffix, the stress will not be on ‘ment’. In words with 2 syllables the stress can be on either the first or last syllable and sometimes this can change the meaning of the word (e.g. ‘ tor ment’ (noun) and ‘to tor ment ‘ (verb).

Can any readers think of any word with more than 2 syllables ending in ‘ment’, where the ‘ment’ is not a suffix and the stress is on the ‘ment’? This is an interesting challenge!

Hope this explanation helps, Abu 🙂

I Really Appreciate These..But According To The Rule,two Syllable Words that is”verb and adjective” Will Have Their stress on the second sylable then why is it GOVern and nt govERN

Hi Ayomide, thanks for your comment! The word ‘govern’ is a verb (‘to govern’) but not an adjective. The related adjective would be ‘governed’. For words with two syllables that are adjectives and verbs the stress will usually be on the second syllable, but this is only a general rule and you will find exceptions.

Some examples of exceptions are: ‘open’ – ‘to open’ (verb) and ‘an open book’ (adjective); ‘better’ – ‘to better’ (verb, ‘to better something’ means to improve on it) and ‘a better book’ (adjective); ‘baby’ – ‘to baby (someone)’ (verb, meaning to pamper/mollycoddle) and ‘a baby sparrow’ (adjective) All these words are also nouns – could this be why they are pronounced on their first syllable? Can anyone think of other two-syllable words that are stressed on the first syllable and are both adjectives and verbs – but are not also nouns?

Thanks……how to divide the word int syllabus

Hi Karima, to divide a word into syllables we break down the word into units of speech. Each syllable contains a vowel sound and the start/end of vowel sounds act as the breaks between syllables. The syllables help in creating the rhythm of the language . It’s worth noting that prefixes and suffixes will always add a syllable (e.g. rewriting = re-writ-ing).

Hi my name is Elizabeth I am confused with the stress placements for these names increase in salary,increase in premium,they contract the dreaded disease at sea,my record was kept in the school,the principal advised the students at assembly

Hi me again can you explain to me about the bound morphemes because i dont understand why they say these words are not examples of bound morphemes . caption,amuse,image

Hi Elizabeth, Thanks for your question. The word ‘increase’ changes its stress placement depending on whether you are using it as as a verb (to in crease ) or a noun (the/an in crease). The verb stresses the second syllable and the noun stresses the first syllable, so this would determine how your first two sentence fragments are stressed. (Incidentally, the stress for the other words here would be sal ary and prem ium) The words ‘contract’ and ‘record’ work in the same way (verbs – ‘to con tract ‘ and ‘to re cord ‘, nouns – ‘a con tract’, ‘a re cord’) In this context, ‘contract’ is a verb, so the stress placement would be: ‘they con tract the dread ed dis ease at sea ‘. In the other sentence, ‘record’ is used as a noun, so the stress placement would be: ‘my re cord was kept at school ‘ The last sentence would have this stress pattern: ‘the prin cipal ad vised the stu dents at as sem bly’. I hope this helps! If you send the full sentences for the first two fragments containing the word ‘increase’ we can determine if they are used as nouns or verbs and therefore the exact stress placement.

Hi again Elizabeth 🙂 A bound morpheme is a word element that cannot stand alone as a word. This includes prefixes and suffixes. Examples of bound morphemes are: ‘re’, ‘pre’, ‘ing’, the pluralising ‘s’, the possessive ‘s’,’er’, est’ and ‘ous’. They can be added to another word to create a new word. For example: pre arrange, re write, copy ing , pencil s , Elizabeth `s , strong er , strong est , danger ous . The words in your question (caption, amuse and image) are not bound morphemes because they can stand alone as words in their own right. I hope this explanation helps!

Thanks so much I have learnt a lot. But how can words such as guarantee, decompose, afternoon, fortunate, inundate, computer, alternate, efficient, galvanize, convocation, habitable, momentary be stressed.

Hi Arinze, I’m glad the page has helped you learn more about syllables and stress 🙂 The words in your list are stressed as follows: guaran tee , decom pose , after noon , for tunate (from the noun ‘ for tune’), in undate, com pu ter, al ternate (verb), al ter nate (adjective), ef fi cient, gal vanize, convo ca tion, ha bitable, mo mentary (from the noun ‘ mo ment’).

How can we stress the words that end with ‘ay’ as in always, ‘lt’ as in result, malt, belt, ‘ce’ as in reproduce, peace, lice, pierce, ‘and’ as in understand, ‘it’ as in permit, vomit …. Hope to hear from you Sir/Ma Thanks

Hi Adebola, Here are the words you requested with the stressed syllable highlighted: al ways, re sult , malt , belt , repro duce , peace , lice , pierce , under stand , per mit (noun), to per mit (verb), vom it. The words with only one syllable (belt, malt, peace, lice, pierce) are irrelevant to the issue of word stress because stress only becomes apparent when there is a contrast with another unstressed syllable within the same word. I hope this helps!

How to stress words or phrases without sending offensive msaage? Please help.

Hi Sara, Are you worried about any words or phrases in particular? If the listener knows you aren’t a native speaker, they will make allowances for any mispronunciations and 99.99% of native speakers won’t be offended if you say something cheeky by mistake, so please don’t worry 🙂

pls help me stress dis words..communicate,investigate,advocate

Hi Taiwo, here is how those words are stressed: com mun icate, in ves tigate, ad vocate

Thanks so much, this really helped me.

I’m glad the page helped, Peace – thanks for taking time to comment 🙂

Please how are words that ends in OR stressed.

Hi Cynthia, Thanks for your question. Words ending in OR usually denote a property of something or someone. For OR words with 2 syllables (e.g. debt or, sail or, auth or, act or, tract or, terr or, error, mirr or, maj or, ten or, don or, sen sor), these nearly always have the stress on the first syllable. One exception is ab hor . It is worth noting that in British English we often have a ‘u’ between the ‘o’ and ‘r’ but American English doesn’t usually have the ‘u’ (e.g. hon our, trem or, pall our, lab our, ard our, glam our, col our).

Words ending in OR that have a root word are stressed the same as the root word. Adding OR to the root is often a way of giving a noun agency. For example: pro ject or, de tect or, gen erator, con duct or, ac cel erator, ad min istrator, rad iator and gov ernor all come from the root verbs: to pro ject , to de tect , to gen erate, to con duct , to ac cel erate, to ad min istrate, to rad iate and to gov ern.

If there is no root word, the stress will often be on the third from last syllable. So if there are 3 syllables in total, it will be on the first syllable e.g. met aphor, mon itor, sen ior). Another example is ‘am bass ador’ with 4 syllables.

You have helped me greatly madam, God bless you

I’m glad you found the page useful – thanks for stopping by!

Thank you so much ..for your very helpful article. Please give us some simple tips on how to perfect the English stress pattern. Almost all the general rules have so many exceptions.

Hi Ralphael, glad you found the page helpful. English is full of exceptions unfortunately, but some simple tips include:

  • Stress the most important words in the sentence.
  • Modulate your voice to add emotion to important words – don’t keep it flat and monotone.
  • Keep stressed syllables slightly longer, higher in pitch and louder than unstressed syllables.
  • Identify how many syllables a word has so you can break it up – and remember the stress will fall on a vowel sound.
  • Speak clearly and slowly – even without perfect stress patterns, slow and clear voices are much easier to understand.
  • Focus on the general rules – you will learn about the exceptions with practice.
  • Read and listen to a text at the same time – an audio book with transcript is perfect (also try TV with subtitles) so you can hear how a sentence is pronounced and get used to the sounds and rhythm of English .

God bless you rabbi ..I really wish I am in your college. I have so many questions, some not pertaining to this topic.

Hi, what are relationship between syllables and stress in English language

What is the name of the stress symbol called as in café with the symbol over the (e)? And is it on any keyboard to type? I just noticed it on my sentence above and it was there automatically, how do I get each time I type café?

Hi David, the accent slanting forwards in the word café is called an acute accent (the accent slanting backwards is a grave accent). The right Alt key (sometimes marked Alt Gr) can create this accent when pressed with the e key. The apostrophe key ‘ + e also works in the same way. You can also create the letter e with an acute accent using the shortcut keys Alt + 0233. Let me know if these worked for you!

It didn’t give me what I wanted

I’m sorry you didn’t find the information you needed Felix. Did you have a specific question about syllables and stress you wanted help with?

i have been waiting such an opportunity, thank god it has come; madam, i have been finding it tough to understand stress on my own, though, i got some rules that helps me while dealing with stress like: if a word end with the following; ic, sion, tion, nium, cious, nics, cience, stress mark falls on the second syllable from the end if counting backward eg eduCAtion. stress mark falls on the third syllable from the end if counting backward, these words end with the following; ate, ty, cy, gy. eg, calCUlate. but with all this, i still find it tough to stress most of the polysyllabic words, pls can you help me? words like; educative, agreement,philanthropist, understandable, and several others, i can’t stress them with dictionary aid, pls help me!

Thanks for your message Lorkyaa. The pronunciations for the words you mention are: ed ucative (from the verb ‘to ed ucate’), a gree ment (from ‘to a gree ‘), phil an thropist and under stand able (from ‘to under stand ‘). The word ‘calculate’ is pronounced cal culate with the stress on the first syllable, which is indeed the third from the end!

Hi thanks a lot, it really helped me with some issues

Thank you for the knowledge

Academic has a stress on the second syllable and academic has a stress on the second to last symbol. Academic follows the ic rule. How do I explain that the middle syllable of academy is stressed?

Hi Jenna, We can explain the difference in stress pattern between the adjective ‘academic’ (stress on the penultimate syllable) and its related noun ‘academy’ (stress on 2nd syllable) because these words have different roles in a sentence. Adjectives ending in ‘ic’ will stress the penultimate syllable, but it doesn’t follow that their related nouns will follow this stress pattern. Can any other teachers offer insight into this adjective/noun relationship when it comes to word stress?

Thank you so much. It really helped us. Great job

You’re welcome Sunny, thanks for stopping by 🙂

Such an useful article….concepts are explained so clearly and in a easily understandable way…thanks a lot!! could you throw some light on the stress pattern for the words like chairperson,probably,sentence,insurance,disintegrate,impossible ?

Glad you found it useful, Vani! The stress pattern for these words is as follows: chair person, pro bably, sen tence, in sur ance, dis in tegrate and im poss ible.

Thanks,pls what is the stress word for investigation

Hi Vivian, the word ‘investigation’ has 5 syllables and the stress is placed on the 4th syllable: investi ga tion. The root word here is ‘in ves tigate’ which has stress on the 2nd syllable. The ending ‘ion’ in ‘investigation’ moves the stress to the penultimate syllable.

Good job Catherine, I guess the syllable in accommodation falls on ‘DA’, where does it falls in accommodate? Thanks.

