•A multi-syllable word has a prominent syllable. This is called a stressed syllable.

Stressed syllable is longer in duration, higher in pitch, and louder in volume.

Duration is the primary attribute to the prominence of a syllable.

•Except for the compounds, stressed syllables in words with more than 2 syllables never stand next to each other

(Stressed syllables and weak syllables alternate).

When a word has more than one syllable, one is more prominent than the others. When this happens, we say that the syllable has a stress, or that it is stressed. In the following examples, stressed syllables are expressed with boldface.

wordpattern

tea.cher • .

beau.ti.ful • . .

un.der.stand . . •

con.ti.nue . • .

con.ti.nu.a.tion . • . • .

black.board • •

When a syllable is stressed, it is pronounced;longer in duration

higher in pitch, and

louder in volume

Exercise Group the following words so that they match the patterns in the table.

word list

infamous banana calendar statement

dinosaur imply cluster kingdom

enjoyment mountain eternal countless

excel passage before defeated

begin arrive worry history

pattern • . . • • . . . • .

word

the nouns typically have the first syllable stressed, whereas verbs have the stressed second syllable. 90% two-syllable nouns, and 60% two-syllable verbs follow this pattern.Look at the following three syllable words. Consider the stress patterns.

Three-syllable words

• . . . • . • . •

in.stru.ment com.mer.cial ar.ti.choke

ca.len.dar va.nil.la hur.ri.cane

cu.ri.ous de.ve.lop ap.pe.tite

sen.ti.ment as.to.nish cro.co.dile

do.cu.ment op.po.nent con.gre.gate

Basically, stressed words are considered CONTENT WORDSsuch as

Nouns e.g. kitchen, Peter

(most) principal verbs e.g. visit, construct

Adjectives e.g. beautiful, interesting

Adverbs e.g. often, carefully

Non-stressed words are considered FUNCTION WORDSsuch 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

Using suffixes to predict stress   (A)  Stress the suffix itself:

   - ee 

 employee        refugee            trainee          referee

 - eer

 engineer          career             volunteer 

 - ese

 Chinese          Japanese        Portuguese

 - ique 

 unique             antique            technique

Stress the syllable immediately before the suffix:  

- ial   memorial        financial             artificial               essential 

 - ual  visual              unusual             intellectual             individual

 - ian  Canadian       vegetarian        pedestrian            politician

 - sion  explosion        occasion          conclusion            permission 

 - tion  definition         production           situation            qualification

ient    ancient             sufficient              efficient             deficient          

 - cious  delicious          conscious         suspicious           judicious

 - tious   ambitious         cautious           superstitious        conscientious

 - ic   academic        energetic            fantastic               terrific           

- ible edible                 flexible              incredible            

impossible  

- ity  ability                 necessity            publicity              possibility     

 - ify classify              terrify                  humidify             

personify        

 - logy   biology             sociology            anthropology       psychology

 - graphy    geography      autobiography     photography        pornography

 - meter  kilometer         parameter          speedometer        thermometer