relative force of prominence given to a syllable

longer duration
louder volume
higher pitch
 1. table
2. scissors
3. pretty
4. clever
When a noun or an adjective has two syllables,
the stress is usually in the first syllable

TAble
SCIssors
PREtty
CLEver
 5. present
6. inform
7. aside
8. between
When a verb or a preposition has two
syllables, the stress is on the second
syllable.

preSENT
inFORM
aSIDE
betWEEN
Some words in English can be both a
noun and a verb.

PREsent- preSENT
SUSpect- susPECT
 9. orderly
10. quietly
11. manager
Words that have three syllables and end
in -er and -ly often have stress in the first
syllable

ORderly
QUIetly
MAnager
 12. commission
13. photographic
14. creation
 When a word ends in -ic, -sion, or -tion,
the stress is usually on the second-to-last
syllable.

comMIsion
photoGRAphic
creAtion
 16. democracy
17. photography
18. logical
19. commodity
20. psychology
When a word ends in -cy, -ty, -phy, -gy, and -al,
the stress is often on the third-to-last syllable.

deMOcracy
phoTOgraphy
LOgical
comMOdity
psyCHOlogy
 21. football
22. keyboard
 In most compound nouns (a noun made up of
two or more existing words), the word stress is on
the first noun

FOOTball
KEYboard
23. old-fashioned
24. understand
In most compound adjectives (a single adjective
made up of more than one word and often
linked with a hyphen) and compound verbs (a
multi-verb that functions as a single verb), the
stress is on the second verb.

old-FAshioned
underSTAND
SENTENCE STRESS

• the music of sppken English

• gives English rhythm or beat
• accent on certain words within a sentence
• most sentences have two types of words:
content and structure
SENTENCE STRESS

• content words- key words in a sentence;

important words that carry the meaning of a
sentence
• structure words- small, simple words that make
a sentence grammatically correct
CONTENT WORDS

main verbs SELL GIVE EMPLOY

nouns CAR MUSIC MARY
adjectives RED BIG INTERESTING
adverbs QUICKLY LOUDLY
NEVER
negative auxiliaries DON'T AREN'T
STRUCTURE WORDS

pronouns he we they
prepositions on at into
articles a an the
conjunctions and but because
auxiliary verbs do, be, have, can, must