Stress in English

Introduction

When we analyse the spoken form of a language it is not enough to talk only about the
sounds and syllables. We need also to examine the higher units of connected speech in
relation to words, short phrases or entire sentences. The study of these higher units is called
suprasegental phonology. Let’s describe in very simple terms the three main units of features
of prosodic phonology, i.e. length, pitch, and loudness. The length has to do with the duration
of vowel or consonant sound, the pitch with the rise or fall of voice when we speak and
loudness with accent or stress in one or more syllables of words.

One important property of a sound is that it can be long or short. The long /i: / or the long /tt/
in the examples seat and letter are somewhat longer than /I/ and /t/ in the examples sit and
later. In the description of English vowels we observed that vowel length is distinctive in
language, i.e. short and long vowels. Short and long consonants are also not distinctive in
English. In most languages of the world, distinctive length is more common with vowels than
with consonants.

Stress

English is an accent-based language. In a word, all the syllables are not pronounced with
equal emphasis. Stress or accent, is an important feature of English and clarity in the
language depends to a large extent on the speaker’s ability to use the English stress system.
Stress is a means of making a syllable or a word appear more prominent than others to which
it is linked in speech. The three signals of stress in English are:

 loudness (the greater breath force)

 length of the sound in a syllable
 pitch change

Word accent

The prominence of a particular syllable in a word may occasionally be due to stress, i.e.
greater breath effort or greater muscular energy expanded on the articulation of this syllable
than on the articulation of the other syllables in that word. But more often, it is due to stress
alone, but to any or all of the following four factors-the stress and the pitch change on that
syllable, and length and the quality of the vowel in that syllables. It is for this reason that term
‘word accent’ is sometimes preferred to ‘word stress. Word accent is an essential part of the
word shape. Every word in English, for example, has a certain characteristic accentual pattern
shared by the speaker and the listener alike. As a matter of fact, this characteristic pattern is
as much a part of the word’s identity as its sound (vowel and consonant) sequence. It follows
that no one can learn the pronunciation of an English word (of more than one syllable)
without learning its accent, or accentual pattern.
Word stress

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The articulation of words in English gives prominence to one or more syllables in them. (A
syllable is a unit of sound consisting of a vowel and / or one or more consonant sounds that
can be produced in one effort. For example, ‘bus’ is a monosyllabic, ‘cycle’ is disyllabic and
‘accident’ is tri-syllabic.) This prominence is called word stress.

All the syllables in a multi-syllabic word do not have the same degree of stress. For example,
‘student’ is a two-syllable word with the first syllable louder than the second. The vowel in
the first syllable, which is stressed, is also longer than in the second syllable.

In dictionaries, a vertical bar / ' / is placed above and in front of the syllable that carries the
primary stress (or the main stress) of the word. For example, the words ‘teacher’ and ‘letter’
would be marked for stress as ‘teach.er and ‘let.ter.

Some words have secondary stress (a weaker stress) on another syllable. The vertical bar /ˌ /
is usually placed below and in front of a syllable with a weaker stress. For example,
‘misspell’ will be marked for accent as ˌmis. 'spell. Let’s learn about primary stress.

Stressed and Unstressed syllables

The syllable in a word which receives stress is called the stressed syllable. All other syllables
are known as unstressed syllables.

The syllable on which there is a pitch change is said to have the primary or tonic or main
accent. Any other prominent syllable is said to have secondary accent. Primary accent is
marked with a vertical bar or stroke / '/ above and in front of the syllable to which it refers,
secondary accent with a bar below and in front of the syllable.

In polysyllabic English words more than one syllable is accented. For example, the word
organisation /ˌɔːɡ(ə)naɪˈzeɪʃ(ə)n/ has the highest degree of stress on the fourth syllable. The
first syllable receives the next degree of stress. Next in the order of the degree of stress it
receives is the third syllable, and so on. Usually, two degrees of stress are recognised, since it
serves no useful purpose to go beyond the second degree. In the word organisation, therefore,
the fourth syllable would be said to carry the primary stress, and the first syllable the
secondary stress. The remaining three syllables would be grouped together and described as
weak or unstressed.