Hi Remi, yes the stress falls on ‘da’ in ‘accommo da tion’ but it falls on the second syllable (‘co’) in ‘a cco mmodate’

I thank God I found this on time

Glad you found the page useful, Promise!

Pls, how can departmental, synonym, university, structure and culture be stress.

Hi Michael, these words are stressed as follows (stressed syllables in bold): depart men tal, syn onym, uni ver sity, struc ture, cul ture

I am glad, thanks a million times for this lesson. I really enjoyed it.

Thanks Catherine, glad i found this article. In this article i learnt that words ending with “ment” like government can be stress on its base word i.e GOvern , but what about Bewilderment?

Hello Tope, glad you found the article useful! Bewilderment also follows this pattern – it is stressed on the second syllable (‘wil’) because the base word is be wil der.

Good contribution, Admin!

Where is the stressed syllable in the word “TRIBALISM”? If asked to underline the stressed syllable, where exactly would the underlining begin and end?

Hi Joseph, the word tribalism is stressed on the first syllable: tri balism

I really appreciate you, I learned a lot

Can you please tell me the real relationship between syllable structure and stress I am missing something out

Hi Thimozana, Stressed syllables are normally longer, louder, clearer and slightly higher in pitch than unstressed syllables. The relationship between syllables and stress will usually follow the patterns explored in this page – for example, nouns with 2 syllables normally have their stress on the first syllable. The English language always has exceptions though, so unfortunately there is no one definitive rule that will work every time.

Hey Catherine, Thank you so much for such a nice explanation. You dedication is superb the way you have been answering the queries of the readers on this platform since 2012. I could read this page continuously for 1 hour without even a single moment of boredom. Hats off to your dedication !!!

Regards Mahender.

Thank you for your kind words, Mahender! I love teaching and helping people understand more about English – hopefully my answers and explanations are useful! It’s great to hear you enjoyed the article so much. Good luck in your language journey!

Am grateful because this article is to rich.. I have been strengthen by this article.

Thanks It really helped

How can I make primary stress in a syllable?

I am want to know more on unstressed vowel sounds and stressed sentence

Hi Yusuff, you might find our page on silent letters useful when learning about unstressed sounds.

I wonder why the word “communicative” stresses on the second syllable.Are there any special rules?

Hi Jocelyn, the word ‘communicative’ comes from the root word ‘communicate’ and keeps the same stress. Both are stressed on the second syllable. Most words that are a variation of another word will continue to be stressed in the same way as their root word.

I need more answer on five syllable words and there primary stress

Thank you very much for this. I really find it helpful.

Please admin do we have five syllable words that have their stress on the fifth syllable? And please can you mention some of the words?

pls list polysyllabic words with stress on penultimate syllable

Thank you for this Great Article…it’s very helpful.

Pls Words ending with “ite”, “phy”, “able”, “ment” can be dressed where?

Please I need a list of five syllable words stressed on the fifth syllables

This is so so helpful! However, I noticed that when words become longer the stress shifts or maybe I am wrong here, look at these examples, forbid – forbidden (do you stress for or bid, transformation – transformational (ma is where the stress fall) right? How about /al-ter-na-ting/?

Hi LG, glad you found the page useful! The longer words will usually have the same stress as their root word, though there are exceptions. In your example, ‘for bid ‘ and ‘for bid den’ both have their stress on the second syllable ‘bid’. ‘Transfor ma tion’ and ‘transfor ma tional’ both have their stress on the third syllable ‘ma’. Words ending in ‘ation’ will stress the ‘a’, instead of their root (e.g. here the root ‘trans form ‘ stresses ‘form’). Your third example, ‘ al ternating’ stresses the first syllable ‘al’, the same as its verb root ‘to al ternate’. There is also an adjective version ‘al ter nate’ which stresses the ‘ter’.

Hi I’m from Nigeria Found dis helpful keep it up

Thanks a lot for this now I can focus on other topics for my JAMB

Thanks for inspiration this articles are very helpful I appreciate

There are three boundary markers: {{angbr IPA|.}} for a syllable break, {{angbr IPA||}} for a minor prosodic break and {{angbr IPA|‖}} for a major prosodic break. The tags ‘minor’ and ‘major’ are intentionally ambiguous. Depending on need, ‘minor’ may vary from a [[foot (prosody)|foot]] break to a break in list-intonation to a continuing–prosodic-unit boundary (equivalent to a comma), and while ‘major’ is often any intonation break, it may be restricted to a final–prosodic-unit boundary (equivalent to a period). The ‘major’ symbol may also be doubled, {{angbr IPA|‖}}, for a stronger break.{{#tag:ref|Russian sources commonly use {{unichar|2E3E|WIGGLY VERTICAL LINE}} (approx. ⌇) for less than a minor break, such as list intonation (e.g. the very slight break between digits in a telephone number).Ž.V. Ganiev (2012) ”Sovremennyj ruskij jazyk.” Flinta/Nauka. A dotted line {{unichar|2E3D|VERTICAL SIX DOTS}} is sometimes seen instead.|group=”note”}}

Hi please be so kind to assist me with the following words i need stress pattern for them for example Character-Ooo Remove? Celebrities’? Currency? Killing? Silly? Waste? Product? Action? Figures? Fight? Please I need to be sure hence I am asking please assist

Hi Sasha, the words in your list are stressed as follows (stress in bold): Cha racter, Re move , Ce leb rities, Cur rency, Kil ling, Si lly, Was te, Pro duct, Ac tion, Fi gures, Fi ght Note the words ‘waste’ and ‘fight’ only have one syllable.

thanks to this. it helps more than you think

Really helpful ! thanks

I think other site proprietors should take this website as an model, very clean and wonderful user genial style and design, let alone the content. You’re an expert in this topic!

Can you give me a list of 2-syllable words that are nouns when stressed on the first syllable and verbs when stressed on the second? example: PROGress and proGRESS.

To my own simple knowledge of syllable and stress, I think when counting where stress is placed in any word we count from right to left not from left to right. For instance : international =should be stressed in NA that’s interNAtional , Now,when counting we will say international is stress in the 3rd syllable that is counting from right hand side to the left hand side. But in your analysis I discovered you counted from left hand side to right hand side which is ought not to be.

My take on compound word stress is that I go by the rule: Stress falls on what you want to point out in context or what defines the compound word

Therefore it is /OLD fashioned/ and /GREEN fingered/ to me as well as /MARIGOLD Avenue/ and /MARIGOLD Street/. This also brings more clarity.

Similar pattern is the /VICE president/, /MASS graves/, /SELF defence/, /GAZA strip/: the first part distinguishes something from a category. So stress falls on part one, unless I want to point out the other part within a specific context (e.g. saying the Gaza Strip has the geographical shape of a strip of land or you want to go to Marigold Avenue, not Marigold Street).

Any idea what rules may be behind doing it differently?

thanks alot

Thank you so much. it really helped me, but how do I stress words with tive, able, ry.

This page helped me with a lot of things. I am so glad I found this page, it is clear and detailed. Thank you ma

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

stress syllable of homework

Log In   0 The website uses cookies for functionality and the collection of anonymised analytics data. We do not set cookies for marketing or advertising purposes. By using our website, you agree to our use of cookies and our privacy policy . We're sorry, but you cannot use our site without agreeing to our cookie usage and privacy policy . You can change your mind and continue to use our site by clicking the button below. This confirms that you accept our cookie usage and privacy policy.

Free English Lessons

Syllables and word stress – english pronunciation lesson.

Download PDF

Syllables and word stress thumbnail

In this lesson, you can learn about syllables and stress in English.

Do you know what stress means it’s one of the most important pronunciation points in english., when you speak english, do other people find it difficult to understand what you’re saying if so, you might not be using stress correctly., pronouncing words with the correct stress can make a big difference to your english: your english will immediately sound clearer and more natural., quiz: syllables and word stress.

Now, test your knowledge of what you learned in the lesson by trying this quiz.

For some questions, you need to listen to the audio in order to answer. In other cases, you can listen to the audio as extra help.

You will get your score at the end, when you can click on ‘View Questions’ to see all the correct answers.

Quiz Summary

0 of 20 Questions completed

Information

You have already completed the quiz before. Hence you can not start it again.

Quiz is loading…

You must sign in or sign up to start the quiz.

You must first complete the following:

0 of 20 Questions answered correctly

Time has elapsed

You have reached 0 of 0 point(s), ( 0 )

Earned Point(s): 0 of 0 , ( 0 ) 0 Essay(s) Pending (Possible Point(s): 0 )

  • Not categorized 0%

Well done! You have understood a lot of the material in this lesson. Check the correct answers and think about why you didn’t get them right.

An excellent score – you have understood most of the content of this lesson very well. Why not try another of our lessons on pronunciation?

Congratulations! You have understood the content of this lesson perfectly.

1 . Question

Put these words in order of how many syllables they have, starting with the word that has one syllable.

  • unbelievable
  • information

View Answers:

2 . Question

Read or listen to five words and mark the one that does not have the same number of syllables as the others.

If you’re not certain, listen carefully to the recording, which reflects the most common pronunciation of these words.

3 . Question

Read these phonetic transcriptions of words you saw in the lesson. Which one has the most syllables?

  • /jʊːnɪˈvɜːsɪti/
  • /ˈbrekfəst/
  • /ʌnˈkʌmftəbəl/
  • /saɪənˈtɪfɪk/
  • /fəˈtɒgrəfiː/

Remember that a syllable contains one vowel, which may be a monophthong or pure vowel, or it may be a combination of sounds that glide together (a diphthong or triphthong). Also, look carefully at the phonetic transcription: some letters in the orthographic spelling may be silent, but the phonetic transcription represents the pronunciation exactly – there are no silent letters in phonetics!

4 . Question

Listen to the following words. Which one is not pronounced with three syllables?

https://www.oxfordonlineenglish.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Computer-interested-temperature-photographed-chocolate.wav

(Note that some of these words have syllables that can either be pronounced or be silent: this question refers to how they are pronounced in this recording, so you cannot answer without listening first!)

  • temperature
  • photographed

You must listen to the recording before you answer, because the question asks about the pronunciation of this speaker. It is possible (and correct!) to say some of these words in more than one way.

5 . Question

True or false: stressed syllables are louder than unstressed syllables

6 . Question

True or false: unstressed syllables are not as long as stressed syllables

7 . Question

True or false: the pitch of the voice is lower for stressed syllables than for unstressed syllables

8 . Question

True or false: the stressed syllable in English is underlined in the phonetic transcriptions found in most dictionaries.

9 . Question

Which words are stressed on the first syllable? Choose as many as you think are right.

10 . Question

What type of two-syllable words are usually stressed on the last syllable? Choose as many as you think are right.

11 . Question

Which words are stressed on the last syllable? Choose as many as you think are right.

12 . Question

Which of these nouns are exceptions to the normal rule for two-syllable nouns? Choose as many as you think are exceptions.

In case you need a reminder, here’s the rule: two-syllable nouns are usually stressed on the first syllable.

