STRESS IN SIMPLE WORDS

Presented by : Mira & Fernandez

 The nature of English stress
• Roach (2009:73) defines stress as the degree of force used in the
pronounciation of a certain syllable.
• In addition, stress is also defined from two perspectives : production
and perception (Roach, 2009 : 73).
• Concerning the previous point, Roach (2009:73) indicates that the
essential characteristic of stressed syllable is prominence.
• We can study stress from the points of view of production
and of perception.
• They are obviously closely related but are not identical.
• The production of stress is generally believed to depend on
the speaker using more muscular energy that is used for
unstressed syllables.
• From the perceptual point of view, all stressed syllables have
one characteristic in common, that is prominence.
• Prominence, then, is produced by four main factors :
Loudness
Length
Pitch
Quality
Loudness

• A component of prominence.
bɑːbɑːbɑːbɑː
• If one syllable is made louder than the others, it will be heard as
stressed.
• Stressed syllables are all louder than unstressed ones.
Length
bɑːbɑːbɑːbɑː

• One of the affective component in the prominence.

• A stressed syllable has a longer duration and strong vowels
than unstressed syllable.
• If one of the syllables is made longer than the others, there is
quite a strong tendency for that syllable to be heard as
stressed.
Pitch
bɑːbɑːbɑːbɑː
• Pitch is a very important part of perceptual characteristic of speech
sound.
• Each syllable of the word is produced either as low or high pitched.
• Stressed syllable is resulted as higher pitch which makes it prominent.
• Pitch in speech is closely related to the frequency of vibration of the
vocal folds and to the musical notion of low- and high-pitched notes.
 Rules of Word Stress in English
• One word has only one stress.
• We can only stress vowels, not consonants.
 Levels of stress
• Primary stress
/əˈraʊnd/

- Stress always falls clearly on the last syllable and the first
syllable is weak.
- It is characterized by prominence and basically by a rise-fall
tone.
 Levels of stress
• Secondary stress

/ˌfəʊtəˈgræfɪk/ /ˌænθrəˈpɒləʤi/

- It is weaker than primary stress but stronger at the first

syllable of ‘around’.
- It is usually represented in transcription with a low mark ‘ˌ’.
 Levels of stress
• Unstressed
- The absence of prominence.
- Unstressed syllables containing ə, ɪ , i, u or a syllabic consonant
will sound less prominent than an unstressed syllable containing
some other vowel.
- Unstressed syllables normally have the short closed vowels /i/ or
/u/ and the schwa.
- For example, the first syllable of ‘poetic’ is more prominent than
the first syllable of ‘pathetic’.
/pəʊˈetɪk / / pəˈθetɪk/
 Levels of stress
• Tertiary stress
- It is very rare in English language.
- The word ‘indivisibility’ which is a polysyllabic word shows four different
levels :
i. The syllable ‘bɪl’ is the strongest as it is carrying the primary stress.
ii. The initial ‘ɪn’ has secondary stress.
iii. The third ‘vɪz’ has a level of stress which is weaker than those two but
stronger than the 2nd , 4th , 6th and 7th syllable (which are all unstressed)
/ˌɪndɪˌvɪzəˈbɪləti /
 Rules
that can guide you to
understand where to put
the stress
 Whether the word is morphologically simple, or whether it is complex.
- either of containing one or more affixes (suffixes or prefixes).
- being a compound word.

 What is the grammatical category of the word?

- noun,, adjective, verb etc.

 How many syllables the word has ?

 What the phonological structure of those syllable is?

- either it is strong or weak category.
Rule 1 : Stress on the first syllable
• The stress is on the first syllable for nouns and adjectives.
Example :

present /ˈpreznt/
record /ˈrekɔːd/
export /ˈekspɔːt/
slender /ˈslendə/
happy /ˈhæpɪ/
clever /ˈklevə/
Rule 2 : Stress on the second syllable
• The stress is on the second syllable for verbs.