Rules for Word Stress

Some words in English are stressed on the first syllable, some on the second syllable, others
on the third syllable, and so on. Some examples of polysyllabic words with their primary
stress on different syllables are given below.

Rule 1. A disyllabic word with a weak prefix always takes the stress on the root. For
examples:

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again a'gain bilingual bi'lingual

ahead a'head between be'tween

abroad a'broad compose com''pose

admit a'dmit correct cor'rect

aloud a'loud develop de'velop

advice a'dvice dishonest dis'honest

apart a'part expect ex'pect

attend at'tend mislead mis'lead

become be'come occur oc'cur

below be'low prefer pre'fer

because be'cause refresh re'fresh

Rule 2. The monosyllabic prefixes given below generally carry the primary stress.

Prefix Examples

ab- 'abdicate, 'absolute, 'abject

Ad- 'addict, 'adequate, 'adjunct

Ac- 'accident, 'access, 'accurate

Ag- 'aggregate, 'aggravate

Al- 'alcohol, 'alcove

Ap- 'applicant, 'appetite

Com 'comfort, 'comment, 'commerce

Con- 'concrete, 'concave

De- 'debit, 'deficit, 'delegate

Ex- 'execute, 'exercise, 'exit

Im- 'imminent, 'impact, 'impulse

In- 'incident, 'index, 'inference

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Ob 'obstacle, 'obsolete

Per- 'permanent, ' perish, 'perquisite

Pre- 'predict, 'preface, ' prelude

Pro- 'problem, 'process, 'promise

Sub 'substance, 'subscript, 'substitute

Sym- 'symbol, 'sympathy, 'symptom

Syn- 'syndicate, 'synonym, 'synthesis

Rule 3. The addition of inflectional suffixes –ed, -es, and –ing to the main word does not
affect the stress. For examples:

'want 'wanted
-ed re'mind re'minded

-es 'match 'matches

re'fuse re'fuses

-ing be'gin be'ginning

re'sign resigning

Rule 4. The addition of various derivational suffixes also does not change the stress on the
root/ main word. For examples:

age per'cent per'centage

ance per'form per'formance
dom 'free 'freedom
en 'fright 'frighten
er 'dance 'dancer
ess 'class 'classes
ful 'care 'careful
fy 'class 'classify
hood 'child 'childhood
ice 'coward 'cowardice
ish 'devil 'devilish
ive se'lect se'lective
less 'aim 'aimless
let 'book 'booklet
ly ' bad 'badly
ment ap'point ap'pointment
ness 'happy 'happiness
or 'conquer 'conqueror
some 'fear 'fearsome

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ship 'scholar 'scholarship
ter 'light 'lighter
ward 'back 'backward
zen 'city 'citizen

Rule 5. Words ending in –ion have the primary stress on the penultimate (last syllable but
one) syllable. For examples:

civili'sation compo'sition
conver'sation culti'vation
deco'ration determi'nation
exami'nation imagi'nation
intro'duction in'tention
'motion nationali'sation
popu'lation prohi'bition
re'lation 'station
qualifi'cation vacci'nation

Rule 6. Words ending in –ic, -ical, -ically, -ious, -ial, -ially, -ity, -ian have the primary stress
on the syllable before these suffixes. For examples:

-ic democ'ratic
patri'otic
-ical 'classical
po'litical
-ial me'morial
confi'dential
-ian li'brarian
mu'sician
poli'tician
elec'trician
-ically 'technically
sympa'thetically

-ious cere'monious
lu'xurious
-ially i'nitially
com'mercially

Rule 7. Words ending in –ity, are stressed on the syllable preceding the suffix, that is, on
the third syllable from the end-the ante-penultimate syllable. For examples:

origi'nality
oppor'tunity
mo'rality
e'quality
curi'osity
possi'bility'

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Rule 8. In words of more than two syllables ending in –ate, the primary stress is placed two
syllables before the suffix, that is, on the third syllable from the end. For examples:

'complicate 'fortunate
'educate 'cultivate

Rule 9. The following suffixes take the primary stress on their first syllable:

aire ,millio'naire, question'naire, doctri'naire

eer ca'reer, engi'neer, profi'teer
ental funda'mental
ential exis'tential
ique phy'sique
ean Euro'pean, Jaco'bean
ee draw'ee, trus'tee, addres'see
een can'teen, po'teen
ese Bur'mese, manga'nese
esque pictu'resque, gro'tesqu
eum mu'seum,
ique an'tique, cri'tique
oo Kanga'roo, ta'boo, bam'boo
oon bal'loon, ty'coon, lam'poon

Rule 10. The disyllabic suffixes, or endings, listed below are stressed on their first syllables.

