I sometimes hear nonnative speakers of English with excellent levels of grammar and vocabulary still struggling with word stress. This is because some languages have fixed word stress, which makes pronunciation of words predictable. But in English this is not the case. That is, some words have their primary stress on the first syllable, while other words could carry their primary stress on the second, third, fourth, or last syllable. Of course, it depends how long the word is. Speakers whose native language is one that has fixed stress (for instance Polish, Hungarian, French, etc.) might struggle a little more because sometimes they fail to even notice such nuances.
In every English word that has more than one syllable, one of the syllables is stressed more than the others. This means that this stressed syllable is more prominent than the rest of the syllables in the word. The remaining syllables may be unstressed or have secondary stress. For example, in the word SO·fa /ˈsoʊ.fə/, the first syllable (“so” /soʊ/) has the primary stress while the second syllable (“fa” /fə/) is unstressed. In the word Ja·pa·NESE /ˌdʒæ.pəˈniz/, the last syllable (“nese” /niz/) has the primary stress, the first syllable (“ja” /dʒæ/) has the secondary stress, and the second syllable (“pa” /pə/) is unstressed.
Stressed and unstressed syllables differ in length, pitch, loudness, and vowel quality.
12 guidelines to follow on word stress in English
Below you will find a dozen of guidelines that may help you with word stress in English.
1. Stress placement
Most students find it challenging to lengthen stressed vowels and reduce unstressed ones. It may also be challenging to know which syllable to stress. But stress is one of the most important features when it comes to pronunciation. If a word is stressed on a wrong syllable, it may be difficult to understand. Although stress placement in English is complex, there are some principles that can help you predict which syllable should be stressed in a given word.
There are five tips to help you differentiate stressed syllables:
- Always look up the pronunciation of a new word and identify its primary stress. Then emphasize the length of stressed vowels.
- Look for sets of words with the same stress patterns. This will help your brain to get used to the stress of this particular word.
- After finding the word stress of a new word, pronounce it many times so that your mouth muscles get used to it.
- Use phonetic spelling to develop awareness of how unstressed vowels are pronounced. Phonetic spelling is writing out words the way that they are spoken. In this post I include phonetic spelling written using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
- Understand that unstressed vowels are typically – and regardless of spelling – pronounced using a short, indistinct sound schwa /ə/.
2. Primary/heavy stress
Vowels with primary stress are longer, louder, and higher in pitch than unstressed ones. According to a study on nonnative English speech patterns, there are significant differences in durations of vowels in the stressed syllables between native and nonnative speakers. But length of stressed syllables can be learned gradually.
3. Unstressed syllables and vowel reduction
Unstressed vowels are shorter, not as loud as the stressed ones, and pronounced at a lower pitch. Most vowels in unstressed syllables are reduced to the neutralized vowel schwa /ə/. Although ESL speakers gradually learn to shorten and lower the pitch and voice in unstressed vowels, vowel reduction to schwa seems to be more difficult. It may be especially hard for students whose native languages lack such a feature, spell words phonetically, and share many cognate words with English. So it’s important for you to understand that, although unstressed vowels can be spelled with any letter, they are still pronounced with a schwa /ə/ (sometimes with short i /ı/).
4. Secondary stress
Vowels in syllables with secondary stress are not reduced in length and loudness. The main difference between secondary and primary stress is that vowels in syllables with secondary stress are pronounced at a lower pitch.
When it comes to pronunciation of numbers, there are some rules for stress placement. For example, in “teen” numbers, such as thir·TEEN /ˌθɝˈtin/, the primary stress is on the second part of the word. On the other hand, in “tens,” such as THIR·ty /ˈθɝ.ti/, the primary stress is on the first part of the word and the secondary stress is on the second part. In verbs with prepositional prefixes, such as o·ver·LOOK /ˌoʊ.vɚˈlʊk/, the secondary stress occurs in the preposition (O·ver /ˌoʊ.vɚ/) while the primary stress is within the stem (in our example on “look” /ˈlʊk/).
Words with suffixes -ize, -hood and -tude have the secondary stress on the suffix, and the primary stress is within the stem.
Examples:
RE·a·lize /ˈɹi.əˌlaɪz/
CHILD·hood /ˈtʃaɪldˌhʊd/
PA·rent·hood /ˈpæ. ɹəntˌhʊd/
A·tti·tude /ˈæ.tɪˌtjud/
5. Stress with two-syllable nouns and verbs
Most two-syllable nouns (over 90%) have primary stress on the first syllable.
Examples:
TA·ble /ˈteɪ.bəl/
PIC·ture /ˈpɪk.tʃɚ/
MON·key /ˈmʌŋ.ki/
CAN·dle /ˈkæn.dəl/
CAR·pet /ˈkɑr pət/
The situation with two-syllable verbs is more divided. About 60% of them have primary stress on the second syllable.
Examples:
suc·CEED /səkˈsid/
per·FORM /pərˈfɔrm/
com·POSE /kəmˈpoʊz/
com·BINE /kəmˈbaɪn/
But the rest (about 40%) of two-syllable verbs have the primary stress on the first syllable.
Examples:
FOL·low /ˈfɑ.loʊ/
EN·ter /ˈɛn.tɚ/
MA·nage /ˈmæ.nədʒ/
LIS·ten /ˈlɪs.ən/
If the last syllable contains a diphthong (two vowels in the same syllable) or a long vowel, then stress will often fall on it.
