SPOKEN ENGLISH

Triphthongs
&
Stress
&
Minimal Pairs
 Triphthongs

/ɪ/ /ʊ/
/eɪ/ /aɪ/ /ɔɪ/ /əʊ/ /aʊ/
day by boy Know now
Triphthongs /eɪə//aɪə//ɔɪə/ /əʊə/ /aʊə/
layer liar loyal lower power
 Exercise
(Transcribe the following words) /eɪə//aɪə//ɔɪə//əʊə//aʊə/

Player tyre
royal thrower
Iron fire
flower tower
Hour our
 Stress
Definition:
• STRESS refers to the degree of force
used in producing a syllable. In
transcription, a raised vertical line /'/
is often used just before the syllable
it relates to.
 Stress
Basic of Word Stress
 There are two basic things to keep in
mind that will help you determine how
to stress a word:
• 1. One word, one stress: One word
cannot have two main stresses.
• 2. The stress is always on a vowel:
Consonants alone are never stressed.
 Importance of Stress
 Arabic or French pronounce each
syllable with equal emphasis. But,
English use word stress.
 Stress is not an optional extra.
 It is so important that if it is misused, it
may change the meaning or make the
utterance incomprehensible: 'present #
pre'sent & 'white house #white 'house
 Importance of Stress
Noun Verb
CONflict conFLICT
EXport exPORT
PERmit perMIT
PROtest proTEST
REcord reCORD
PREsent preSENT
 How to pronounce stressed syllable
 When a syllable is stressed, it is
pronounced:
 Longer in duration
 Higher in pitch
 Louder in volume
 Rules of Stress
A word of 1 syllable has stress on the
1ST letter: 'Go / 'Hard/ 'Long /'Teach.
 A word of 2 syllables:
 Noun
• Stress on the first syllable: 'En/glish –
'Fa/ther – 'teach/er – 'Act/or – But in
“Be/'lief” stress is on 2nd syllable
because the first contains /ə/.
 Rules of Stress
 Adjective:
of two syllables: stress on the 1ST syllable:
'Hap/py – 'Sun/ny – 'Ug/ly – 'Stu/pid. But in
“Cor/'rect” stress is on the 2nd syllable
because the first contains /ə/.
 Adverbs:
of two syllables has stress on the 1ST syllable:
'Un/der – 'O/ver – 'Ne/ver – 'Af/ter. But in
“A'go” stress is on the 2nd syllable because
 Rules of Stress
 Verb:
of two syllables has stress on the 2nd
syllable: Cor/'rect – Pre/'sent –
Be/'lieve. But in “'O/pen” stress is on
the first syllable because the second
syllable contains /ə/.
 Rules of Stress in Compounds)
• A compound noun : 'N1 + N2
• Stress on the 1st noun (N1): 'Taxi-
driver, 'School-bag, 'suit-case.
• Adj. + N
• Stress on the adjective: 'Black-board,
'Green-house, 'Round-table, 'White-
house.
 Rules
 Adj. + 'V-(present participle)
Stress on the verb: Well-'done,
Well-'known, Old-'fashioned,
Narrow-'minded.
 Preposition + V
Stress on the verb (V): Under-'stand,
Over-'do, Over-'flow, under-'estimate.
 Rules
• A phrasal verb (V + 'Prep/or 'Adv)
Stress on the Prep/or Adv: Sit 'down,
Fly a 'way, Stand 'up, Climb 'up, Run
a 'way, Go 'into.
 Rules of Stress(words with suffixes)

 A word that ends up with: (-ic(s), -

sion(s), -tion(s), -ive, -ant)
Stress on the syllable that precedes
these ending: 'Graph/ic – 'Ma/gic –
Me/'chan/ic – 'Pub/lic– Con/'clu/sion
– 'vi/sion – In/tro/'duc/tion
–Ex/'pens/ive –Im/'por/tant –
Re/'sis/tant.
 Rules of Stress(words with suffixes)

• A word that ends up with (-ity, -phy,

-gy, -al, ful, able, ly, less, ness, etc…)
Stress on the third syllable from end:
Uni/'versity, Simi'larity, Re'ality,
Phi'losophy, Pho'tography Ge'ology,
Tech'nology, Bi'ology, 'critical.
 Minimal Pairs
 Two words of different meaning that are
(phonetically or morphologically)
identical except for one sound (C or V):
 park and bark are called minimal pairs
 said and sad
 /p/ and /b/ are phonemes (park & bark)
 Phoneme: is the smallest independent
sound that distinguishes words from each
other in meaning.
THANKS