Suffi Examples
x
-ental 'Dental, pa'rental, acci'dental
-ntial Cre'dential, es'sential, exis'tential
-scent 'Crescent, ado'lescent, iri'descent
-ician Lo'gician, mathema'tician, phone'tician
-iety 'Piety, pro'priety
-illa Go'rilla, man'nilla, va'nilla
-itis Ar'thritis, neu'ritis,

Although ‘word stress’ in English may appear to be regular and predictable, still then are
certain problems. The first problem a learner faces is the seemingly irregular ways the
syllables are stressed in polysyllabic words. Let us look at a few examples. It is often difficult
to say which syllable is the loudest or receives the primary stress. Some disyllabic words like,
'single, 'mother, 'heaven, 'captain, 'master, 'dentist receive the primary stress on the first
syllable, while other disyllabic words like, a'gain, re'mark, ho'tel, en'rol, de'light, ca'nal
re'ceive the main stress on the second syllable. Similarly, there are tri-syllabic words like,
permanent, register, interval, accident, calculate, foreigner, recognise, which receive the
stress on the first syllable, but in other tri-syllabic words like, per'mission, re'flection,
com'mittee, de'liver, ho'rizon, the stress is placed on the second syllable, or on the third
syllable in words like, under'stand, recom'mend, inhu'man, enter'tain . It suggests from these

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examples that stress in English words is not related to any particular syllable, but learning to
stress the correct syllable in a word is an important aspect of spoken English.

Stress shift

The second difficulty has to do with the change in the stressed syllable of derived words. It
should not be assumed that words with the same stem will keep the primary stress on the
same syllable. Indeed stress shift in derivatives is quite normal. This variation in word stress
in English are associated with morphological structure of words i.e. the way words are
constituted from their stems, prefixes and suffixes. Stress shifts from the first syllable to the
second, the third, or the fourth syllable as longer words are derived from smaller words, or as,
to put it differently, words change their grammatical forms. Given below is a grammatically
(or derivationally) related words with the primary stress marked on each word.

a'cademy aca'demic acade'mician

'advertise ad'vertisement -
'democrat de'mocracy demo'cratic
'demonstrate de'monstrative demon'stration
'diplomat di'plomacy diplo'matic
'examine exa'minee exami'nation
'family fa'miliar famili'arity
'hypocrite hy'pocrisy hypo'critical
in'ferior inferi'ority -
indi'vidual individu'ality individua'listic
'mechanism me'chanical mecha'nician mechani'sation
'meteor - meteo'rology meteoro'logical
'monotone mo'notony mono'tonic
-
'photograph pho'tographer photo'graphic -
'politics po'litical poli'tician
-
res'ponsible responsi'bility - -
'telephone te'lephony tele'phonic

There are also some exceptions to such shifts in stress, e.g. con'clude, con'clusive, con'clusion
in which the derived words have the stress on the same syllable as the main word.

Stress change according to function

There are a number of words of two syllables in which the stress pattern depends on whether
the word is used as a noun, an adjective, or a verb. The stress is on the first syllable when the
word is a noun or an adjective and on the second syllable when it is a verb.

