Reduce your Accent: Syllables Words and Sentences

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

Teach Me the basics of syllables

Syllables: The Building Blocks of Words

We can divide the pronunciation of a word into units called syllables. There are words made of just one syllable, and longer words made of two or more syllables. For instance, the word dad has one syllable, father has two syllables and grandfather has three syllables.

Sounds: The Building Blocks of Syllables

Just as we can break down a word into syllables, we can similarly break down syllables into sounds. To put it another way, sounds are the building blocks of syllables.

The shortest syllable has only one building block, i.e. one sound and that sound will always be a vowel sound. The vowel sound is the core of the syllable. For instance, the word eye /aɪ/ has one syllable and that syllable is just one vowel sound long.

Syllables Longer than One Vowel Sound

The vowel sound of a syllable may have a consonant before it (CV), a consonant after it (VC) or have one consonant preceding it and one following it at the same time (CVC).

Look at the table for examples of such words. For the sake of simplicity only one-syllable words were used this time. (Tip: Always listen to the audio and repeat multiple times.)

CV	VC	CVC
do /du/	of /əv/	pen /pen/
key /kiː/	ape /eɪp/	cook /kʊk/
high /haɪ/	eat /iːt/	rice /raɪs/
know /nəʊ/	eight /eɪt/	weight /weɪt/

Of course, the vowel sound can be preceded, followed or surrounded by more than one consonant, as follows:

CCV	VCC	CCVC / CVCC
ski /skiː/	act /ækt/	great /ɡreɪt/
throw /θrəʊ/	elk /elk/	twist /twɪst/

W, Y and R: Consonant or Vowel sounds?

You shouldn't confuse letters with sounds!

As it was explained in Lesson 01, one word may have fewer sounds when pronounced than has letters in writing. Also, letters usually don't correspond to the same sounds.

For example, the letters W and Y sometimes correspond to a consonant sound and sometimes to a vowel sound. More specifically, W and Y are usually considered to be consonant sounds, as in the words witch and yacht.

That is except for when W and Y come after a vowel sound; then they sound as part of the vowel sound, as in the words saw and say.

The same applies to the letter R. In general it has a consonant sound, as in carrot, but when it comes after a vowel sound it's pronounced as an extension of that vowel, as in car or arm.

The Syllables in Writing and in Pronunciation

In writing, most people would divide the word restaurant into three parts or syllables, like this: re-stau-rant. But when we read the word (in British English), we pronounce only two syllables, /ˈrest.rɒnt/. (There is a dot in the middle to separate the two syllables).

Indeed, many words are pronounced with fewer syllables than in writing. Listen to the following examples. Mind the dots separating the syllables.

Word	Pronunciation	Syllables
vegetable	ˈvedʒ.təbl	2
chocolate	ˈtʃɒk.lət	2
interesting	ˈɪn.trə.stɪŋ	3
different	ˈdɪf.rənt	2
lovely	ˈlʌv.li	2
Wednesday	ˈwenz.deɪ	2