Examples:
de·CIDE /dɪˈsaɪd/
con·TAIN /kənˈteɪn/
re·PEAT /rɪˈpit/
6. Noun-verb pairs: same spelling, different stress
There are many examples in English, where a noun and a verb share the spelling. Usually in such cases the grammatical function of the word determines its stress. When the word is a noun, the stress is on the first syllable. When it is a verb, it is stressed on the second syllable.
Examples:
RE·cord /ˈrɛ.kɚd/ – re·CORD /ɹɪˈkɔɹd/
AD·dress /ˈæd.ɹɛs/ – ad·DRESS /əˈdɹɛs/
OB·ject /ˈɑb.dʒɛkt/ – ob·JECT /əbˈdʒɛkt/
SUS·pect /ˈsʌs.pɛkt/ – sus·PECT /səˈspɛkt/
However, there are also many noun-verb pairs that are stressed the same way within the pair – on the first or on the second syllable.
Examples:
AC·cent /ˈæk.sɛnt/
COM·fort /ˈkʌm.fɚt/
con·TROL /kənˈtɹoʊl/
sur·PRISE /sɚˈpɹaɪz/
7. Stress with compounds
Compound nouns and adjective-noun compounds have primary stress on the first word and secondary stress on the second.
Examples:
AIR·port /ˈɛɹ.pɔɹt/
CELL·phone /ˈsɛl.foʊn/
8. Stress in verbs and nouns with prepositional prefixes
Primary stress here falls on the verb and secondary stress on the prefix.
Examples:
out·LIVE /ˌaʊtˈlɪv/
o·ver·EAT /ˌoʊ.vɚˈit/
un·der·STAND /ˌʌn.dɚˈstænd/
Nouns and adjectives can be formed from some verbs with prepositional prefixes. In this case, they follow the rule for stress with two-syllable nouns, where the stress falls on the first syllable.
Example:
PO·si·tive OUT·look /ˈpɑ.zɪ.tɪv ˈaʊtˌlʊk/
Certain words can be stressed on either syllable.
Examples:
in·DOORS /ˌɪnˈdɔɹz/ or IN·doors /ˈɪnˌdɔɹz/
out·DOORS /ˌaʊtˈdɔɹz/ or OUT·doors /ˈaʊtˌdɔɹz/
in·SIDE /ˌɪnˈsaɪd/ or IN·side /ˈɪnˌsaɪd/
out·SIDE /ˌaʊtˈsaɪd/ or OUT·side /ˈaʊtˌsaɪd/
9. Abbreviations
When there are two or more letters in an abbreviation, the last letter has the heaviest stress and higher pitch.
Examples:
c·n·N /ˌsi.ɛnˈɛn/
a·t·M /ˌeɪ.tiˈɛm/
n·b·C /ˌɛn.biˈsi/
10. Stress in words with suffixes
Some suffixes require the stress to fall on a particular syllable in a word and may cause the stress to shift from its initial position in the base word. For example, when the suffix –ition is added to the verb de·FINE /dɪˈfaɪn/, the result is the noun de·fi·NI·tion /ˌdɛ.fəˈnɪ.ʃən/, which is stressed on the third syllable instead of the second one. In this case, stress shifted to the syllable before the suffix. When the suffix –eer is added, primary stress shifts to the suffix itself. For instance: EN·gine /ˈɛn.dʒɪn/ – en·gi·NEER /ˌɛn.dʒɪˈnɪɚ/.
Other suffixes, such as -ness, -ment, and -ful do not cause shift in primary stress.
Examples:
HAP·py /ˈhæ.pi/ – HAP·pi·ness /ˈhæ.pi.nəs/
SLEE·py /ˈsli.pi/ –SLEE·pi·ness /ˈsli.pi.nəs/
MEA·sure /ˈmɛ.ʒɚ/ – MEA·sure·ment /ˈmɛ.ʒɚ.mənt/
MAS·ter /ˈmæs.tɚ/ – MAS·ter·ful /ˈmæs.tɚ.fəl/
11. More on unstressed syllables
In many cases, when an unstressed vowel is followed by /r/ or /l/ and would otherwise be pronounced as schwa /ə/ – may be dropped. For instance, in word FA·mi·ly /ˈfæ.mə.li/, the internal unstressed vowel may be dropped making the word sound like “famly” [ˈfæ.mli].
Examples:
AS·pirin /ˈæs.pɚ.ɪn/ ➜ “asprin” [ˈæs.pɹɪn]
BE·ver·age /ˈbɛ.vɚ.ɪdʒ / ➜ “bevrage” [ˈbɛv. ɹɪdʒ]
EV·ery /ˈɛv.ɚ.i/ ➜ “evry” [ˈɛv.ɹi]
FE·der·al /ˈfɛ.dɚ.əl/ ➜ “fedral” [ˈfɛd.ɹəl]
12. Stress switching
Although the stressed syllable is fixed in most words, in some words where secondary stress is followed by word-final primary stress, the two stresses can switch syllables. For example, “I’m six·TEEN” as opposed to “in SIX·teen TEN (1610)”, “New YORK” vs. “NEW York City” etc. Although stress switching is not a high-priority when it comes to pronunciation clarity, it’s still worth noticing as you become more advanced.
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Learning stress is very important for fluency. When you learn how to lengthen and reduce vowels when needed, you will sound more clear and natural. However, this might be a longer process depending on how much you can actually notice stressed syllables when others speak.
Tell me about your native language. Does it have fixed stress or unpredictable stress patterns? Is it easy for you to hear the primary stress in English words?
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A big chunk of the information in this post is based on the following source:
Lane, L. (Ed.). (2010). Word Stress. In Tips for Teaching Pronunciation: A Practical Approach (pp. 17–43). Pearson Education.
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