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Examples:

Word Noun/Adjective Verb

absent 'absent ab'sent
accent 'accent ac'cent
addict 'addict a'ddict
compound 'compound com'pound
conduct 'conduct con'duct
conflict 'conflict con'flict
contradict 'contradict con'tradict
convict 'convict con'vict
decrease 'decrease de'crease
desert 'desert de'sert
export 'export ex'port
frequent 'frequent fre'quent
import 'import im'port
increase 'increase in'crease
object 'object ob'ject
perfect 'perfect per'fect
present 'present pre'sent
permit 'permit per'mit
project 'project pro'ject
protest 'protest pro'test
produce 'produce produce
progress 'progress pro'gress
rebel 'rebel re'bel
record 'record re'cord
survey 'survey sur'vey
subject 'subject sub'ject

There are also some exceptions to this rule, i.e. not all disyllabic nouns and verbs undergo
such a shift in the stressed syllable. For example, in words like, 'order, re'form, 'visit,
ad'vance, the primary stress is on the same syllable whether they are used as nouns or as
verbs.

Stress in compound words

Compound word means a word composed of two separable words. In spelling them, there
may or may not be a hyphen between the two elements forming the compound.
In most compound words in English the primary stress falls on one of the two elements. The
most common type in English is the first of the two elements receiving the primary stress.
For examples:

'anything ' air-raid

'backbone 'blackbird
'bookshelf ' blackboard

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 'coalman 'crossword
'earthquake 'footprint
'goldsmith 'hairbrush
'lifeboat 'mailbag
'motor-car 'offprint
'pickpocket 'postman
'rain-coat 'railway
'stone-age 'school-bus
'tea-party 'teabag
'waterproof ' wholesale
'greenhouse 'cardboard

Stress on the second word

down-'hearted four-'footed
hot-'tempered loud-'speaker
middle-'class open-'minded
part-'time short-'lived
who'ever him'self

There are however, a few compound words with –ever and –self as the second elements in
which the second element receives the primary stress. For examples:

her'self how'ever
him'self what'ever
my'self when'ever
them'selves who'ever

There are other compound words in which both the elements are stressed, but the primary
stress (tonic accent) falls on the second element. This is shown by an oblique bar pointing
downwards to indicate the tonic accent and a vertical bar to indicate pre-tonic-accent.

'after\noon 'home-\made
'half \hour 'bad-\tempered
'long\ lived 'post-\graduate
'middle-\aged 'country-\house
'north-\west 'good-\looking
\vice-chancellor 'old-\fashioned
'good-\natured 'head-\master
'vice-president 'head-\quarters
'town-\hall 'school-\building
under'stand, over'flow

In three elements Primary (tonic) stress on the second element:

'hot \water ,bottle

'waste \paper ,basket

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Word stress for compound nouns

A compound noun is a noun made out of two nouns that form one word. In a compound noun,
the most stress is on the stressed syllable of the first word.
Examples:

 SEAfood (sea + food)

 ICEland (ice + land)
 TOOTHpaste (tooth + paste)
 FOOTball (foot + ball)
 BAsketball (basket + ball)

deadline classroom software typewriter

policeman airplane
bus station air conditioner sports car credit card
stock market Great wall

Compound adjectives
A compound adjective is an adjective made of at least two words. Often, hyphens are used in
compound adjectives. In compound adjectives, the most stress is placed in the stressed
syllable of the second word.
Examples:

 ten-MEter
 rock-SOlid
 fifteen-MInute
 old-FAshioned
Compound verb
When a subject has two or more verbs that is called compound verbs. The stress is on the
second or on the last part.
Examples:

 Matilda loves bread but deTESTS butter.

 Sarah baked cookies and ATE them up.
 Dogs love to eat bones and love to DRINK water.

Proper nouns are specific names of people, places or things. For example: Jeniffer, Spain,
Google. The second word is always the one that takes the stress

Examples:

 North DAKOTA
 Mr. SMITH
 Apple INCORPORATED

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Reflexive pronoun

Reflexive pronouns show that the action affects the person who performs the action. For
example: I hit myself. The second syllable usually takes the stress.
Examples:

 mySELF
 themSELVES
 ourSELVES
Multiple of ten
If the number is a multiple of ten, the stress is placed on the first syllable. For example,
TEN, fifty, sixty, one hundred

Using suffixes to predict stress

 Stress the suffix itself

- eer engineer career volunteer

- ese Chinese Japanese Portuguese
- ique unique antique technique

-ee employee refugee trainee referee

 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 proficient
- cious delicious conscious suspicious judicious
- tious ambitious cautious superstitious
conscientious
- ic academic energetic fantastic
terrific realistic
- ible edible flexible incredible impossible
- ity ability necessity publicity
possibility humidity
- ify classify terrify humidify
personify solidify
- logy biology sociology anthropology psychology
graph geography autobiography photography
y pornography
- kilometer parameter speedometer thermometer
meter