Some of these words can also be a verb or an adjective, and the pronunciation may differ, but the question asks about nouns, so answer in terms of their pronunciation as nouns.

13 . Question

Which of these words from the lesson is stressed on the first syllable? Choose as many as you think are right.

14 . Question

Where is the stress on the words ‘relation’, ‘discussion’ and ‘optician’?

  • The first syllable
  • The second / second-last syllable
  • The last syllable

15 . Question

Which of these word groups is not stressed on the second-last syllable? Choose as many as you think are right.

  • dramatic, Atlantic, magic, enthusiastic
  • activity, opportunity, photography, university
  • education, television, station, politician

16 . Question

Which of these words are stressed on the first syllable? Choose as many as you think are right.

  • comfortable
  • uncomfortable
  • comfortably

17 . Question

What is the phonetic symbol for the most common vowel in English, the neutral vowel sound known as the schwa?

18 . Question

On which syllables is there a schwa in the word ‘information’? Choose as many as you think are right. Listen to the recording to help you.

https://www.oxfordonlineenglish.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Information.wav

  • The second syllable
  • The second-last syllable

19 . Question

On which syllables is there a schwa in the word ‘banana’? Choose as many as you think are right. Listen to the recording to help you.

https://www.oxfordonlineenglish.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Banana.wav

20 . Question

On which syllables is there a schwa in the word ‘understandable’? Choose as many as you think are right. Listen to the recording to help you.

https://www.oxfordonlineenglish.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Understandable.wav

  • The third syllable

1. How to Count Syllables

You’ll learn all about stress in this lesson, but first, we need to talk about syllables . Listen to four words:

Do you know how many syllables these words have? Fast has one syllable: fast. /faːst/ Person has two syllables: per-son. /ˈpɜːsən/ Beautiful has three syllables: beau-ti-ful. /ˈbjʊːtɪfəl/ Information has four syllables: in-for-ma-tion. /ɪnfəˈmeɪʃən/ A syllable has one vowel sound (and only one vowel sound) and one or more consonant sounds. Let’s do some more practice. Look at four more words:

How many syllables do they have? Breakfast has two syllables: break-fast. /ˈbrekfəst/ Banana has three syllables: ba-na-na. /bəˈnaːnə/ Tomorrow has three syllables: to-mor-row. /təˈmɒrəʊ/ University has five syllables: u-ni-ver-si-ty. /jʊːnɪˈvɜːsɪti/ So, this lesson isn’t really about syllables; it’s about stress. What’s the connection between syllables and stress? Think about the word banana. Banana has three syllables.

Do you pronounce all the syllables the same: bah-nah-nah? No, you don’t—one syllable is stronger: ba-NA-na. This is stress. If a word has one syllable, you don’t need to think about stress. But, if a word has two syllables or more, one syllable is always stressed: it has a strong, clear pronunciation.

Let’s practice pronouncing word stress correctly.

2. How to Pronounce Stress

Let’s look at an example you just saw.

Do you remember where the stress is? It’s on the second syllable: ba-NA-na. What makes the stressed syllable different? There are three things you need to do to pronounce stress correctly. One: the stressed syllable should be louder. Two: the stressed syllable should be a little higher. Three: the stressed syllable should be a little longer in time. Let’s practice. First, listen to three words you saw before:

  • inforMAtion

Here, I was exaggerating the stress so that you can hear it clearly. You don’t need to pronounce the stress this strongly. However, when you practice, it’s a good idea to try to overpronounce the stress a little bit. This will make sure that you are pronouncing it correctly. So, where is the stress in these three words? Listen again, and this time, repeat the words after me: PERson, BEAUtiful, inforMAtion. Let’s try one more time: PERson, BEAUtiful, inforMAtion. How was that? Could you pronounce the stress clearly? Next, let’s look at four more words you saw before:

This time, I pronounced the stress in a more natural way. Could you hear it? Where is the stress in these four words? Listen again, and this time, repeat the words after me: BREAKfast, baNAna, toMOrrow, uniVERsity. Let’s try one more time: BREAKfast, baNAna, toMOrrow, uniVERsity.

When you look up a word, you can find the stress by looking at the phonetic transcription. The thing that looks like an apostrophe /ˈ/ shows you where the stress is. When you see this apostrophe, the next syllable is the stressed syllable. When you write down new English vocabulary , make sure you record the stress, too. You can put a mark over the stressed syllable, or underline it.

Syllables and Word Stress - definition image

At this point, you might be thinking: are there any rules about word stress? How do I know where the word stress is if I don’t have a dictionary? Let’s talk about that.

3. Stress in Two-Syllable Words

We’ve got good news and bad news for you. The good news is that there are some rules about word stress in English. The bad news is that the rules don’t cover everything, and even the rules which you do have don’t work all the time. Here’s one rule which is quite useful. It’s about words with two syllables. Look at five words:

All these words have two syllables. Where’s the stress? In all the words, the stress is on the 1st syllable. There’s a reason for this: can you work it out? What connects these five words? These words are all nouns. Nouns with two syllables usually have stress on the 1st syllable. Let’s practice saying the words together. Repeat after me: PICture, MInute, MOney, DOCtor, WAter. This is also true for most adjectives with two syllables:

What about verbs? Look at some examples and try to work out the rule:

Can you hear the stress? The stress is on the second syllable. Let’s practice saying the words together. Repeat after me: deCIDE, forGET, exPLAIN, arRIVE, rePEAT. So, most nouns and adjectives with two syllables have the stress on the first syllable, and most verbs have the stress on the second syllable. Be careful, because there are many common exceptions, like hoTEL, HAPpen, exAM, or FINish.

What about longer words? Are there any rules you can use to find the stress?

4. Stress in Longer Words

stress syllable of homework

In three-syllable words, the stress can be anywhere; it can be at the beginning:

It can be in the middle:

It can also be at the end, although this is less common:

Let’s practice! Repeat after me: BEAUtiful, toMOrrow, emploYEE. Let’s try three more: ANyone, comPUter, JapanESE. In words with four or more syllables, the stress is almost always in the middle of the word, not on the first or last syllable. For example:

  • comMUnicate
  • phoTOgrapher

Try saying the words after me: inforMAtion, comMUnicate, phoTOgrapher. There are some other rules which can help you to find the stress in longer words. Let’s look together. If a word ends -tion, -sion or -cian, then the stress is always on the second last syllable:

Can you think of three more words like this? There are many, but here are three more suggestions: situAtion, reVIsion, elecTRIcian. The same rule is true for words ending -ic:

Again, all these words have the stress on the second last syllable. If a word ends with the letter -y and has three or more syllables, then the stress is two syllables before the last one. For example:

  • possiBILity

That means, if a word has three syllables and ends in -y, the stress is almost always on the first syllable:

There’s one more rule which could help you here: if a longer word is made from a shorter root word, then the stress is generally in the same place as the root word. For example:

  • COMfortable
  • unCOMfortable
  • COMfortably

In all these words, the stress is in the same place as the root word, COMfort. However, the rules you saw before take priority. This means that the stress can move when you make a longer word from a root word. For example:

  • PHOtograph -> phoTOgraphy -> photoGRAphic
  • eCOnomy -> ecoNOmic
  • EDucate -> eduCAtion

Okay, now you’ve learned about stress, how to pronounce it, and how you can find the stress in different words. But, there’s still one more very important thing you should know about.

5. Contrasts and Vowel Reductions

Want to know a secret that will improve your English pronunciation really fast? Here’s the most important point about word stress: it’s about contrast. That means, when you pronounce word stress, it’s not just about the stressed syllable. You also need to think about the unstressed syllables. Remember that to pronounce stress, you make the stressed syllable louder, higher and longer. Stress is about contrast, so the opposite is true for unstressed syllables: you need to make them quieter, lower and shorter.

Let’s look at three words you’ve already practiced:

To pronounce the words well, you need to think about the unstressed syllables, too. Often, the vowel sounds in the unstressed syllables are reduced to schwa sounds–/ə/, or short /ɪ/ sounds. ‘Reduced’ means the vowel sounds are shorter and weaker. For example, in the word banana, the stress is on the second syllable: ba-NA-na. The stressed ‘a’ has an /aː/ sound, but the other two ‘a’s’ have schwa sounds: b/ə/nan/ə/. In the word person, the first syllable is stressed, and the second syllable has a schwa sound: pers/ə/n. And in information, the syllables before and after the stressed syllable reduce to schwas: inf/ə/mat/ə/n.

Get more practice with vowels in this Oxford Online English lesson: How to Pronounce Vowel Sounds .

Unstressed syllables can’t always be reduced, but they often can be. If a vowel sound is reduced, it most often shortens to a schwa sound. We’ll finish with a simple tip to help you pronounce word stress clearly and naturally. Focus on the stressed syllable, and put more stress on it than you think you need. Pronounce the unstressed syllables as fast as you can. If you do this, you’ll have contrast in your pronunciation, and this will make your word stress sound natural and clear.

Thanks for watching!

We Offer Video Licensing and Production

Use our videos in your own materials or corporate training, videos edited to your specifications, scripts written to reflect your training needs, bulk pricing available.

Interested?

More English Lessons

English pronunciation lessons.

How to Read IPA - Video

  • Facebook 22
  • Odnoklassniki 0
  • VKontakte 0
  • Pinterest 3
  • LinkedIn 17
  • ELT Concourse home
  • A-Z site index
  • Teacher training index
  • Teacher development
  • For teachers
  • For trainers
  • For managers
  • For learners
  • About language
  • Language questions
  • Other areas
  • Academic English
  • Business English
  • Entering ELT
  • Courses index
  • Basic ELT course
  • Language analysis
  • Training to train
  • Transcription

Concourse 2

Word stress (/ˈwɜːd ˌ stres/)

stress

There are two small marks in the heading for this guide that you need to be aware of before we begin: ˈ and ˌ . These are the conventional ways to show stress in words and used in what follows.  The raised mark ( ˈ ) is shown immediately before the stressed syllable and the lowered mark ( ˌ ) comes before a secondary (or less obvious) stress. For example, in the word pronunciation , there are two stresses (a secondary one on the second syllable and a main stress on the penultimate syllable: /prə.ˌnʌn.sɪ.ˈeɪʃ.n̩/ .  It sounds like pro NUN ci A T ION . (An alternative way to mark stress sometimes used by professional phoneticians is to place an acute accent over the onset vowel of a stressed syllable and a grave accent over a secondarily stressed item.  In this case, the syllable borders are usually ignored.) If you are not familiar with phonemic transcription, do not worry now.  In what follows, we will be using very little except these two stress indicators. There is a course in learning to transcribe English sounds phonemically on this site (new tab).

Where's the main stress in the following?  Click on the table when you have marked it in your head.

word stress

As you can see, we can stress the first, second, third or fourth syllable on words in English (and even the fifth or sixth) and there are, unfortunately, no hard-and-fast rules for which is right.

