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Learning objectives
Here’s what you will achieve after this session:

● Define stress in a word

● Syllabicate a word

● Familiarize with the stress rules

● Mark the syllable in a word with primary stress

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 Stress and intonation

STRESS
Can change the meaning of the word.

Incorrect stress can make you difficult to understand

/ɛl-ɪ-ˈf(ə)nt/ /ˈɛl-ɪ-f(ə)nt/

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 Stress and intonation

WORD STRESS
The emphasis placed on
a syllable.

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 Stress and intonation

SYLLABLE
A unit of sound that usually
contain a vowel sound.

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 Stress and intonation

Examples

/Kæt/ / ˈpɪk-tʃər / / ɪ-ˈkwɒl-ɪ-ti /

Multiple syllables
1 syllable and 2 syllables and
and vowel sound
1 vowel sound 2 vowel sounds
monosyllabic bisyllabic polysyllabic
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 Stress and intonation

Mon
We do not stress
every syllable
Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri We do not stress

Wknd
consonants
...

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Mon

The letter Y when it

Tue

Wed

Thu sounds like /i:/ or /I/

Fri

Wknd
physical /ˈfɪz-ɪ-kəl/
...

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Mon

Tue
HOW DO WE KNOW
WHEN AND HOW TO
Wed

STRESS EACH SYLLABLE?

Thu

Fri

Wknd

...

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 3 WAYS TO STRESS A SYLLABLE:
Mon

Tue PRIMARY STRESS The loudest syllable in a word

Wed

Thu SECONDARY Syllable which aren’t completely

unstressed, but aren’t as loud as the
STRESS primary stess.
Fri

Wknd
WEAK STRESS Unstressed syllable
...

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 PRIMARY STRESS
Mon

Tue

Wed Is the EMPHASIS

/ˈfɪz-ɪ-kəl/
Thu

Fri

Wknd

...

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Mon

Tue

Wed SECONDARY STRESS

Thu
/ˌæk.əˈdem.ɪk/
Fri

Wknd

...

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Mon

Tue

Wed WEAK STRESS

Thu
/ˌæk.əˈdem.ɪk/
Fri

Wknd

...

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 EXAMPLES
Primay
Mon
PRIMARY STRESS stress

Tue
banana /bəˈnɑː.nə/
Wed
1 2 3
secondary
SECONDARY STRESS stress
Thu
academic /ˌæk.əˈdem.ɪk/
Fri
1 2 3 4
Wknd WEAK OR UNSTRESSED secondary Primay
organization stress weak weak stress weak
... /ˌɔː.ɡən.aɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/
1 2 3 4 5 < >
 9 STRESS RULES
Mon
2 syllable nouns have the main stress on the FIRSTsyllable
Tue
2 syllable adjectives have the main stress on the FIRST syllable

Wed 2 syllable verbs have the main stress on the SECOND syllable

Words ending in –ic, the main stress is on the syllable before it

Thu
Words ending in –sion & -tion, the main stress is on the syllable before it
Fri
Words ending in cy,ty,phy & gy, the main stress is before the penultimate syllable

Wknd Words ending in -al, the main stress is before the penultimate syllable

For compound nouns, stress is on the FIRST syllable

...
For compound ADJECTIVES, stress is on the SECOND syllable
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 Stress and intonation

Identify the correctly stressed word.

1. Can you pass me a plastic knife?
PLAS-tic plas-TIC

2. I want to be a photographer.
PHO-to-graph-er pho-TO-graph-er

3. Which photograph do you like best?

PHO-to-graph pho-TO-graph

4. He was born in China.

CHI-na Chi-NA

5. Whose computer is this?

com-PU-ter com-pu-TER
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 Stress and intonation

Identify the correctly stressed word.

6. I can't decide which book to borrow.
DE-cide de-CIDE

7. Couldn't you understand what she was saying?

un-DER-stand un-der-STAND

8. Voting in elections is your most important duty.

im-POR-tant im-por-TANT

9. We had a really interesting conversation.

con-VER-sa-tion con-ver-SA-tion

10. How do you pronounce this word?

PRO-nounce pro-NOUNCE
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