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  Stress the second syllable before the suffix:

- ate operate exaggerate associate integrate

certificate
- ize apologize criticize recognize computerize
- ary secretary necessary contemporary vocabulary
courageous mysterious impetuous
+ e/i/ spontaneous simultaneous
u ous

Using Parts of Speech to predict stress

For certain two-syllable words used as both nouns and verbs, stress nouns on
the first syllable, and verbs on the second syllable.
Noun Verb Example
1. 'record re'cord The bank recorded a new record yesterday.

2. 'present pre'sent He presented his wife with a beautiful present.

3. 'conduct con'duct They're conducting a study into his conduct.
4. 'suspect sus'pect The suspect was suspected of robbing the bank.
5. 'desert de'sert The desert is so dry that it is usually deserted.

 Stress two-word verbs more strongly on the second word but for
their noun equivalents; stress them on the first part.

Noun: Here's the printout. Verb: He printed it out.

She's a dropout. She dropped out.
Where's the checkout Can I check it out?
counter? Hold up your hand.
There was a holdup at the I'll set up a meeting for you.
bank.
This clearly is a setup.

1. In Two syllable nouns and adjectives, the first syllable takes on the stress.
Examples:

 'samples  'china
 'carton  'happy
 'purple
 'rainy

In Two syllable verbs and prepositions, the stress is on the second syllable.

Examples:

 re'lax
 re'ceive

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 di'rect
 a'mong
 a'side
 be'tween
 de'cide
There are many two-syllable words in English that can be pronounced in two different
ways. The stress also changes the parts of speech of the word.

Examples:
PREsent = a gift (noun); non past or future (adjective)
 preSENT = to give something to someone (verb)
 OBject = something you can see and touch (noun)
 obJECT = to disagree with something (verb)

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Sentence Stress
Sentences, like words, have stressed as well as unstressed syllables. Stress is put on the words
which give us the main information, while the words which are not important for meaning are
left unstressed. This pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in sentences gives English
speech its rhythm. English words can be divided into two categories: content or lexical
words and structure words or grammatical words. Content words are usually stressed, while
structure words are unstressed and reduced.

Content or lexical words (usually stressed)

 Nouns
 Main verbs
 Adjectives
 Adverbs
 Demonstrative pronouns
 Question words in a question
 Interrogative pronoun

Structure or grammatical words (usually unstressed)

 Pronouns
 Prepositions
 Articles
 Auxiliary verbs
 Determiners
 Conjunctions
The arrangement of content and structure words in a sentence gives it its rhythm. As a
general rule, the words which carry the main information in a sentence stand out from the
rest. For example, in a sentence like, ‘He wants to buy a car’, the words ‘wants’, ‘buy’, and
‘car’ are more prominent than the other words , ‘he’, ‘to’, ‘a’.

Look at the sentences given below:

1. I 'met my 'friend in the 'morning.

2. I' like 'watching 'TV.
3. She has 'completed her 'work.
4. Do you 'know 'Rohit?
5. 'How many 'islands are there in 'Lakshadweep?

Kinds of rhythm

There are two kinds of rhythm: stress-timed rhythm and syllable-timed rhythm. English is
called stress-timed rhythm language because the time taken to speak a sentence depends on
the number of stressed syllables and not on the total number of syllables. Odia, Hindi,
Bengali etc., on the other hand, are called syllable-timed rhythm languages because the time
taken to go from one syllable to the next, whether stressed or unstressed, is always the same.
The time taken to speak a sentence depends on the total number of syllables and not on the
number of stressed syllables, as in English.

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The word which receives the tonic accent in a sentence is usually marked with [\] if the tone
is falling, and [/] if the tone is rising. Non-tonic (or secondary) accent is marked with the
usual stress-mark ['].
For examples:
1. 'Where does he \live?
2. It is 'easy to 'fall in 'love with a 'beautiful '\girl.
3. The 'five 'fat 'fools 'fell into the \'river.
4. Have you 'finished your/ 'project?
5. 'Look at that 'phone which your 'wife is /'holding!

