Lesson 06: Word Stress - Introduction

Teach Me the basics of word stress

What is Word Stress?

As we said in Lesson 03, words are made of syllables. One of the syllables constituting a word is stressed, and the rest of them are unstressed. The relative emphasis that is given to a certain syllable in a word is called word stress.

How do I Stress a Syllable?

There are quite a few ways to stress a syllable; you can pronounce the stressed syllable longer, louder or higher pitched. Take the word Germany as an example:

• Longer: Geeer-many
• Louder: GER-many
• Higher pitched: Ger^many

Circles

All these circles you see all over the post are neither bubbles nor emoticons. They are circles representing the syllables of a word. A big circle represents a stressed syllable and a small circle represents an unstressed syllable.

The stress pattern of Germany is Ooo (i.e. three syllables with the stress falling on the first syllable).

Stress Patterns

The number and order of the stressed and unstressed syllables in a word makes its stress pattern. Listen carefully to the stress patterns of the words in the table.

Word	Stress Pattern	Word	Stress Pattern
teacher	Oo	holiday	Ooo
classroom	Oo	September	oOo
exam	oO	revision	oOo
today	oO	seventeen	ooO
principal	Ooo	afternoon	ooO

Stress Patterns Aren't Always Fixed

The stress pattern of a given word may not always be the same. 
A good example to illustrate this is the numbers ending in -teen (i.e. thirteen to nineteen). For instance, the original stress pattern of seventeen is ooO with the stress falling on the ending (also helps distinguishing it from seventy). However, when the number seventeen is used in a sentence and it's followed by a noun, its pattern changes to Ooo.

So we would say: My son is seventeen. 
                                        ooO
BUT: I have seventeen pounds. I've lost seventeen kilos. He died in seventeen seventy.
                  Ooo                                   Ooo                                   Ooo


Now listen to this dialogue between a customer (C) and a shop assistant (S). Make sure you pay attention to the stress patterns.



C: How much is it?

S: It's eighteen pounds and fifty.
         Oo                         Oo
C: Eighty pounds, you say?
    Oo 
S: No, it's eighteen.. and fifty pence.
               oO                  Oo
C: Oh, okay. Here you are.
                      
S: Is it for a gift?

C: Yes, it's for my son's birthday.
                                  Oo
S: I'll wrap it up for you then. How old is your son going to be?
                                                                          Oo
C: It's his thirteenth birthday next week.
              Oo             Oo
S: Thirtieth?
    Oo
C: No, thirteenth!
          oO