THE SYLLABLES
& STRESS
SAHRA SEVKA SYABILA
MAHARANI TANIA PUTRI
IKA KOMALASARI
A. WHAT IS SYLLABLES ?
Syllables is a unit of sound which includes a vowel
sound. All words have at least one syllable.
A syllable is a unit of speech.
A syllable has one vowel sound
( and only one vowel sound ) and one or
more consonant sounds.
Example :
Word Number of Syllables
• Break - fast 2
• Ba - na - na 3
• To - mor - row 3
• U - ni – ver – si - ty 5
B. What’s the connection between
syllables and stress?
Think about the word
Banana : Ba - na - na
( has three syllables )
Do you pronounce all the syllables all the
same?
Bah – nah – nah ?
One syllable is stronger
ba - NA - na
(this is stress)
Some examples of Syllable Stress
1. One Syllable - Stressed 2. Two Syllable - First Syllable
All one syllable words have the Stressed
stress on the one syllable. The
intonation should go down
PRET - ty
GO
PIC - ture
TALK
SING CEN - ter
WELL
Some examples of Syllable Stress
3. Two Syllable - Second Syllable 4. Three Syllable - First Syllable
Stressed Stressed
en - JOY EN - ergy
a - HEAD O - perate
a - LLOW OR - ganize
Some examples of Syllable Stress
5. Three Syllable - Second 6. Three Syllable - Third Syllable
Syllable Stressed Stressed
con - SI - der per - son - NEL
in - He - rit em - ploy - EE
in - JUS - tice vo - lunt - EER
Some examples of Syllable Stress
7. Four Syllable - Second Syllable 8. Four Syllable - Third
Stressed Syllable Stressed
cer - TI - fi - cate repu - TA - tion
e - VA - po - rate distri - BU - tion
mo - DER - ni - ty poli - TI - cian
C. How to pronounce Stress ?
If you want to communicate clearly in English, it is
important to emphasize the correct syllable in
every word. This is called “ word stress “, which
means pronouncing one syllable of a multi-lingual
word with a greater emphasis (stress) than the
other syllables in the word.
Three things to pronounce stress correctly
One : The stressed syllable should be louder
Two : The stressed syllable should be a little
higher
Three : The stressed syllable should be a
little longer in time
Look at four more words you saw before :
• Breakfast : Break- fast
• Banana : Ba- na- na
• Tomorrow : To- mor- row
• University : U- ni- ver- si- ty
D. Rules Of Word Stress In English
• A word can only have one stress.
• Only vowels are stressed, not consonants. The vowels in English are
a, e, i, o, and u. The consonants are all the other letters.
• One syllable - stressed
All one syllable words have the stress on the one syllable. The
intonation should go down.
Examples : EAT, DRINK, SIGN, WELL
Next …
• Stress on first syllable
a. Most 2 - yllable nouns have stress on first syllable
Examples : TAble, WAter, PEOple
b. Most 2 - syllable adjectives have stress on first syllable
Examples : CLEVer, HAPpy, PRETty, HANDsome,
Next …
• Stress on last syllable
Most 2-syllable verbs have stress on last syllable
Examples : deCIDE, beGIN, conduct
• Words ending in consonants and in -y
If there is a word that ends in a consonant or in a -y, then the first
syllable gets the
stress.
Examples : RARity , OPtimal , GRAdient, CONtainer
Next …
• Stress which determine verb or noun of the same words.
a. Nouns are on the first syllable
Examples: MISmatch, TRANSplant, TORment, addict
b. Verbs are on the second syllable
Examples: inSULT, misMATCH, reWRITE, transPLANT
Next …
• Words ending in er, -or, -ly
For words ending with the suffixes -er, -or, or -ly, the stress is placed on
the first
syllable.
Examples : DIRect/DIRector ,
ORder/ORderly ,
MANage/MANager
Next …
• Words having dual role
In the case of words which can be used as either a noun or verb, the
noun will tend to be stressed on the first syllable and the verb on the
last syllable.
Examples : IMport(n),
INcrease(n),
imPORT(v),
inCREASE(v)
Next …
• Word stress for compound words
a) Compound Noun
A compound noun is a noun made out of two nouns in order to form one
word. In a compound noun, the first word usually takes on the stress.
Examples : Picture
Minute
Money
Next …
b) Compound Adjectives
A compound adjective is an adjective composed of at least two words.
Often, hyphens are used in compound adjectives. In compound
adjectives, the stress is placed within the second word.
Examples : Happy
Yellow
Useful
Next …
c) Compound Verbs
A compound verb is when a subject has two or more verbs. The stress
is on the second or on the last part.
Examples : Decide
Forget
Explain
Arrive
Next …
d) Noun + compound nouns
Noun + compound Nouns are two word compound nouns. In noun +
compound noun, the stress is on the first word.
Examples : AIRplane mechanic,
PROject manager,
BOARDroom member,
BLACKbird, GREENhouse
Next …
e) Stress on ante-penultimate syllable (ante-penultimate = third from
end)
a. Words ending in -cy, -ty, -phyand, –gy
Example : deMOcracy, dependaBIlity, phoTOgraphy
b. Words ending in –al
Example : CRItical,
geoLOGical
Reference
• Atkinson-King, K. (1973). Children’s acquisition of phonological stress contrasts. Los Angeles Working Papers
in Phonetics 25, University of California.
• Barber, [Link] English Language: A Historical Introduction. Cambridge University Press, 2000
• Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D. & Goodwin, J. (1996). Teaching pronunciation: A reference for teachers of
English to speakers of other languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Checklin, M. (2012). [Link]
• Essberger,J. (1998) [Link]
• Jones, D.(1986). The pronunciation of English. Cambridge. Univeresity of cambridge.
• Kenworthy, J. (1989). Teaching English Pronunciation. Longman.
• Scarborough, R., Keating, P., Mattys, S., Cho, T. & Alwan, A. (2009). Optical phonetics and visual perception of
lexical and phrasal stress in English. Language and Speech 52(2/3), pp. 135-75.
THANK YOU