Sentence rhythm
Rhythm is timing patterns among syllables. There are basically two types of
sentence rhythm in languages: "stress-timed rhythm" and "syllables-timed
rhythm." Look at the following pictures, the left one represents the stress-timed
rhythm, with an alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables (adults represent
stressed syllables and kids represent unstressed ones), and the right one
represents the syllable-timed rhythm, with nearly equal weight and time in all
syllables (identical soldiers represent the same length and weight that each
syllable has).

Contrastive Stress in Sentences

Contrastive stress is used to contrast a word or syllable with an alternative word or syllable
which is normally unstressed otherwise. It is used with determiners such as ‘this’, ‘that’,
‘these’ and ‘those’. For example, I prefer this bat not the other one.

Stress is not always pre-determined, but can be moved from its normal position in a sentence.
It is important to realise that when we place a sentence in the context of a conversation or a
speech situation, any word can be given the primary accent in a sentence. This shift in
sentence accent has the effect of changing the meaning intended in different speech
situations. For example, the following sentences can be pronounced in different ways and
convey different meanings:
I like boiled eggs.
In the above, normally, stresses would fall on the content words only, giving us the pattern:
I 'like 'boiled 'eggs.
The last stressed syllable in the sentence normally takes heaviest stress. But if the stress is
placed on other syllable, which do not normally take stress, special meanings can be created.

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 i. I like boiled \eggs. (not potato)
ii. I like \boiled eggs. (not fried)
iii. I \like boiled eggs. (do not dislike it)
iv. \I like boiled eggs. (particularly me no other person)
Here is another example.
The simple sentence below can have many levels of meaning based on the word you
stress according to the contrastive choices. The stressed words are written in bold.
1. I don’t think he should get the job.
Meaning: Somebody else thinks he should get the job.
2. I don’t think he should get the job.
Meaning: It’s not true that I think he should get the job.
3. I don’t think he should get the job.
Meaning: That’s not really what I mean. Or I’m not sure he’ll get the job.
4. I don’t think he should get the job.
Meaning: Somebody else should get the job.
5. I don’t think he should get the job.
Meaning: In my opinion it is wrong that he is going to get the job.
6. I don’t think he should get the job.
Meaning: He should have to earn that job.
7. I don’t think he should get the job.
Meaning: He should get another job.
8. I don’t think he should get the job.
Meaning: Maybe he should get something else instead.
As we see in the example, the meaning changes when we shift the stress in the phrase
according to our contrastive choices.
Stress imposed on a word or syllable contrary to its
normalaccentuation in order to contrast it with an alternative word or syllable
or to focus attention on it, as the stress given to the normally unstressed word of
in government of the people, by the people, for thepeople in order to point up the parallel bet
ween of, by, and for and to distinguish of from words such as over or against.
Prosodic stress is also often used pragmatically to emphasize (focus attention on) particular
words or the ideas associated with them. Doing this can change or clarify the meaning of a
sentence.

For example:
I didn't take the test yesterday. (Somebody else did.)
I didn't take the test yesterday. (I did not take it.)
I didn't take the test yesterday. (I did something else with it.)
I didn't take the test yesterday. (I took a different one.)
I didn't take the test yesterday. (I took something else.)
I didn't take the test yesterday. (I took it some other day.)

Weak forms

There are 45 words in English, which have two or more pronunciations-one strong (or
dictionary) pronunciation, and one or more than one weak pronunciation or weak form.
Words of this kind will be called weak form words. The learning of weak forms is extremely
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necessary. Many non-native speakers of English, who generally use only strong forms of
these words in their pronunciation, fail to approximate to the characteristic rhythm of
English, thus reducing considerably the level of intelligibility of their pronunciation,
especially in relation to native speakers of RP. And, more importantly, since almost all native
speakers of RP use weak forms in their pronunciation. Learners of RP will find it very
difficult to understand what they hear unless they learn these weak forms themselves.

