Word stress
Word stress is not an optional extra that you
can add to the English language if you want. It is part of the language! English speakers use word stress to
communicate rapidly and accurately, even in difficult conditions. If, for
example, you do not hear a word clearly, you can still understand the word
because of the position of the stress.
Think again about the two words photograph and photographer. Now imagine that you are
speaking to somebody by telephone over a very bad line. You cannot hear
clearly. In fact, you hear only the first two syllables of one of these
words, photo... Which word
is it, photograph or photographer? Of course, with word stress you will know
immediately which word it is because in reality you will hear either PHOto... or phoTO... So without hearing the
whole word, you probably know what the word is (PHOto...graph or phoTO...grapher).
When you learn a new word, you should also learn
its stress pattern. If you keep a vocabulary book, make a note to show which
syllable is stressed. If you do not know, you can look in a dictionary. All
dictionaries give the phonetic spelling of a word. This is where they show
which syllable is stressed, usually with an apostrophe (') just before or just after the stressed syllable.
A stressed syllable has five characteristics:
It
It
●
is stronger
●
is longer
●
is louder
●
has a higher pitch
●
uses larger facial movement
Generalities
There are some guidelines about where to
put the stress on words.
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.
Rule 1:
Here are some general tendencies for word stress
in English:
Word
|
Type of word
|
Tendency
|
Exceptions
|
apple
table happy |
two-syllable
nouns and adjectives
|
stress
on the first syllable
O o apple |
hotel
lagoon |
suspect
import insult |
words
which can be used as both
nouns and verbs |
the
noun has stress on the first syllable
O o "You are the suspect!" the verb has stress on the second syllable o O "I suspect you." |
respect
witness |
hairbrush
football |
compound
nouns
|
fairly
equally balanced but with stronger stress
on the first part O o hairbrush |
In Practice
Students can be alarmed when they meet words which are
similar but have different stress patterns:
O
o
equal
|
o O
oo
equality
|
O o o
equalize
|
o
o o O o
equalization
|
A useful thing you can do is to help students
see connections with other word families. Patterns can usually be found, for
example:
O
o final neutral
|
o
O oo finality neutrality
|
O
o o finalize neutralize
|
o
o o O o finalization neutralization
|
There are some recognized differences in word
stress which depend on the variety of English being used, for example:
o
o O o Caribbean aluminum (British English)
|
o
O o o Caribbean aluminum (American English)
|
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.
Rule 2:
Words end in 'ATE'
Graduate – verbà sounds like 8
Graduate -- adjective or
nounà will sound like 'it'
Practice: estimate,
articulate, negotiate, calculate,
Rule 3:
/tʃaɪˈniz dʒæp əˈniz pɔr tʃəˈgiz
●
Chinese Japanese Portuguese
●
Pioneer volunteer engineer
●
Antique boutique critique technique
æk əˈdɛm ɪk ˌri əˈlɪs tɪk
●
Academic realistic electric
●
Strategic optimistic pacific terrific
Rule 4:
Reduced forms:
Madam
Problem
Symptom
Album
O'clock
Doctor
Photography
Words that sound the same:
Atom -- Adam (a 't' between two vowels sounds a 'd’)
Lesson -- lessen
Caller -- collar
Profit -- prophet
Seller -- cellar
Exercise:
Economy develop
Memory Europe
Control information
Contain commercial
Sentence
Stress
Content and Function Words
Content words carry the meaning and function words don't. Function words help the structure. They may possibly help with the structure of some grammatical point. For example, the verb have may be a content word in 'I have a car.' but it can also be a function word in a sentence 'I have read the War and Peace'. Hence in the second sentence the word doesn't carry the meaning but it helps the grammatical structure.
Study the following sentences.
Teachers teach students.
The teachers teach students.
The teachers teach the students.
The teachers will teach the students.
The teachers will have taught the students.
Are they pronounced at the same speed? Which sentence includes only content words?