Example

present /preˈznt/
record /rɪˈkɔːd/
export /ɛksˈpɔːt/
 Strong syllable
• A syllable peak which is a long vowel or diphthong, with or without a
coda.
i. die /daɪ/
ii. heart /hɑːt/
iii. see /siː/

• A syllable peak which is a short vowel, followed by at least one

consonant.
I. bat /bæt/
II. much /mʌʧ/
III. pull /pʊl/
 Weak syllable
• A syllable peak which consist of one of the vowels and no coda
except when the vowel is /ə/.
• Weak syllables are always unstressed.
• Syllabic consonants are also weak.
fa in sofa /ˈsəʊfə / flu in influence /ɪnflʊˈəns/
en in sudden /ˈsʌdn/ zy in lazy /ˈleɪzi/
• The vowel /ɪ/ may also be the peak of weak syllable if it preceeds
before a consonant that is initial in the syllable that follows it.
bi in herbicide ˈhəːbɪsaɪd e in event /ɪˈvent/
 Two-syllable words
• Either first or second syllable is stressed, not both.
• There is a general tendency for verbs to be stressed nearer the end of
a word while for nouns to be stressed nearer the beginning of a word.
• Verbs : first syllable – stressed , final syllable – weak

Verbs
enter ˈentə
envy ˈenvi
open ˈəʊpən
equal ˈiːkwəl
 i) Verbs
 Two-syllable words :

If the second syllable of the verb has a long vowel ordiphthong,

or if it ends with more than one consonant, that second syllable
is stressed.
apply əˈplaɪ
arrive əˈraɪv
attract əˈtrækt
interrupt ˌɪntəˈrʌpt
interact ˌɪntərˈækt
 Two-syllable words :

• Final syllable contains a short vowel and one(or no) final

consonant, the first syllable is stressed.
• If the final syllable is weak, then the first syllable is stressed.
enter ˈəntə
envy ˈənvi
open ˈəʊpən
equal ˈiːkwəl
 Two-syllable words :
If the word contains əʊ , the final syllable is unstressed.

follow ˈfɒləʊ
borrow ˈbɒrəʊ
 Three-syllable words

If the final syllable contains a long vowel or a diphthong or

ends with more than one consonant or strong, that final
syllable will be stressed.
entertain ˌəntəˈteɪn
resurrect ˌrzəˈrekt
 Three-syllable words
If the last syllable is weak, then it will be unstressed. Then, the
stress mark will be placed on the preceding syllable.

encounter ɪnˈkaʊntə
determine dɪˈtɜːmɪn
Three-syllable words :
If both the second and third syllables are weak, then the stress
falls on the initial syllable.

parody ˈpærədi
monitor ˈmɒnɪtə
 ii) Nouns/Adjectives
According to Peter Roach (1993, p. 90), nouns need different rules for
placing stress.
Two-syllable words :
If the second syllable contains a short vowel, the stress is fall on
the first syllable unless the first syllable is weak and the second
syllable is strong.
money ˈmʌni divan dɪˈvæn
product ˈprɒdʌkt balloon bəˈluːn
larynx ˈlærɪŋks design dɪˈzaɪn
Three-syllable words :
• The general tendency is for stress to fall on the first syllable
unless it is weak.
• If the final syllable contains a short vowel and the middle syllable
contains a short vowel and ends with not more than one
consonant, both final and middle syllables are unstressed and the
first syllable is stressed.

quantity ˈkwɒntɪti emperor ˈempərə

custody ˈkʌstədi enmity ˈenmɪti
Three-syllable words :
If the first syllable is weak, then the stress is placed on the next
syllable.

• If the final syllable contains a short vowel or /əʊ /, it is

unstressed.
mimosa mɪˈməʊzə
potato pəˈteɪtəʊ
Three-syllable words :
If the first syllable is weak, then the stress is placed on the next
syllable.
• If the syllable preceding the final syllable contains a long vowel
or diphthong or it ends with more than one consonant, that
middle syllable will be stressed.

disaster dɪˈzɑːstə
synopsis sɪˈnɒpsɪs
• Adjectives : if first syllable is weak, then the second syllable is
stressed.
• Two-syllable simple adjectives are stressed according to the
same rule.
lovely ˈlʌvli divine dɪˈvaɪn
even ˈiːvən correct kəˈrekt
hollow ˈhɒləʊ alive əˈlaɪv
• As with most stress rules, there are exceptions for some words
because the words end with strong syllables but are stressed
on the first syllable.
honest /ˈɒnɪst/ perfect /pəˈfɛkt/ - V
/ˈpɜːfɪkt/ - A/N
• The above-mentioned rules can be equally applied to other
two or three syllable stressed words.
• Stress is placed on the last syllable in case of most words with
following endings :
…ette cigarette ˌsɪgəˈrɛt
…oon cartoon kɑːˈtuːn
…oo shampoo ʃæmˈpuː
…ique technique tekˈniːk
…eer engineer enʤɪˈnɪə
…ee refugee ˌrɛfju(ː)ˈʤiː
…esque picturesque ˌpɪkʧəˈrɛsk
…ain entertain ˌɛntəˈteɪn
 References
Roach, Peter. English Phonetics and Phonology: a Practical Course.
Cambridge University Press, 2009.