This brings us to yet another important aspect of English rhythm-weak forms. There are a
number of words in English which have two or more qualitative and quantitative patterns
depending upon whether they are accented or not. When these words are accented or when
they are pronounced in isolation, the strong forms of these words are used; when they are
unaccented, the weak forms of these words are used. The weak forms exhibit reductions of
the length of sounds, weakening of the vowels in them (many of these words are pronounced
with /i/, /u/, or /ə/ in their weak forms) and also in the elision of vowels and consonants.
Given below are the most common of words with two forms. Both the strong and weak forms
are given in phonemic transcription.

Auxiliary verbs
Orthography Strong forms Weak forms Examples
is /iz/ /z/, /s/
am /æm/ /əm/, /m/
are /a: / /a/
was /wɔ:z/ /wəz/
were /wə:/ /wə/
shall / ʃæl / /ʃel/ / ʃl/ /l/
should /ʃud/ / ʃəd/
will /wil/ /l/, /əl/
would /wud/ /wəd/, /əd/, /d/
can /kæn/ /kən/, /kn̩ /
could /kʊd/ /kəd/
may /mel/ /mə/
might /məlt/ /mət/
must /mʌst/ /məst/, /məs/
have /hæv/ /həv/, /əv/, /v/
has /hæz/ /həz/, /əz/, /z/
had / hæd/ /həd/, / əd/, /d/
do /duː/ /də/, /d/
does /dʌz/ /dəz/, /z/ /s/

Conjunctions
orthography Strong forms Weak forms Examples
and /ænd/ /ənd/, /ən/, /n̩ d/, /n̩ /
but /bʌt/ /bət/
that /ðæt/ ðət
than / ðæn/ /ðən/ /ðn/
as /æz/ /əz/

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 Determiners
orthography strong forms weak forms Examples
the / ðiː/ /ðɪ/, /ðə/
a /eɪ/ /ə/
an /æn/ / ən/
some / sʌm/ / səm/, /sm̩ /

Prepositions
orthography strong forms weak forms Examples
at /æt/ / ət/
for /fɒ/ /fə/
from /fɹɒm/ / fɹəm/
of /ɒv/ /əv/
to /tuː/ /tu/, / tə/
on /ɔn/ /ən/, /˄n/

Pronouns
orthography strong forms weak forms Examples
he /hi: / /hi/
him /hɪm/ / ɪm/
his / hɪz/ / ɪz/
her hɜː hə
she /ʃiː/ / ʃɪ/
we /wiː/ / wɪ/
us / ʌs/ / əs/
you /juː/ /jʊ/
your / joː/ /jə/
them /ðɛm/ /ðəm/

Miscellaneous words
orthography strong forms weak forms Examples
be /bi:/ /bi/
been /bi:n/ /bin/
me /mi:/ /mi/
not /nɔt/ /nt/, /n/
sir /sə:/ /sə/
there /ðɛə/ /ðə/
who /hu:/ /hu/ /u:/ /u/
sir /sə:/ /sə/

The occurrence of strong and weak forms is another essential aspect of the rhythm of spoken
English. The strong forms are accented and the weak forms are not only unaccented but also
involve a reduction in the length of sounds. This reduction occurs mainly by the weakening
of the vowel(s) in a word. For example, the word ‘would’, pronounced in isolation as /wud/,
is often reduced to /əd/ or simply /d/ in connected speech. Similarly, the word ‘and’, normally
pronounced as /ænd/, is usually reduced to /ɔn/ or /n/ in phrases like ‘you and I’ or ‘bread and

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butter’. In fact many small words like auxiliary verbs, determiners, conjunctions, prepositions,
pronouns, do not normally occur as strong forms in conversational speech.

