General guidelines on word stress

Phonemes and allophones

Speech sounds are vibrations that travel through a medium (usually air) by displacing the molecules of this medium. Depending on the consistency of the given medium, the sounds travel at different speeds and have varying intensities. This is why we sound differently when we speak under normal circumstances from when we try to talk under water and also why it is completely impossible for speech sounds to travel through a vacuum. Speech sounds travel in the shape of waves, similar to the ripples that arise when we throw an object – such as a stone – into the water. The degree of displacement corresponds to the height (amplitude) of the wave. Amplitude in sound waves corresponds to intensity – measured in decibel, or dB for short – which, in turn, corresponds to our subjective impression of loudness.

Speech sounds are grouped into language units called phonemes. A phoneme may be thought of as the smallest contrastive language unit which exists in the speech of all people belonging to the same language community in the form of speech sounds and may bring about a change of meaning. The phoneme is a functional unit/ That means that being opposed to other phonemes in the same phonetic context it is capable of differentiating the meaning:

pie – tie lot – lit    Are you fond of this cut? – Are you fond of this cart?

The phoneme is realized in speech in the material form of speech sounds of different type. Various speech realizations of the phoneme are called its allophones. The difference between the allophones of the same phoneme is due to their position in various phonetic contexts. For example, the consonant [d] in the isolated position as well as in such a sound sequence as [dסt] is a lenis voiced stop articulated with the tip of the tongue against the teeth ridge. In the position before an interdental constrictive [θ] as in breath it is formed with the tip of the tongue agaist the upper teeth. The articulatory features which are common to all the allophones of the same phoneme and are capable of differentiating the meaning are called distinctive. All allophones of the same phoneme are indicated by the same symbol.

Vowels and consonants. It is convenient to distinguish two types of speech sounds: vowels and consonants. Vowels are voiced sounds produced without any obstruction in the suppra-glottal cavities and consequently have no noise component. In the articulation of consonants a kind of noise producing obstruction is formed in the suppra-glottal cavities. Such sounds may be pronounced with or without vocal cords vibrations.

Stress in disyllabic and polysyllabic words

In every word in English, there is one main emphasized syllable. The vowel sound in this syllable sounds higher in pitch, longer, and louder, and this is called stress. This helps create the rhythm of the language, and knowing how to recognize the stressed syllable will help you with comprehension. Placing the stress where it should be when you're speaking helps native speakers understand you better as well.

English words have certain patterns of stress which you should observe strictly if you want to be understood. The best way to learn English stress is to listen to audio materials and to repeat them after the speaker. The links on the pages Phonetics, Phrases and Vocabulary lead to the websites that offer a lot of useful listening materials, including sounds, words, sentences and conversations. Below is an overview of typical English patterns of word stress that will help you to recognize and understand word stress when you work with listening materials.

General guidelines on word stress

Generally, common English nouns, adjectives and adverbs are more often stressed on the first syllable than on any other syllable. Verbs with prefixes are usually stressed on the second syllable, that is, on the first syllable of the root after the prefix. English words can’t have two unstressed syllables at the beginning of the word; one of these syllables will be stressed. If a word has four or more syllables, there are usually two stresses in it: a primary stress (strong stress) and a secondary stress (weak stress). Also, the secondary stress may be present (in addition to the primary stress) in shorter words in the syllable where the vowel remains long and strong. Prefixes are often stressed in nouns and less often in verbs. Suffixes are rarely stressed. Endings are not stressed.

Note: Capital letters show the main stressed syllable in the word, for example, LEMon. In the words with two stresses, capital letters with a stress mark before them show the syllable with the primary stress, small letters with a stress mark before them show the syllable with the secondary stress, for example, `eco`NOMics.

There are two very simple rules about word stress:

1. One word has only one stress. (One word cannot have two stresses. If you hear two stresses, you hear two words. Two stresses cannot be one word. It is true that there can be a "secondary" stress in some words. But a secondary stress is much smaller than the main [primary] stress, and is only used in long words.)