The first sentence includes only content words. Function words are gradually added. The function words of the last sentence are: the, will, have, the.
Teachers teach students.
The teachers teach students.
The teachers teach the students.
The teachers will teach the students.
The teachers will have taught the students.
E.g.
I will driving to the market to buy something to eat.
Rule 1:
The second content word has more stress in the
sentence.
I got a new job.
Do me a favour.
See you later.
Did
you get it? vs did you get the job?
The speed between all
stressed syllables remains the same from the first to the last sentence. An ESL
instructor can clap hands or use the metronome to show the same speed. The
function words are gradually added. The last sentence will appear faster because
there are more words but the speed between the stressed syllables will be
constant. The function words will be contracted and will carry no stress. In
Canadian English this speed is generally 0.6 seconds but, of course, varies.
Where in relation to the suffixes
is the stress in the above words? Some stress is predictable based on the
suffix added. Study the following document called Suffixes to check your answers and learn the rules.
Some words shift the stress
depending on the Parts of Speech. For example, a word record can be a noun or a verb. The
noun will be stressed on the first syllable while the verb will be
stressed on the second. If a student doesn't stress the correct
syllable, he/she might be misunderstood. Alternatively, if a student is
not aware of such changes, he/she might misuderstand others. Click here
for the list of nouns and verbs that function the same way as the word record.
Congruent Pattern
To further emphasize and practice the sentence stress, instructors may choose to introduce the congruent pattern. Instructor should develop should develop a set of sentences
that follow the same stress pattern. In other words, each syllable in the sentence will be either stressed, unstressed or it will carry the main sentence
stress. In the
example below, you can see that the words I, to, a are unstressed; the words want, buy, car are stressed and the word car carries the major stress of the
sentence.
In summary, the general rule is that if the last word of the unit is a noun or a verb, it's a stressed syllable will carry the major unit/sentence stress. Sometimes, based on its importance, the stress will lie on an adjective or an adverb. Notice that in British English the pattern may be different. Note that this pattern is not contrastive.
In summary, the general rule is that if the last word of the unit is a noun or a verb, it's a stressed syllable will carry the major unit/sentence stress. Sometimes, based on its importance, the stress will lie on an adjective or an adverb. Notice that in British English the pattern may be different. Note that this pattern is not contrastive.
Contrastive Stress
If a speaker wants to contrast the meaning of a specific word in a sentence then they would stress that specific word regardless the usual patter mentioned. This would also change the meaning
Consider the following:
Mary wants
to buy a car. - the word Mary is stressed - implies
that Mary, not John wants to buy a car.
Mary wants to buy a car. - the word car is stressed - implies
that Mary wants to buy a car, not a truck.
Study the following examples.
Which explanation sentence corresponds to the sentence with
the highlighted word?
a) Tony bought a
new car.
|
b) Christa made a coffee cake.
|
i) Tony didn't steal
it, he bought it.
|
i) Christa made a cake,
not a pie.
|
ii) Tony bought a new
car, not an old one.
|
ii) Christa made a
cake, she didn't buy it.
|
iii) Tony ,not his
father, bought a car
|
iii) Christa, not her
friend, made the cake.
|
iv) Tony bought a car,
not a truck.
|
iv) Christa made a
coffee cake, not a fruit cake.
|
c) Mary is driving to Montreal
tomorrow.
|
d) Irina painted a portrait of her
daughter.
|
i) Mary is driving, not
flying, to Montreal.
|
i) Irina, not her
daughter, painted the portrait.
|
ii) Mary, not her
husband, is driving to Montreal.
|
ii) Irina painted a
portrait, not a landscape.
|
iii) Mary is driving to
Montreal, not to Ottawa.
|
iii) Irina painted her
daughter.
|
iv) Mary is driving to
Montreal tomorrow, not next week.
|
iv) Irina painted the
portrait, she didn't have it painted.
|