Strong & Weak Forms

In connected speech, many of the ‘small’ words we use very frequently tend to take on a
different ‘shape’ from the one listed in the dictionary. All of these words belong to the
category of function words , i.e. they are words that have little semantic content of their own,
but tend to have more grammatical or referential function in relating content words or higher
syntactic units to one another. Function words are essentially closed class words, such as
pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliaries, determiners etc. Below, you’ll find a table
listing these words, together with their strong or dictionary form , as well as their
potential weak forms . In general, weak forms do tend not to occur in sentence-final position
or in contrastive/emphatic use.
Function words have both strong and weak forms in English

A lot of function words have both strong and weak forms. As a rule, the weak form turns the
vowel to be muted. For example, take a look at these sentences:

Wor Strong form Weak form

d
The /ði/ /ðə/
– when stands before the vowels – when stands before the consonants
Ex: They have bought the apples. Ex: I dislike the man.
But /bʌt/ / bət/
– stress on the contrast – mention the difference
Ex: I’m cool but a fool. Ex: His girl friend is very beautiful, but is not enough
intelligent.
That /ðæt/ /ðət/
– as a demonstrative pronoun or – as a relative pronoun.
adjective Ex: I think that we should improve quality of services
Ex: That is Tom’s car. a lot.
Does /dʌz/ /dəz/
– stress on the verb of action – as a helping verb
Ex: She does hope for interview next Ex: Does she work as a teacher?
week.
Him /him/ /im/
Ex: This gift was sent to him not to his Ex: I haven’t seen him for ages.
wife.
Her /hə:/ /hə/
Ex: He loves her but not other girls. Ex: Her mother is still young.

For /fɔ: / /fə/

Ex: A good job is what I looking for. Ex: I am looking for a job.

At /æt/ /ət/

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 What are you looking at? I’ll meet you at the office.

Stress-timed and syllable-timed languages.

A lot of people think, when they’re studying a language and they’re new to it, that they need
to pronounce each word fully and clearly in order to be well-understood. But in English
that’s actually not the case. English is a stress-timed language.

A stress-timed language is a language where the stressed syllables are said at approximately
regular intervals, and unstressed syllables shorten to fit this rhythm. Stress-timed languages
can be compared with syllable-timed ones, where each syllable takes roughly the same
amount of time.

Example
English and German are examples of stress-timed languages, while Spanish, Hindi and Odia
are syllable-timed.

English is called a stress-timed language because the time taken to speak a sentence depends
on the number of stressed syllables and not on the total number of syllables.

Languages such as Spanish, Hindi, Odia etc., on the other hand, are called syllable-timed
languages, because the time taken to go from one syllable to the next, whether stressed or
unstressed , is always the same.

Exercises
Answer the questions briefly.
1. Define stress.
2. Write short notes on Stressed and Unstressed syllables
3. Put the stress marks in the appropriate places of the following words:
Admit, Concrete, Wanted, Booklet, Cultivation, Technically, Opportunity, Fortunate,
Physique, Parental, Absent (n), Subject (v), Blackbird, Open minded, Whoever, Old-
fashioned
4. What is sentence stress? Where do you put stress marks in a sentence?
5 Put the stress marks in the following sentences.

a) The pen is mightier than the sword.

b) Alice everyday goes to library to study.
c) Perhaps the decline of this country has already started.
d) The management of your company has executed its duties excellently.
e) People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.
f) They have lost thousands of jobs to Asia, South America, and Mexico.
g) What a lovely bouquet of flowers!
h) That birthday cake was so good!
i) Would you like cookies or a banana for dessert?
j) You think you're so smart, don't you?

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6. What do you mean by contrastive stress? Explain with suitable examples.

7. Put the stress marks of the underlined words of the sentences given below:

i. Can you pass me a plastic knife?

ii. I want to be a photographer.
iii. Whose computer is this?
iv. I can't decide which book to borrow.
v. Couldn't you understand what she was saying?
vi. Voting in elections is your most important duty.

8. Answer all the questions

i. Which words in a sentence are usually stressed?

a) Content words b) structure words

ii. When speaking English, we try to create a rhythm in which the time between stressed
words is _____________. (Same/ different)

iii. Which is a list of content words?

a) they, should've, through

b) Donald's, eyes, small

iv. Which are NOT usually stressed?

a) prepositions, articles, pronouns, conjunctions
b) nouns, main verbs, adjectives, adverbs

v. Which stress pattern corrects this statement? "I'm sure they work for the police."
a) THEY don't, but WE do.
b) They don't, BUT we do.
9. Function words have both strong and weak forms in English. Elucidate.
10. Write short notes on sentence rhythm.

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