Syllable Stress

Syllable Stress

Stress is the idea that in a word with more than one syllable, one (or more than one) syllable will be stressed and the rest will be unstressed.

In English, not all syllables are created equal. Stressed syllables will be higher in pitch, longer in duration, and generally a little louder than unstressed.

So let's look at some examples:

Chapter. 

A two syllable word, chapter, which syllable do you think is stressed?

It’s the first syllable!!

'Chapter"

Can you hear that it’s louder, and that it’s higher in pitch?

Another example:

Undo

I hope you can hear that here, the stress falls on the second syllable.

Can you notice it?

Does word stress really matter? 

Absolutely. It can affect the pronunciation, it can affect the meaning of a word.

Let’s take for example this word.

Present.

As an adjective or a noun, the stress falls on the first syllable. 

And the same word...

As a verb, the stress falls on the second syllable, present.

Note:

So as a noun or adjective, the first vowel is the ‘eh’ as in ‘bed’, and the second syllable, unaccented, is the schwa. In the verb form, however, present, the first vowel, in the unaccented syllable, is the ‘ih’ as in ‘sit’ vowel. And the second vowel in the stressed syllable is the ‘eh’ as in ‘bed’. Present, present. 

Multiple Choice

Convenient

• oOoo

• ooOo

Multiple Choice

Scientific

• oOoo

• ooOo

Multiple Choice

Embarrassing

• oOoo

• ooOo

Multiple Choice

Reservation

• oOoo

• ooOo

Multiple Choice

Responsible

• ooOo

• oOoo

Multiple Choice

Presentation

• ooOo

• oOoo