It is often assumed that stressed syllables are simply spoken in a louder voice but that's only partly right.  There are, in fact, three elements which vary:

  • Loudness : how much force is used when saying the syllable
  • Pitch : stressed syllables are often pronounced in a higher tone
  • Length : stressed syllables take longer to utter than unstressed ones

You'll find more on pitch and tone in the guide to intonation .

We also need to be aware of the concept of unstress. Clearly, if we can have stressed syllables in a word, the other syllables will, by definition be unstressed.  For example: In a word like geographical , we have a primary stress on the third syllable ( graph ) and a secondary stress on the first syllable ( ge ). The stress pattern looks like this: GE o GRA phical.  This word transcribes as /ˌdʒɪə.ˈɡræ.fɪk.l̩/ and even if the phonemic transcription is mysterious to you, you need to notice two important phenomena:

  • The pronunciation of the second syllable is not an 'o' as in open but is reduced to a very short sound /ə/ which is the same sound as begins words like a bout and a live .
  • The pronunciation of the final syllable is transcribed as /k.l̩/ showing that there is no vowel at all between the /k/ sound made by 'c' and the /l/ sound made by the letter 'l'.  This is known as a syllabic consonant, by the way.

These two changes to the sound expected from the spelling of the word happen because they occur in the unstressed syllables of the word.  Weak forms like the /ə/ and the loss of a vowel as in /k.l̩/ can only occur in unstressed syllables.  Compare this with, e.g.:

  • A: Did you say biographical?
  • B: No.  I said ge ographical!

In this, the first syllable is now taking the main stress and the pronunciation of the 'o' assumes the form of the 'o' in go or show ( /ɡəʊ/, /ʃəʊ/ ).  The secondary stress has now moved to the third syllable.

No.  There are some rules and we are going to look at them here.  It will however, remain true that in many cases the stress in a multisyllable word cannot be guessed or deduced from any rule at all so our learners will need all the help they can get. A simple rule of thumb, and certainly the way to guess, is to assume that any common two-syllable word in English will be stressed on the first syllable (unless it's a verb, when the stress falls on the second syllable, conventionally [see below]).

Occasionally, stress may be moved on a word for contrastive reasons as in, for example:     A: Why did you shut the door?     B: Because of the noise you were making.     A: Oh, sorry about that.     B: I was COM plaining, I was EX plaining. in which the stress in B's second contribution is unusual because the speaker is placing emphasis on the first syllables of the words complaining and explaining to mark the difference.  In normal circumstances the words are stressed on the second syllable, of course.

Words which have early roots in English are the simplest to stress because the stress generally remains fixed on the stem regardless of how many affixes we use with them.  For example:

The problem for learners, of course, is to recognise such words and that is not easy. Learners from Germanic language backgrounds often have fewer difficulties because they can look for cognates and these will normally be words which maintain the stress. Those from Romance language backgrounds can often make guesses because of a lack of a cognate in their languages. Those from non-European language backgrounds have no such resources to call on but words like these are often short, describe simple concepts and are non-academic or non-technical. That helps a little. An even simpler rule is that in English we rarely stress an affix:

Words which are more formal, academic or technical often have their roots in Latin or Greek and with these words the stress may shift with affixation but all is not lost because there are some rules. It is also true that many thousands of words fall into these categories and, once learnt, the rules can be applied with almost 100% success.

A simpler (but not fully accurate) way to explain this in the classroom is to say that in all these penultimate / antepenultimate cases, the stress moves to the syllable before the suffix .

There are other exceptions, and they include:

There is a large group of words which shift stress from the second syllable (as verbs) to the beginning (as nouns or adjectives).  This can be expressed the other way around according to your taste as a shift from the first syllable to the second or last syllable, moving from the noun/adjective to the verb. Common ones are, for example

and there are lots more of these (some quite obscure).  Here's a list of 100 of these (which may even be reasonably complete):

  • Participle adjectives take the same stress as the verb (because that is how they are formed) so we get, e.g., for the word record , /ˈrek.ɔːd/ (noun), and /rɪk.ˈɔːd/ (verb) and /rɪk.ˈɔː.dɪd/ (adjective) .
  • The verb stress falls on the second or the last syllable (some are three syllable words).  For example, in the list above there are three: underline, intercept and envelope .  The pronunciations are:     /ˈʌn.də.laɪn/ (noun) to /ˌʌn.də.ˈlaɪn/ (verb)     /ˈɪn.tə.sept/ (noun) to /ˌɪn.tə.ˈsept/ (verb)     /ˈen.və.ləʊp/ (noun) to /ɪn.ˈve.ləp/ (verb) but there is also a change to the initial vowel sound in the last.
  • One verb-noun pair is missing from the list above: reˈfuse (a verb meaning decline or reject ) and ˈrefuse (a noun meaning rubbish ).  The words are not closely connected in meaning, the pronunciation of the 's' alters from /z/ in the verb to /s/ in the noun and the pronunciation of the vowel in the first syllable changes from /ɪ/ in the verb to /e/ in the noun:     /rɪ.ˈfjuːz/ (verb) and /ˈrefjuːs/ (noun) Both words derive ultimately from the Old French verb refuser but many would consider them now unconnected in meaning in Modern English, i.e. an example of homonymy not polysemy.
  • When some vowels are de-stressed, they are pronounced as weak forms.  The words progress and combat are good examples:     /prə.ˈɡres/ (verb) and /ˈprəʊ.ɡres/ (noun)     /kəm.ˈbæt/ (verb) and /ˈkɒm.bæt/ (noun))
  • It was said above that we do not usually stress affixes in English (apart from the six covered above which are stressed!).  Well, here are more exceptions.  With some nouns, the main stress falls on the prefix in these cases, e.g.:     his ˈrecall is poor     I demand a ˈrecount     this needs a complete ˈrewrite     perform a heart ˈtransplant     put in an ˈunderline     pay for a computer ˈupgrade As nouns, these are: /ˈrɪk.ɔːl/, /ˈrɪk.aʊnt/, ˈriː.raɪt/, /ˈtræn.splɑːnt/, /ˈʌn.də.laɪn/, /ˈʌp.ɡreɪd/ As verbs, they are: /rɪˈk.ɔːl/, /rɪˈk.aʊnt/, /ˌriː.ˈraɪt/, /træn.ˈsplɑːnt/, /ˌʌn.də.ˈlaɪn/, /ˌʌp.ˈɡreɪd/
  • A number of other changes can occur in parallel to the stress shift: record : /’rekɔːd/ to /rɪˈkɔːd/ (with a change to the first vowel from /e/ to /ɪ/ ) abuse : /əˈbjuːs/ to /əˈbjuːz/ (with a final consonant change from /s/ to /z/ ). (This also occurs with the verb use . when it is a lexical or main verb as in:     I used a hammer the 's' is pronounced /z/ , ( /ˈaɪ.ˈjuːzd.ə.ˈhæ.mə/ ) but in     I used to go the 's' is pronounced /s/ ( /ˈaɪ.ˈjuːst.tə.ɡəʊ/ ).) combine : /ˈkɒmbaɪn/ to /kəmˈbaɪn/ (with a vowel change from /ɒ/ to /ə/ [the first is a piece of farm machinery]).  This is a common phenomenon which also occurs with all the examples in the table above which begin com- or con- ( combat, compact, compound, conduct, conflict, conscript, consort, construct, contest, contract, contrast, converse, convert, convict ). These pairs of words are a subset of homographs in that they are spelled the same but vary in both meaning and pronunciation.  They are often classified as heteronyms or heterophones.
  • as a verb, pronounced /kən.ˈtrækt/, it has four distinct meanings: intransitive ( become smaller ), transitive ( make smaller ), intransitive ( agree formally ), transitive ( be infected by ) so we may encounter:     The steel contracted in the cold     We contract I am to I'm in normal speech     We contracted to finish the work before March     She contracted a cold at school all the uses derive from the same source word (from the 14th or 15th centuries) but the third meaning is only attested from the end of the 19th century.  This is an example of quite extreme polysemy but many would refer to it as homonymy because the meanings are so different.
  • as a noun, pronounced /ˈkɒntrækt/, it has only the meaning akin to the third meaning of the verb, a formal agreement .  In all other cases, the noun is contraction .
  • There is a noticeable tendency in English to discontinue the use of the verb stress and pronounce all these words as the noun / adjective is pronounced.  We are not there yet, however.  For example, the term upgrade to refer to a modernised version of something takes its stress on the first syllable yet the term is only attested in this sense from the early 1980s.
  • Some verb-noun pairings are pronounced the same regardless of word class.  Examples include format ( /ˈfɔː.mæt/ ), regret ( /rɪ.ˈɡret/ ) and disdain ( /dɪs.ˈdeɪn/ ), the first always stressed on the first syllable and the second two always on the second.

Compound nouns

Compound nouns are usually stressed on the first element with a secondary stress (if any) on the second element.  This is one of the tests for a compound noun rather than a pre-modified noun.  Compare, e.g.:     ˈgreenˌhouse and     ˌgreen ˈhouse In the first, we are referring to a glass construction but in the second, we are referring to the colour of a house. The first is a true compound; the second is a pre-modified noun.

There are hundreds of examples which follow this pattern:     ˈcandleˌstick, ˈdishˌwasher, ˈblackˌboard, ˈheartˌbeat, ˈwindˌmill and, of course     ˈwordˌstress etc. A few compounds have retained their stress on the second item: archˈbishop and vice ˈchancellor are two. Where the stress falls is often a marker of whether an item is a true compound or a pre-modified noun but the test is not at all reliable.  There is, in fact, no single criterion which we can use to distinguish a pre-modified noun from a compound.

Compound verbs

Compound verbs are much more rarely two verbs combined but most follow the same pattern: ˈbabyˌsit, ˈkickˌstart, ˈforceˌfeed However, in common with the general tendency to stress verbs on the second syllable (see above), some compound verbs take the stress on the second element: backˈfire, waterˈproof but there is a good deal of variation between speakers.

Compound words formed from multi-word verbs

The stress pattern on multi-word verbs is not simple because prepositional verbs and phrasal verbs are stressed differently. One test for whether we are dealing with a prepositional or phrasal verb is, in fact, that in the former case the particle is usually unstressed but in the latter the adverb may carry stress.

Because the preposition is often unstressed in prepositional verbs and realised with a weak form as in, for example:     He laughed at the idea which is often pronounced:     /hi.ˌlɑːft.ət.ði.aɪ.ˈdɪə/ with secondary stress on the verb and with a weak-form preposition (/ət/). So, when making compounds from the prepositional verb we can get     A much laughed at idea as     /ə.mʌtʃ.ˈlɑːft.ət.aɪ.ˈdɪə/ with the stress falling on laugh , not on the preposition.

