Word Stress

THEME: “Word Stress”
INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF FINANCE TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE
ISFT – 2023
Student: Jo`raboyeva Nilufar
Group: FLB-02
Teacher: Yo`ldosheva Nasiba.
SELF STUDY

Word Stress

• English is a stress timed language

The English language is often referred to as stress-timed. Stress in a spoken sentence occurs at regular intervals and the time to say something depends on the number of stressed syllables rather than the number of syllables itself.

• 1 2 3 4
• 1 and 2 and 3 and 4
• 1 and a 2 and a 3 and a 4
• 1 and then a 2 and then a 3 and then a 4

Word Stress

• A word stress means a prominent syllable

word	pattern
tea.cher	• .
beau.ti.ful	• . .
un.der.stand	. . •
con.ti.nue	. • .

How to pronounce word stress?

When a syllable is stressed, it is pronounced

• longer in duration
• higher in pitch
• louder in volume

How do you say teacher?

Longer	teeeeeeeeeeee cher
Higher	tea
		cher
Louder	TEA cher
All three combined	TEEEEEEEEEEE
			cher

Word Stress Rule

Word type		Where is the stress?	Examples
Two syllables	Nouns	on the first syllable	center object flower
	Verbs	on the last syllable	release admit arrange
Compound	Nouns (N + N) (Adj. + N)	on the first part	desktop pencil case bookshelf greenhouse
	Adjectives (Adj. + P.P.)	on the last part (the verb part)	well-meant hard-headed old-fashioned
	Verbs (prep. + verb)		understand overlook outperform

Word type		Where is the stress?	Examples
Phrasal Verbs		on the particle	turn off buckle up hand out
Word with added ending	-ic	the syllable before the ending	economic Geometric electrical
	-tion, -cian, -sion		Technician graduation cohesion
	-phy, -gy, -try, -cy, -fy, -al	the third from the last syllable	Photography biology geometry
	-meter		Parameter Thermometer barometer

Ultimate

• Ultimate
• the last syllable of a word
• Penult
• the second-to-last syllable of a word
• Antepenult
• the third-to-last syllable of a word
• Pre-antepenultimate
• fourth-to-last

A Few Related Terms

Sentence Stress in English

• Sentence stress is the music of spoken English. Like word stress, sentence stress can help you to understand spoken English, especially when spoken fast.
• Sentence stress is what gives English its rhythm or "beat". You remember that word stress is accent on one syllable within a word. Sentence stress is accent on certain words within a sentence.

Most sentences have two types of word:
Content words are the key words of a sentence. They are the important words that carry the meaning or sense.
Structure words are not very important words. They are small, simple words that make the sentence correct grammatically.
If you remove the structure words from a sentence, you will probably still understand the sentence.

SELL

CAR

GONE

FRANCE

Imagine that you receive this telegram message:

Will

you

SELL

my

CAR

because

I’ve

GONE

to

FRANCE

SELL

my

CAR

I’ve

GONE

to

FRANCE

Rules for Sentence Stress in English

The basic rules of sentence stress are:

• content words are stressed
• structure words are unstressed
• the time between stressed words is always the same

Content words - stressed

Words carrying the meaning	Example
main verbs	SELL, GIVE, EMPLOY
nouns	CAR, MUSIC, MARY
adjectives	RED, BIG, INTERESTING
adverbs	QUICKLY, LOUDLY, NEVER
negative auxiliaries	DON'T, AREN'T, CAN'T

Structure words - unstressed

Words for correct grammar	Example
pronouns	he, we, they
prepositions	on, at, into
articles	a, an, the
conjunctions	and, but, because
auxiliary verbs	do, be, have, can, must

Level of Stress

• Primary stress refers to the heaviest emphasis given to a syllable in a word when spoken in isolation or placed on the most important syllable of an important word in context.

CLEArance stress is on first syllable

eVAporate stress is on second syllable

inteRRUPT stress is on third syllable

2. Secondary stress invovles giving emphasis to a lesser degree to a syllable but still great enough to constitute stressing.

cupCAKE secondary stress is in on second syllable

PHOtographic secondary stress is on first syllable

3- Tertiary (weak syllable) Stress is the amount of emphasis needed to preserve the normal vowel quality without giving it the emphasis of primary or secondary stress.

3- Tertiary (weak syllable) Stress is the amount of emphasis needed to preserve the normal vowel quality without giving it the emphasis of primary or secondary stress.

Democratic , Organization

• Unstressed Syllables containing / I / , /ə/ and /ʊ/ will sound less prominent than an unstressed syllable containing other vowels

4- Quaternary syllable

Reduced syllables as in about /əbaut/