Stress

Stress is the degree of emphasis, or force,

or accent we put on certain words or on
certain syllables within words.
It is to give emphasis to a word or to
contrast one to another and to identify the
syntactic link between the words, for
instance, noun and verb.
Word Stress
Every word of two or more syllables in
English has a stress pattern. One syllable
is more important than the other syllables.

Word Stress
1. Primary stress
The primary stress is put on the more
important syllable of words. It is pronounced
longer and louder than the other syllables. The
voice falls from a high note to a low note on
that important syllable. The stress mark for this
is e.g. record.

It is the stronger degree of stress.

It gives the final stressed syllable.

It is very important in compound words.

Word Stress
2. Secondary stress
The second important syllable of words is said on a high
level note (less than the first important syllable). The
voice does not fall to a low level note. The secondary
stress may come before the primary stress. The notation
for this is ^ e.g. understand.
It is the weaker of two degrees of stress in the
pronunciation of a word.
It gives the other lexically stressed syllables in a word.
It is important primarily in long words with several
syllables

Word Stress
3. Tertiary stress
The syllable which receives the tertiary stress is
pronounced in a normal level note. The notation
for this is . e.g. engineer.
It includes the fully unstressed vowels. An
unstressed vowel is the vowel sound that forms
the syllable peak of a syllable that has no lexical
stress.

Word Stress
. The weakest stress
The syllable which receives the least
stress is sometimes muted. The notation
for this is . This notation is often
omitted, e.g. inter'national.

What determines the stressed and unstressed words?

The stressed and unstressed words are

commonly determined by the following
factors:
1. The value of the vowels in the words.
There are two English vowels which occur in
weak-stressed syllables, namely // and /i/.
Record / rekd/ a noun
reCORD /ri kd/ a verb

What determines the stressed and unstressed words?

2. Some suffixes are always stressed in English,

and when they are suffixed to the words they
move their stress to the syllable before them
-ation
operate operation
-itious
fiction
fictious
-icious delicious
-acious fallacy
fallacious
-ition
transit
transition
-ician
music
musician

What determines the stressed and unstressed words?

3. Some suffixes are unstressed, but the

syllable before the suffix is always
stressed.
-ity
local
locality
possible
possibility
-ic
vocal
vocalic
hero
heroic
-ify
solid
solidify
pacific
pacify

What determines the stressed and unstressed words?

4. Words of the two syllables which can be

nouns or verbs. Nouns of two syllables
usually have the stress on the first syllable
while verbs in the second.
nouns
verbs
reject
reject
progress
progress
subject
subject

1. Verb having two syllables

a. if the second syllable of the verb has a long vowel
or a diphthong, or if it ends with more than one
consonant, the second syllable is stressed.
Examples: unknown, apply, complete, etc.
b. If the final syllable contains a short vowel and one
or no final consonant, the first syllable is stressed.
Examples: butter, father, open, borrow, etc
2. Phrasal Verb
the stressed is put on the preposition
Examples: put on, sit down, come out, go away,
etc.

1. The first syllable is stressed if the second syllable has a

short vowel
Examples: money, worker, officer, etc
2. The second syllable is stressed if the noun consists of
three syllables and the middle syllable has long vowel,
diphthong, or ends with more than one consonant.
Examples: enjoyment, addition, development, etc.
3. If it is composed of noun + noun, the stress is on the first
element.
Examples: fireman, housewife, newsreader, etc
4. If it is composed of adjective + noun, the stress is on the
second element
Examples: black order, loud speaker, young learner, etc.

1. The stress is on the first syllable if the

second syllable has a short vowel and
one or no final consonants
Examples: busy, happy, beautiful, etc.
2. The stress is on the second syllable if the
second syllable has a long vowel,
diphthong, or more than one consonants.
Examples: interested, important,
inductive, etc

1.When the words are attached by the suffixes;

ain, ee, eer, ese, the stress is put on the
suffix
Examples: entertain, interviewee, engineer,
Makassarese, etc.
2. The stress is put on the last syllable, if the
words are attached by the suffixes; ion, ious,
ity, ive, graphy
Examples: application, possibility, intensive,
etc