Nouns and adjectives formed from phrasal verbs (i.e., those using an adverb particle rather than a preposition) usually exhibit the stress pattern of main then secondary so we get, e.g.:     ˈoffˌputting, ˈbreakˌdown, ˈknockˌout, ˈdropout etc. The stress on the first element remains whether it is the particle or the verb that comes first. Phrasal verbs in particular are a rich source of adjectives and they follow the same pattern with the stress either falling on the adverb or being evenly distributed across the item.  For example:     a mixed up kid /ə.mɪkst.ˈʌp.ˌkɪd/     a broken down car /ə.ˌbrəʊkən.ˈdaʊn.ˈkɑː/     a washed out colour /ə.wɒʃt.ˈaʊt.ˈkʌ.lə/ etc.

Phrasal-prepositional verbs reveal the same pattern with the adverb taking stress and the preposition often weakened.  However, such verbs do not form compounds.

For more, see the guide to multi-word verbs .

Compound adjectives and adverbs

Compound adjectives and the rarer compound adverbs often exhibit the opposite stress patterns: Adjectives: ˌ topˈclass, ˌsecondˈrate, ˌbackˈhanded, ˌfarˈfetched , kneeˈdeep, flatˈfooted Adverbs: ˌ thereupˈon, ˌhenceˈforth, ˌupˈstairs

However, when these are used attributively, the pattern reverses and we get: a ˈtop-ˌclass act, a ˈsecond-ˌrate act, an ˈupˌstairs room, a ˈfar-ˌfetched story

AmE usage is somewhat more reliable because it has a strong tendency to stress all compounds on the first syllable.  As is often the case, this tendency is increasingly observable in BrE.  How would you stress:     lawn tennis ?

As we saw above, word stress in English is highly mobile. Learners will, of course, especially at lower levels, be tempted to transfer the rules and patterns of their first languages into English, resulting in mistaken stress very often. The following cannot cover all languages but here is a list to give you some idea of the possibilities:

  • in French (allegedly) the stress always falls on the final syllable (although some will say that there is, in fact, no word stress in French).
  • in Hungarian, again allegedly, the stress is always on the first syllable.
  • in Polish, the stress almost always falls on the penultimate syllable (although loan words will vary the pattern).
  • in Italian and Spanish the stress also falls frequently on the penultimate syllable but there are some complex rules to determine where the stress should be placed.
  • most Swedish polysyllabic words have the stress on the first syllable.
  • in Portuguese, most stresses fall on the last syllable but there are rules for words where it is in a different place.
  • Greek (although stress is always marked in lower-case writing)
  • Arabic (but stress is variable across dialects of the language which are not always completely mutually comprehensible)
  • Portuguese (in which dialect, South American vs. European varieties, also plays a role)
  • German, in which stress is frequently on the first syllable but there are exceptions all over the place depending on suffixation, prefixation (whether separable or not) and so on.
  • Japanese does not have a stress accent like English.  In English, as we saw above the stress affects pitch, loudness and length of the syllable. Japanese, by contrast, has what is called a pitch accent which can be high or low.  The syllable, however, is pronounced with the same loudness and takes the same amount of time to utter.
  • in tonal languages, such as Chinese languages and many South-East Asian languages such as Thai, the stressed syllable is denoted by a larger than usual tone swing.

Learners whose first languages have predictable and dominant stress patterns (the first group) will be tempted to transfer the rules to English. Learners whose languages have unpredictable stress patterns (the second group) may be confused by the fact that English orthography does not mark the stress for them. Learners whose languages exhibit alternative systems may have difficulty stressing words at all and sound very flat or monotonous.

Every time a new multisyllable word is introduced in a classroom, therefore, the stress needs to be explicitly highlighted and practised. Here are three ways to highlight.  Pick one and keep to it so your learners know what it signifies.

Contact | FAQs | Copyright notice | ELT Concourse charter | Disclaimer and Privacy statement | Search ELT Concourse

Intonation and Stress in English

How Intonation and Stress Will Improve Your Pronunciation

  • Pronunciation & Conversation
  • Writing Skills
  • Reading Comprehension
  • Business English
  • Resources for Teachers
  • TESOL Diploma, Trinity College London
  • M.A., Music Performance, Cologne University of Music
  • B.A., Vocal Performance, Eastman School of Music

Correct intonation and stress are the key to speaking English fluently with good pronunciation. Intonation and stress refer to the music of the English language. Words that are stressed are key to understanding and using the correct intonation brings out the meaning. 

Introduction to Intonation and Stress Exercise

Say this sentence aloud and count how many seconds it takes.

The beautiful mountain appeared transfixed in the distance. 

Time required? Probably about five seconds. Now, try speaking this sentence aloud

He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the evening. 

Time required? Probably about five seconds.

Wait a minute—the first sentence is much shorter than the second sentence!

The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance.  (14 syllables) He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the evening.  (22 syllables)

Even though the second sentence is approximately 30 percent longer than the first, the sentences take the same time to speak. This is because there are five stressed words in each sentence. From this example, you can see that you needn't worry about pronouncing every word clearly to be understood (we native speakers certainly don't). You should, however, concentrate on pronouncing the stressed words clearly.

This simple exercise makes a very important point about how we speak and use English. Namely, English is considered a stressed language while many other languages are considered syllabic. What does that mean? It means that, in English, we give stress to certain words while other words are quickly spoken (some students say eaten!). In other languages, such as French or Italian, each syllable receives equal importance (there is stress, but each syllable has its own length).

Many speakers of syllabic languages don't understand why we quickly speak, or swallow, a number of words in a sentence. In syllabic languages, each syllable has equal importance, and therefore equal time is needed. English however, spends more time on specific stressed words while quickly gliding over the other, less important, words.

Simple Exercise to Help With Understanding

The following exercise can be used by students and teachers to further help with pronunciation by focusing on the stressing content words rather than function words in the exercise below.

Let's look at a simple example: The modal verb "can." When we use the positive form of "can" we quickly glide over the can and it is hardly pronounced.

They can come on Friday . (stressed words in  italics )

On the other hand, when we use the negative form "can't" we tend to stress the fact that it is the negative form by also stressing "can't".

They can't come on Friday . (stressed words in  italics )

As you can see from the above example the sentence, "They can't come on Friday" is longer than "They can come on Friday" because both the modal "can't" and the verb "come" are stressed.

Understanding Which Words to Stress

To begin, you need to understand which words we generally stress and which we do not stress. Stress words are considered content words such as:

  • Nouns (e.g., kitchen, Peter)
  • (Most) main verbs  (e.g., visit, construct)
  • Adjectives (e.g., beautiful, interesting)
  • Adverbs (e.g., often, carefully)
  • Negatives including negative helping verbs, and words with "no" such as "nothing," "nowhere," etc. 
  • Words expressing quantities (e.g., a lot of, a few, many, etc.)

Non-stressed words are considered function words  such as:

  • Determiners (e.g., the, a, some, a few)
  • Auxiliary verbs (e.g., don't, am, can, were)
  • Prepositions (e.g., before, next to, opposite)
  • Conjunctions (e.g., but, while, as)
  • Pronouns (e.g., they, she, us)
  • Verbs "have" and "be" even when used as main verbs

Practice Quiz

Test your knowledge by identifying which words are content words and should be stressed in the following sentences:

  • They've been learning English for two months.
  • My friends have nothing to do this weekend.
  • I would have visited in April if I had known Peter was in town.
  • Natalie will have been studying for four hours by six o'clock.
  • The boys and I will spend the weekend next to the lake fishing for trout.
  • Jennifer and Alice had finished the report before it was due last week.

Words in italics are stressed content words while unstressed function words are in lower case.

  • They've been learning English for two months .
  • My friends have nothing to do this weekend .
  • I would have visited  in April if i had known Peter was in town .
  • Natalie will have been studying  for fours hours  by six o'clock .
  • The boys and i will spend the weekend next to the lake fishing for trout .
  • Jennifer and Alice had finished the report before it was due last week .

Continue Practicing

Speak to your native English speaking friends and listen to how we concentrate on the stressed words rather than giving importance to each syllable. As you begin to listen and use stressed words, you will discover words you thought you didn't understand are really not crucial for understanding the sense or making yourself understood. Stressed words are the key to excellent pronunciation and understanding of English.

After students have learned basic  consonant  and vowel sounds, they should move on to learning to differentiate between individual sounds by using  minimal pairs . Once they are comfortable with individual words, they should move on to intonation and  stress exercises  such as  sentence markup . Finally, students can take the next step by  choosing a focus word to help further improve their pronunciation .

  • How to Improve Your Pronunciation
  • English Pronunciation Practice
  • Understanding English Pronunciation Concepts
  • Using a Focus Word to Help With Pronunciation
  • Practice Stress and Intonation
  • Content and Function Words
  • How to Teach Pronunciation
  • Rising and Falling Intonation in Pronunciation
  • Lesson Plan: Label Sentences with Parts of Speech
  • Content or Function Word? Pronunciation Practice
  • How to Stress Syllables in English
  • American English to British English Vocabulary
  • Stress Types in English Pronunciation
  • Top Lesson Plans for ESL and EFL
  • Gonna and Wanna
  • Dear Abby Lesson Plan

Main navigation

Learning english, syllable stress, how difficult was this activity.

In this listening and pronunciation activity, listen to the different words related to health and decide which syllable stress pattern they follow.

Try these activities next

stress syllable of homework

Word Stress in long words

Try some activities about word stress in three-syllable words

stress syllable of homework

Consonant sounds

stress syllable of homework

Long and short 'i'

stress syllable of homework

Rachel's English

How to Stress a Syllable :: The Shape of Stress

The shape and melody of the voice – the intonation – is one of the most important factors in sounding natural and American.  Learn how the shape of a stressed syllable should be.

YouTube blocked? Click here to see the video.

Video Text:

In this American English pronunciation video, we’re going to talk about the shape of a stressed syllable.

I’ve been talking a lot recently with my private students about the shape of stress. Stress isn’t simply a higher pitch and a lower pitch. Yes-ter-day. Da-da-da. But actually, there’s a swoop from one pitch to the next, so there’s always a gliding feeling. Yesterday. When my students are able to switch into this mode, it makes a world of difference. All of a sudden, the speech is much more natural, is much more American. This applies even to one-syllable words and one-syllable sentences. For example, yes, yes. It’s not yes, yes, all on one pitch; that’s very flat. Yes. Yes. Hi. Hi. Hi — do you hear that change in pitch, that shape in that syllable? Very different from hi, hi, hi. Hi.

So the shape of a stressed syllable has the pitch gliding up and the pitch gliding down. Let’s take for example the word ‘hello’. Hello, -llo. Do you hear how the change in pitch isn’t abrupt. It slides from lower to higher and lower again. This is very different from hello, hello, an abrupt pitch change of two flat ideas. Hell-o, hell-o. Hello.

It’s not a bad idea to practice words and sentences very under pace, sliding from pitch to pitch. For example: hey, how are you? Then, when you speed it up, don’t think of switching back into speaking mode. Think of taking this stretched out, gliding from pitch to pitch speech, and speeding it up. We don’t want the character of that uhh– to change. You want to keep that in your speech. So please keep this in mind, and do practice speaking under pace sometimes. Stress is much more than a change in pitch, it’s how you change the pitch.

That’s it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.

Library homepage

  • school Campus Bookshelves
  • menu_book Bookshelves
  • perm_media Learning Objects
  • login Login
  • how_to_reg Request Instructor Account
  • hub Instructor Commons
  • Download Page (PDF)
  • Download Full Book (PDF)
  • Periodic Table
  • Physics Constants
  • Scientific Calculator
  • Reference & Cite
  • Tools expand_more
  • Readability

selected template will load here

This action is not available.

Humanities LibreTexts

1.4: Syllable Stress

  • Last updated
  • Save as PDF
  • Page ID 62553

  • Brittany Zemlick
  • Grossmont College

Syllable Stress: Which syllable is the strongest?

Rules to remember, rules to remember: syllable stress.

In words with two or more syllables, one syllable is stronger than the others. The strongest syllable has the most stress or emphasis.

Listen to the speaker read the words in the figure below. Syllable Stress Recording.m4a

Screen Shot 2020-07-21 at 12.23.05 PM.png

  • The stressed syllable is long and the vowel sound of the stressed syllable is clear.
  • The other syllables are short and unclear.
  • There is only one syllable with primary stress in each word. The other syllables usually take the schwa sound /ə/.

Watch the Video

Rachel's english - word stress in two-syllable words.

Underline the stressed syllable in each of the words below.

Example: re peat

Check your Answers

Use the interactive quiz to check your answers. Select the correct answer, click "check" to see if your answer is correct, and then click the arrow to move to the next question. When you have answered all of the questions, click "Finished."

Query \(\PageIndex{1}\)

Rachel's english - word stress in three-syllable words.

Example: com pu ter

You will hear each word two times. Underline the strongest (or stressed) syllable. Click here for the audio: Syllable Stress Quiz.m4a You can listen to the recording as many time as you need.

  • present (noun)
  • present (verb)

Dictionaries: Finding the Stressed Syllable

Most dictionaries put a ['] before the syllable with the main stress. Sometimes one word can have more than one stress pattern.

  • 'pre-sent (noun) - People usually give a present for birthdays and weddings.
  • pre-'sent (verb) - The scientists will present their research.

Click on the link to use the website The Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary: https://learnersdictionary.com/

Watch the video to learn how to use The Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary: Merriam-Webster Learner Dictionary.mp4

How to use howmanysyllables.com

You can use the website https://www.howmanysyllables.com/ to help you count the number of syllables. This website can also help you determine which syllable is stressed.

To use the website How Many Syllables:

  • Type the word into the search bar
  • Find the number of syllables
  • Find the stress
  • Play the recording and practice saying the word

Watch the video to learn how to use the website: How Many Syllables.mp4

Click on the link to use the website: https://www.howmanysyllables.com/

Recording: Syllables and Syllable Stress

  • Listen to the recording. Syllable Stress Recording Task.m4a Then say the following words.
  • Use the correct stress. Remember that the vowel for the stressed syllable should be long and clear. The vowels in the other syllables are not stressed. They are quick and usually have a schwa sound.
  • Submit your video recording to your teacher.
  • You will receive one point for each correctly pronounced word.

Total Points: _____/16

  • me mo ri al
  • in fa mous ly
  • kil o me ter
  • con coc tion
  • de li cious

share this!

August 16, 2021

Is it time to get rid of homework? Mental health experts weigh in

by Sara M Moniuszko

homework

It's no secret that kids hate homework. And as students grapple with an ongoing pandemic that has had a wide-range of mental health impacts, is it time schools start listening to their pleas over workloads?

Some teachers are turning to social media to take a stand against homework .

Tiktok user @misguided.teacher says he doesn't assign it because the "whole premise of homework is flawed."

For starters, he says he can't grade work on "even playing fields" when students' home environments can be vastly different.

"Even students who go home to a peaceful house, do they really want to spend their time on busy work? Because typically that's what a lot of homework is, it's busy work," he says in the video that has garnered 1.6 million likes. "You only get one year to be 7, you only got one year to be 10, you only get one year to be 16, 18."

Mental health experts agree heavy work loads have the potential do more harm than good for students, especially when taking into account the impacts of the pandemic. But they also say the answer may not be to eliminate homework altogether.

Emmy Kang, mental health counselor at Humantold, says studies have shown heavy workloads can be "detrimental" for students and cause a "big impact on their mental, physical and emotional health."

"More than half of students say that homework is their primary source of stress, and we know what stress can do on our bodies," she says, adding that staying up late to finish assignments also leads to disrupted sleep and exhaustion.

Cynthia Catchings, a licensed clinical social worker and therapist at Talkspace, says heavy workloads can also cause serious mental health problems in the long run, like anxiety and depression.

And for all the distress homework causes, it's not as useful as many may think, says Dr. Nicholas Kardaras, a psychologist and CEO of Omega Recovery treatment center.

"The research shows that there's really limited benefit of homework for elementary age students, that really the school work should be contained in the classroom," he says.

For older students, Kang says homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night.

"Most students, especially at these high-achieving schools, they're doing a minimum of three hours, and it's taking away time from their friends from their families, their extracurricular activities. And these are all very important things for a person's mental and emotional health."

Catchings, who also taught third to 12th graders for 12 years, says she's seen the positive effects of a no homework policy while working with students abroad.

"Not having homework was something that I always admired from the French students (and) the French schools, because that was helping the students to really have the time off and really disconnect from school ," she says.

The answer may not be to eliminate homework completely, but to be more mindful of the type of work students go home with, suggests Kang, who was a high-school teacher for 10 years.

"I don't think (we) should scrap homework, I think we should scrap meaningless, purposeless busy work-type homework. That's something that needs to be scrapped entirely," she says, encouraging teachers to be thoughtful and consider the amount of time it would take for students to complete assignments.

The pandemic made the conversation around homework more crucial

Mindfulness surrounding homework is especially important in the context of the last two years. Many students will be struggling with mental health issues that were brought on or worsened by the pandemic, making heavy workloads even harder to balance.

"COVID was just a disaster in terms of the lack of structure. Everything just deteriorated," Kardaras says, pointing to an increase in cognitive issues and decrease in attention spans among students. "School acts as an anchor for a lot of children, as a stabilizing force, and that disappeared."

But even if students transition back to the structure of in-person classes, Kardaras suspects students may still struggle after two school years of shifted schedules and disrupted sleeping habits.

"We've seen adults struggling to go back to in-person work environments from remote work environments. That effect is amplified with children because children have less resources to be able to cope with those transitions than adults do," he explains.

'Get organized' ahead of back-to-school

In order to make the transition back to in-person school easier, Kang encourages students to "get good sleep, exercise regularly (and) eat a healthy diet."

To help manage workloads, she suggests students "get organized."

"There's so much mental clutter up there when you're disorganized... sitting down and planning out their study schedules can really help manage their time," she says.

Breaking assignments up can also make things easier to tackle.

"I know that heavy workloads can be stressful, but if you sit down and you break down that studying into smaller chunks, they're much more manageable."

If workloads are still too much, Kang encourages students to advocate for themselves.

"They should tell their teachers when a homework assignment just took too much time or if it was too difficult for them to do on their own," she says. "It's good to speak up and ask those questions. Respectfully, of course, because these are your teachers. But still, I think sometimes teachers themselves need this feedback from their students."

©2021 USA Today Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Explore further

Feedback to editors

stress syllable of homework

CERN researchers measure speed of sound in the quark–gluon plasma more precisely than ever before

9 hours ago

stress syllable of homework

NASA's final tally shows spacecraft returned double the amount of asteroid rubble

stress syllable of homework

Harnessing light with hemispherical shells for improved photovoltaics

stress syllable of homework

New species of pirate spiders discovered on South Atlantic island

10 hours ago

stress syllable of homework

Bacteria in the Arctic seabed are active all year round, researchers find

stress syllable of homework

Martians wanted: Apply here now for NASA's simulated yearlong Mars mission

stress syllable of homework

5,000 atoms are all you need: The smallest solid-state ferroelectricity

stress syllable of homework

Stabilizing mRNA vaccines for delivery to cells

12 hours ago

stress syllable of homework

Measuring neutrons to reduce nuclear waste: New technique paves the way for improved nuclear waste treatment facilities

stress syllable of homework

'Live fast, die young': Agriculture is transforming entire ecosystems

Relevant physicsforums posts, opinion: when pro scientists explain using pop science.

Feb 15, 2024

The changing physics curriculum in 1961

Feb 8, 2024

Rant about working in the tutoring lab: How should I deal with this?

Feb 4, 2024

Circuit calculation practice: voltage dividers, series, parallel

Jan 22, 2024

The New California Math Framework: Another Step Backwards?

Jan 16, 2024

Feedback on video I created on (Galilean) Relative Velocity?

Jan 15, 2024

More from STEM Educators and Teaching

Related Stories

stress syllable of homework

Smartphones are lowering student's grades, study finds

Aug 18, 2020

stress syllable of homework

Doing homework is associated with change in students' personality

Oct 6, 2017

stress syllable of homework

Scholar suggests ways to craft more effective homework assignments

Oct 1, 2015

stress syllable of homework

Should parents help their kids with homework?

Aug 29, 2019

stress syllable of homework

How much math, science homework is too much?

Mar 23, 2015

stress syllable of homework

Anxiety, depression, burnout rising as college students prepare to return to campus

Jul 26, 2021

Recommended for you

stress syllable of homework

Reading on screens instead of paper is a less effective way to absorb and retain information, suggests research

Feb 6, 2024

stress syllable of homework

Certain personality traits linked to college students' sense of belonging

Jan 17, 2024

stress syllable of homework

Ukraine has lost almost 20% of its scientists due to the war, study finds

Dec 11, 2023

stress syllable of homework

New high school curriculum teaches color chemistry and AI simultaneously

Dec 7, 2023

stress syllable of homework

Remote collaborations deliver fewer scientific breakthroughs, co-led research finds

Nov 29, 2023

stress syllable of homework

New study analyzes how people choose friendships at school

Nov 27, 2023

Let us know if there is a problem with our content

Use this form if you have come across a typo, inaccuracy or would like to send an edit request for the content on this page. For general inquiries, please use our contact form . For general feedback, use the public comments section below (please adhere to guidelines ).

Please select the most appropriate category to facilitate processing of your request

Thank you for taking time to provide your feedback to the editors.

Your feedback is important to us. However, we do not guarantee individual replies due to the high volume of messages.

E-mail the story

Your email address is used only to let the recipient know who sent the email. Neither your address nor the recipient's address will be used for any other purpose. The information you enter will appear in your e-mail message and is not retained by Phys.org in any form.

Newsletter sign up

Get weekly and/or daily updates delivered to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time and we'll never share your details to third parties.

More information Privacy policy

Donate and enjoy an ad-free experience

We keep our content available to everyone. Consider supporting Science X's mission by getting a premium account.

E-mail newsletter

stress syllable of homework

Enter No account yet?   Register Forgot your password?

stress syllable of homework

Register Already have an account?   Enter

Recover your password Already have an account?   Enter No account yet?   Register

Pronunciation - Lesson 14.5

Syllable stress, (la acentuación de sílabas).

We have marked the stressed syllables of the words in this sentence with capital letters: "It's VERy imPORtant to get a good eduCAtion to be sucCESSful". Learn the rules of syllable stress below.

Now that we have reviewed the various sounds of English, we must discuss syllable and word stress or another way to put it, the rhythm of English . It is important to keep in mind that English is a time-stressed language . As opposed to Spanish, which is a syllable-timed language in which an equal amount of time is given to each syllable, English adjusts the timing of stressed and unstressed syllables and words. In English, some syllables are longer and some shorter . By stressing certain syllables and words, we can better understand the meaning of the word or sentence. Understanding time stress and intonation in English will help the learner both better understand English and be better understood.

Words are made up of syllables. Syllables are units of sound which almost always have, with few exceptions, at least one vowel sound . In words of two or more syllables, one syllable is stressed while the others are said quickly and without emphasis.

The only fixed rules for syllable stress are: 1) words can only have one stress and 2) the stress is always on a vowel.

Interestingly, related words can have different syllable stresses (PHOto, phoTOgrapher, photoGRAPHic) and the stress pattern of homographs change their meaning (see note below). For the moment, what’s important is to understand what we mean by syllable stress and to recognize the different syllable stress patterns in English.

Note: Some dictionaries indicate the stressed syllable of a word with an apostrophe ( ’ ) either before or after the stressed syllable. In the examples below, the apostrophe is located before the stressed syllable.

One Syllable: Stressed

One syllable words logically have the stress on the one syllable.

Two Syllables: 1st Syllable Stressed

In most two syllable nouns and adjectives, the first syllable is generally stressed.

Two Syllables: 2nd Syllable Stressed

Two syllable verbs are normally stressed on the second syllable.

Three Syllables: 1st Syllable Stressed

Most three syllable words (nouns, adjectives or verbs) are stressed on the first syllable. Three syllable words terminating with the “ -er ”, “ -or ”, “ -ly ” or “ -y ” are generally stressed on the first syllable.

Three Syllables: 2nd Syllable Stressed

Words ending in “ -tion ”, “ -sion ”, “ -ic ” or “ -al ” among other suffixes, generally have the stress on the syllable found before these terminations. This is the case for both three and four syllable words.

Three Syllables: 3rd Syllable Stressed

Words with the following suffixes have the stress on the final syllable (the suffix): “ -ee ”, “ -eer ”, “ -ese ”, “ -ette ” or “ -ique ”.

Four Syllables: 2nd Syllable Stressed

The stress in four syllable words is either on the second or third syllable. The second syllable is generally stressed if the word ends in “ -cy ”, “ -ty ”, “ -phy ”, “ -gy ” or “ -al ”.

Four Syllables: 3rd Syllable Stressed

Words ending in “ -tion ”, “ -sion ” or “ -ic ” generally have the stress on the syllable found before these terminations. As notes above, this is the case for both three and four syllable words.

Compound Words

The stress in compound words depends on whether the word is a noun, adjective or verb. Compound nouns take the stress on the first word, adjectives and verbs on the second.

Compound nouns

Compound adjectives

Compound verbs

Phrasal Verbs

Phrasal verbs always have the stress on the second word or the preposition. As we will see below, this is an exception to the rules for sentence stress, where the stress is generally on the principle verb.

Ahora que hemos repasado los diferentes sonidos de inglés, debemos hablar de la acentuación de las sílabas y palabras o dicho de otra forma, el ritmo del inglés . Es importante tener en cuenta que el inglés es un idioma tiempo-tensionado . A diferencia del español, en el cual se da la misma cantidad de tiempo a cada sílaba, el inglés ajusta la sincronización de sílabas y palabras que van acentuadas y no acentuadas. En inglés, algunas sílabas son más largas y otras más cortas . Poniendo el acento tónico en ciertas sílabas y palabras, podemos entender mejor el significado de la palabra o la frase. La comprensión del acento tónico y de la entonación en inglés ayudará al principiante tanto a entender mejor el inglés como a ser mejor entendido.

Syllable Stress (La acentuación de sílabas)

Las palabras se componen de sílabas. Las sílabas son unidades del sonido que casi siempre tienen, con pocas excepciones, al menos un sonido vocal . En palabras de dos o más sílabas, una sílaba se acentúa mientras las demás se dicen rápidamente y sin énfasis.

Las únicas reglas fijas para la acentuación de las sílabas son: 1) las palabras sólo pueden tener un acento tónico y 2) siempre es una vocal la que lleva el acento tónico.

Curiosamente, palabras relacionadas entre sí, pueden tener acentuaciones diferentes (PHOto, phoTOgrapher, photoGRAPHic) y según donde pongamos el acento tónico en las palabras homógrafas, cambia el significado de la palabra (ver la nota abajo). De momento, lo importante es entender lo que significa la acentuación de las sílabas y conocer las pautas de la acentuación en inglés.

Nota: Algunos diccionarios indican la sílaba acentuada de una palabra con un apóstrofo ( ’ ) antes o después de la sílaba acentuada. En los ejemplos siguientes, se encuentra el apóstrofo antes de la sílaba acentuada.

One Syllable: Stressed (Una sílaba: Acentuada)

Lógicamente en las palabras de una sílaba ponemos el acento tónico en la única sílaba.

Two Syllables: 1st Syllable Stressed (Dos sílabas: 1ª sílaba acentuada)

En la mayoría de sustantivos y adjetivos de dos sílabas, es generalmente en la primera sílaba donde ponemos el acento tónico.

Two Syllables: 2nd Syllable Stressed (Dos sílabas: 2ª sílaba acentuada)

En los verbos de dos sílabas normalmente ponemos el acento tónico en la segunda sílaba.

Three Syllables: 1st Syllable Stressed (Tres sílabas: 1ª sílaba acentuada)

En la mayoría de palabras de tres sílabas (sustantivos, adjetivos o verbos) ponemos el acento tónico en la primera sílaba. En las palabras de tres sílabas terminadas en “ -er ”, “ -or ”, “ -ly ” o “ -y ”, generalmente ponemos el acento tónico en la primera sílaba.

Three Syllables: 2nd Syllable Stressed (Tres sílabas: 2ª sílaba acentuada)

Las palabras que terminan en “ -tion ”, “ -sion ”, “ -ic ” o “ -al ”, entre otros sufijos, generalmente llevan el acento tónico en la sílaba anterior a estas terminaciones. Este es el caso en palabras de tres y cuatro sílabas.

Three Syllables: 3rd Syllable Stressed (Tres sílabas: 3ª sílaba acentuada)

Las palabras terminadas con los sufijos “ -ee ”, “ -eer ”, “ -ese ”, “ -ette ” o “ -ique ”, llevan el acento tónico en la última sílaba.

Four Syllables: 2nd Syllable Stressed (Cuatro sílabas: 2ª sílaba acentuada)

En palabras de cuatro sílabas ponemos el acento tónico en la segunda o tercera sílaba. Generalmente se acentúa la segunda sílaba si la palabra termina con: “ -cy ”, “ -ty ”, “ -phy ”, “ -gy ” o “ -al ”.

Four Syllables: 3rd Syllable Stressed (Cuatro sílabas: 3ª sílaba acentuada)

Las palabras que terminan en “ -tion ”, “ -sion ” o “ -ic ” generalmente llevan el acento tónico en la sílaba anterior a estas terminaciones. Como hemos visto antes, este es el caso con palabras de tres y cuatro sílabas.

Compound Words (Palabras compuestas)

En las palabras compuestas el acento tónico depende de si la palabra es un sustantivo, un adjetivo o un verbo. En los sustantivos ponemos el acento tónico en la primera palabra, mientras que en los adjetivos y verbos lo ponemos en la segunda palabra.

Sustantivos compuestos

Adjetivos compuestos

Verbos compuestos

Phrasal Verbs (Verbos frasales)

Los verbos frasales siempre llevan el acento tónico en la segunda palabra, la preposición. Como veremos más adelante, ésto es una excepción a las reglas para la acentuación de las frases, donde el acento tónico generalmente se sitúa en el verbo principal.

stress syllable of homework

Word Stress Worksheets

Pre-Intermediate

  • Worksheet / Game

On the worksheet , students sort words into the correct columns according to their word stress pattern.

Each game sheet can be used to play three different games (Maze, Snap! and Pelmanism).

  • Teacher's Notes for Worksheets
  • Teacher's Notes for Games

The Teacher's Notes gives detailed instructions and answers.

H o w   M a n y   S y ll a bl e s

  • Syllable Dictionary

Syllable Rules

  • Teacher Resources

Syllables    Synonyms    Rhymes    Quiz

stress stress syllables

How many syllables in stress .

Divide stress into syllables:   stress Syllable stress:   stress How to pronounce stress :   stres How to say stress : pronounce syllables in stress

Cite This Source

Learn a New Word

Wondering why stress is 1 4 2 5 3 7 9 8 6  syllable?   Contact Us !   We'll explain.

1.  What is a syllable? 2.  How to count syllables. 3.  How to divide into syllables.

Synonyms for stress

  • flap hear the syllables in flap
  • weight hear the syllables in weight
  • demand hear the syllables in demand
  • drumming hear the syllables in drumming
  • pressure hear the syllables in pressure
  • demands hear the syllables in demands
  • highlight hear the syllables in highlight
  • emphasis hear the syllables in emphasis
  • underscore hear the syllables in underscore
  • emphasize hear the syllables in emphasize
  • accentuate hear the syllables in accentuate
  • aggravation hear the syllables in aggravation
  • accentuation hear the syllables in accentuation
  • overemphasize hear the syllables in overemphasize

What rhymes with stress

  • abs hear the syllables in abs
  • bless hear the syllables in bless
  • cess hear the syllables in cess
  • chess hear the syllables in chess
  • cress hear the syllables in cress
  • dress hear the syllables in dress
  • es hear the syllables in es
  • fess hear the syllables in fess
  • fests hear the syllables in fests
  • gess hear the syllables in gess
  • guess hear the syllables in guess
  • Hess hear the syllables in hess
  • Jess hear the syllables in jess
  • kess hear the syllables in kess
  • les hear the syllables in les
  • ls hear the syllables in ls
  • ness hear the syllables in ness
  • pos hear the syllables in pos
  • ques hear the syllables in ques
  • s hear the syllables in s
  • tress hear the syllables in tress
  • us hear the syllables in us
  • ws hear the syllables in ws
  • yes hear the syllables in yes
  • bess hear the syllables in bess
  • blesse hear the syllables in blesse
  • ches hear the syllables in ches
  • cmos hear the syllables in cmos
  • crests hear the syllables in crests
  • ers hear the syllables in ers
  • ess hear the syllables in ess
  • fesse hear the syllables in fesse
  • fs hear the syllables in fs
  • gless hear the syllables in gless
  • guests hear the syllables in guests
  • ins hear the syllables in ins
  • jess hear the syllables in jess
  • las hear the syllables in las
  • less hear the syllables in less
  • mess hear the syllables in mess
  • oas hear the syllables in oas
  • press hear the syllables in press
  • S hear the syllables in s
  • tess hear the syllables in tess
  • ts hear the syllables in ts
  • vs hear the syllables in vs
  • ye hear the syllables in ye
  • address hear the syllables in address
  • assess hear the syllables in assess
  • bequests hear the syllables in bequests
  • chessart hear the syllables in chessart
  • confess hear the syllables in confess
  • depress hear the syllables in depress
  • digress hear the syllables in digress
  • divests hear the syllables in divests
  • esse hear the syllables in esse
  • excessed hear the syllables in excessed
  • finesse hear the syllables in finesse
  • Hesse hear the syllables in hesse
  • Ines hear the syllables in ines
  • invests hear the syllables in invests
  • loess hear the syllables in loess
  • noblesse hear the syllables in noblesse
  • oppress hear the syllables in oppress
  • profess hear the syllables in profess
  • protests hear the syllables in protests
  • redress hear the syllables in redress
  • repress hear the syllables in repress
  • retests hear the syllables in retests
  • success hear the syllables in success
  • suppress hear the syllables in suppress
  • undress hear the syllables in undress
  • aggress hear the syllables in aggress
  • attests hear the syllables in attests
  • caress hear the syllables in caress
  • compress hear the syllables in compress
  • contests hear the syllables in contests
  • digests hear the syllables in digests
  • distress hear the syllables in distress
  • egress hear the syllables in egress
  • excess hear the syllables in excess
  • express hear the syllables in express
  • fluoresce hear the syllables in fluoresce
  • impress hear the syllables in impress
  • infests hear the syllables in infests
  • largesse hear the syllables in largesse
  • molests hear the syllables in molests
  • obsess hear the syllables in obsess
  • possess hear the syllables in possess
  • progress hear the syllables in progress
  • recess hear the syllables in recess
  • regress hear the syllables in regress
  • requests hear the syllables in requests
  • simplesse hear the syllables in simplesse
  • suggests hear the syllables in suggests
  • transgress hear the syllables in transgress
  • unless hear the syllables in unless
  • acquiesce hear the syllables in acquiesce
  • convalesce hear the syllables in convalesce
  • dispossess hear the syllables in dispossess
  • reassess hear the syllables in reassess
  • repossess hear the syllables in repossess
  • coalesce hear the syllables in coalesce
  • convalesced hear the syllables in convalesced
  • nonetheless hear the syllables in nonetheless
  • reinvests hear the syllables in reinvests
  • nevertheless hear the syllables in nevertheless
  • successary hear the syllables in successary
  • possessable hear the syllables in possessable
  • repossessable hear the syllables in repossessable
  • addressability hear the syllables in addressability

Parents, Teachers, Students Do you have a grammar question? Need help finding a syllable count? Want to say thank you?

Contact Us!

How Many Syllables, Syllable Dictionary, and Syllable Counter Workshop are all trademarks of How Many Syllables.

About   |   News   |   Terms   |   Privacy   |   Advertise   |   Contact Terms   |   Privacy

© 2009-2024 How Many Syllables. All rights reserved.

About  |  News  |  Contact

© 2009-2024 How Many Syllables. All rights reserved.

IMAGES

  1. Homework Word Study Pattern: Stressed Syllables

    stress syllable of homework

  2. The stress syllable

    stress syllable of homework

  3. Stressed Syllables Worksheet 2 Worksheet for 6th

    stress syllable of homework

  4. Stressed Syllable

    stress syllable of homework

  5. Stress of two syllable words : English ESL worksheets pdf & doc

    stress syllable of homework

  6. 10 English Pronunciation Practice Exercises & Printables

    stress syllable of homework

VIDEO

  1. Syllable Stress: Vocabulary Related to Agriculture

COMMENTS

  1. How to Stress Syllables in English

    In English, there are a number of word syllable stress patterns. Counting Syllables You can check how many syllables a word has by putting your hand under your chin and saying a word. Each time your chin moves to make a vowel sound, count a syllable. For example, the word difficult moves your chin three times.

  2. How many syllables in homework?

    Homework has 2 syllables and the stress is on the first syllable. Advertising Syllables in homework How many syllables in homework? 2 syllables Divide homework into syllables: home-work Stressed syllable in homework: home -work Secondary stressed syllable: home- work How to pronounce homework: howmwerk IPA-notation: howˈmwɚˌk Say it: Spell it:

  3. PDF Chapter 5 Word Stress

    Stress refers to increased prominence on one or more syllables in a word.1 Depending on the language, stress is diagnosed in different ways: through a combination of physical properties, speaker intuitions, and phonological properties such as segmental constraints and processes.

  4. 3 Chapter 3

    STRESS-TIMED LANGUAGES AND THREE KINDS OF SYLLABLE STRESS English is a stress-timed language, which means that the syllables in English vary in length, loudness, and vowel quality. This is in contrast to syllable-timed languages, which have syllables that do not vary as much as English syllables.

  5. PDF Syllable Stress Rule 1 Rule 2 Rule 3

    Rule 1. When a two syllable word can be both a verb and a noun or adjective, the verb form is usually stressed on the second syllable, and the noun or adjective form is stressed on the first syllable. Example.

  6. Word stress

    Conclusion Why word stress is important Mistakes in word stress are a common cause of misunderstanding in English. Here are the reasons why: Stressing the wrong syllable in a word can make the word very difficult to hear and understand; for example, try saying the following words: o O b'tell O o hottle And now in a sentence:

  7. Lesson 11

    Lesson 11 - Syllables and word stress We are moving beyond the phonetic sounds of English now. We're going to focus on some other important parts of pronunciation: stress rhythm intonation A good way to practice these aspects of pronunciation is to do a practice called shadowing or parroting.

  8. Syllables and Stress

    English Stress Patterns When thinking about syllables and stress in English, usually we find that one syllable of a word is stressed more than the others. There are always one or more stressed syllables within a word and this special stress placement helps words and sentences develop their own rhythm.

  9. Syllables and Word Stress

    1. Question Read these phonetic transcriptions of words you saw in the lesson. Which one has the most syllables? /jʊːnɪˈvɜːsɪti/ /ˈbrekfəst/ /ʌnˈkʌmftəbəl/ /saɪənˈtɪfɪk/ /fəˈtɒgrəfiː/ Read the Full Script In this class, you can learn about syllables and word stress in English.

  10. ELT Concourse: word stress

    A: Did you say biographical? B: No. I said geographical! In this, the first syllable is now taking the main stress and the pronunciation of the 'o' assumes the form of the 'o' in go or show ( /ɡəʊ/, /ʃəʊ/ ). The secondary stress has now moved to the third syllable. Is stress entirely random?

  11. Introduction to syllable stress

    inspiration Stressed, Unstressed, and Secondarily-Stressed Syllables Spoken English follows a loose, rhythmic pattern of soft beats. Stressed syllables form the underlying basis of that rhythm. Unstressed and secondarily-stressed syllables are necessary off-beats that fill the space between stressed syllables in spoken English.

  12. Intonation and Stress in English

    Kenneth Beare. Updated on January 31, 2018. Correct intonation and stress are the key to speaking English fluently with good pronunciation. Intonation and stress refer to the music of the English language. Words that are stressed are key to understanding and using the correct intonation brings out the meaning.

  13. Syllables and Word Stress

    In this lesson, you can learn about syllables and stress in English.Do you know what stress means? It's one of the most important pronunciation points in Eng...

  14. Syllable stress

    Try some activities about word stress in three-syllable words. B1-B2 5-10 minutes; Independent Consonant sounds. This pronunciation and listening activity practises the pronunciation of three consonant sounds. Listen to the different words and decide which consonant sound you hear. B1-B2

  15. English: A Stress-Timed Language

    English is a stress-timed language. That means some syllables will be longer, and some will be shorter. Many languages, however, are syllable-timed, which means each syllable has the same length. Examples of syllable-timed languages: French, Spanish, Cantonese. So, when an American hears a sentence of English, with each syllable having the same ...

  16. How to Stress a Syllable :: The Shape of Stress

    So the shape of a stressed syllable has the pitch gliding up and the pitch gliding down. Let's take for example the word 'hello'. Hello, -llo. Do you hear how the change in pitch isn't abrupt. It slides from lower to higher and lower again. This is very different from hello, hello, an abrupt pitch change of two flat ideas. Hell-o, hell-o.

  17. 1.4: Syllable Stress

    Listen to the speaker read the words in the figure below. Syllable Stress Recording.m4a. Figure 1.4.1 1.4. 1: The image gives examples of syllable stress in two, three, and four-syllable words. Two-syllable words: apple, repeat, seven. Three-syllable words: ladybug, delicious, understand. Four-syllable words: watermelon, avocado, ability.

  18. Is it time to get rid of homework? Mental health experts weigh in

    Emmy Kang, mental health counselor at Humantold, says studies have shown heavy workloads can be "detrimental" for students and cause a "big impact on their mental, physical and emotional health ...

  19. ESL Word Stress Lesson Plan

    If necessary, review the meaning of noun, verb, and syllable. Show the students a chart similar to the one included with this lesson plan and review the rules for where to put the stress in a word ...

  20. Syllable Stress: English lesson.

    The only fixed rules for syllable stress are: 1) words can only have one stress and 2) the stress is always on a vowel. Interestingly, related words can have different syllable stresses (PHOto, phoTOgrapher, photoGRAPHic) and the stress pattern of homographs change their meaning (see note below).

  21. Word Stress Worksheets

    On the worksheet, students sort words into the correct columns according to their word stress pattern. Each game sheet can be used to play three different games (Maze, Snap! and Pelmanism). The Teacher's Notes gives detailed instructions and answers. Worksheets to practise word stress. Practical ESL pronunciation worksheets and printables for ...

  22. Why Homework is Bad: Stress and Consequences

    Less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor. The researchers asked students whether they experienced physical symptoms of stress, such as headaches, exhaustion, sleep ...

  23. How many syllables in stress?

    How many syllables in stress? 7 4 8 6 9 5 1 3 2 syllable. Divide stress into syllables: stress Syllable stress: stress How to pronounce stress: stres How to say stress: pronounce syllables in stress. Cite This Source. x