pronunciation (noun): the way in which we pronounce a word
pronounce (verb): to make the sound of a word
"Pronunciation" refers to the way in which we make the sound of words.
To pronounce words, we push air from our lungs up through our throat and vocal chords, through our mouth, past our tongue and out between our teeth and lips. (Sometimes air also travels through our nose.)
To change the sound that we are making, we mainly use the muscles of our mouth, tongue and lips to control the shape of our mouth and the flow of air. If we can control the shape of our mouth and the flow of air correctly, then our pronunciation is clearer and other people understand us more easily.
Speakers of different languages tend to develop different muscles of the mouth for pronunciation. When we speak a foreign language, our muscles may not be well developed for that language, and we will find pronunciation more difficult. By practising the foreign language pronunciation, our muscles develop and pronunciation improves.
As well as creating correct vowel and consonant sounds using the muscles of our mouth, tongue and lips, there are other important aspects of pronunciation, including:
- word stress - emphasis on certain syllables in a word
- sentence stress - emphasis on certain words in a sentence
- linking - joining certain words together
- intonation - the rise and fall of our voice as we speak
Note the spelling of the verb pronounce and the noun pronunciation (NOT pronounciation).
Word Stress
Word stress is your magic key to understanding spoken English. Native speakers of English use word stress naturally. Word stress is so natural for them that they don't even know they use it. Non-native speakers who speak English to native speakers without using word stress, encounter two problems:
- They find it difficult to understand native speakers, especially those speaking fast.
- The native speakers may find it difficult to understand them.
In this lesson we look at the most important aspects of word stress, followed by a short quiz to check your understanding:
- Understanding Syllables for Word Stress
- What is Word Stress?
- Why is Word Stress Important?
- Where do I Put Word Stress?
- Word Stress Rules
- Word Stress Quiz
Understanding Syllables
syllable (noun): a unit of pronunciation that has one vowel sound, and may or may not be surrounded by consonants. A syllable can form a whole word or part of a word. For example, there is one syllable in cat, two syllables in monkey and three syllables in elephant.
To understand word stress, it helps to understand syllables.
Every word is made from syllables.
Each word has one, two, three or more syllables.
Every word is made from syllables.
Each word has one, two, three or more syllables.
| word | number of syllables | |
|---|---|---|
| dog | dog | 1 |
| green | green | 1 |
| quite | quite | 1 |
| quiet | qui-et | 2 |
| orange | or-ange | 2 |
| table | ta-ble | 2 |
| expensive | ex-pen-sive | 3 |
| interesting | in-tres-ting in-te-res-ting | 3 or 4 |
| unrealistic | un-rea-lis-tic | 4 |
| unexceptional | un-ex-cep-tio-nal | 5 |
Notice that (with a few rare exceptions) every syllable contains at least one vowel (a, e, i, o or u) or vowel sound.
What is Word Stress?
In English, we do not say each syllable with the same force or strength. In one word, we accentuate ONE syllable. We say one syllable very loudly (big, strong, important) and all the other syllables very quietly.
Let's take 3 words: photograph, photographer and photographic. Do they sound the same when spoken? No. Because we accentuate (stress) ONE syllable in each word. And it is not always the same syllable. So the "shape" of each word is different.
Listen to these words. Do you hear the stressed syllable in each word?
3 syllables, stress on #1PHO-TO-GRAPH
https://www.englishclub.com/audio/pronunciation/pho-tograph.mp3
4 syllables, stress on #2
PHO-TO-GRAPH-ER
https://www.englishclub.com/audio/pronunciation/photo-grapher.mp3
4 syllables, stress on #3
PHO-TO-GRAPH-IC
https://www.englishclub.com/audio/pronunciation/photograph-ic.mp3
This happens in ALL words with 2 or more syllables: TEACHer, JaPAN, CHINa, aBOVE, converSAtion, INteresting, imPORtant, deMAND, etCETera, etCETera, etCETera
The syllables that are not stressed are weak or small or quiet. Fluent speakers of English listen for the STRESSED syllables, not the weak syllables. If you use word stress in your speech, you will instantly and automatically improve your pronunciation and your comprehension.
Try to hear the stress in individual words each time you listen to English - on the radio, or in films for example. Your first step is to HEAR and recognise it. After that, you can USE it!
There are two very important rules about word stress:
- One word, one stress. (One word cannot have two stresses. So if you hear two stresses, you have heard two words, not one word.)
- The stress is always on a vowel.
Why is Word Stress Important?
Word stress is not used in all languages. Some languages, Japanese or French for example, pronounce each syllable with eq-ual em-pha-sis.
Other languages, English for example, use word stress and pro-NOUNCE DIF-fer-ent SYL-la-bles with more or less im-POR-tance.
Word stress is not an optional extra that you can add to the English language if you want. It is part of the language! Fluent English speakers use word stress to communicate rapidly and accurately, even in difficult conditions. If, for example, you do not hear a word clearly, you can still understand the word because of the position of the stress.
Think again about the two words photograph and photographer. Now imagine that you are speaking to somebody by telephone over a very bad line. You cannot hear clearly. In fact, you hear only the first two syllables of one of these words, photo... Which word is it, photograph or photographer?
Of course, with word stress you will know immediately which word it is because in reality you will hear either...
PHO-TO...
or
PHO-TO...
https://www.englishclub.com/audio/pronunciation/photo2.mp3
So without hearing the whole word, you probably know what the word is...
PHO-TO...GRAPH
https://www.englishclub.com/audio/pronunciation/pho-tograph.mp3
or
PHO-TO...GRAPH-ER
https://www.englishclub.com/audio/pronunciation/photo-grapher.mp3
It's magic! (Of course, you also have the context of your conversation to help you.)
This is a simple example of how word stress helps us understand spoken English–especially rapid spoken English. There are many, many other examples, because we use word stress all the time, without thinking about it.
Where do I Put Word Stress?
There are some word stress rules about which syllable to stress. But...the rules are rather complicated! Probably the best way to learn is from experience. Listen carefully to spoken English and try to develop a feeling for the "music" of the language.
When you learn a new word, you should also learn its stress pattern. If you keep a vocabulary book, make a note to show which syllable is stressed. If you do not know, you can look in a dictionary. All dictionaries give the phonetic spelling of a word. This is where they show which syllable is stressed, usually with an apostrophe (') just before or just after the stressed syllable. (The notes in the dictionary will explain the system used.)
Look at (and listen to) this example for the word plastic. There are two syllables and the first syllable is stressed.
PLAS-TIC
https://www.englishclub.com/audio/pronunciation/plastic.mp3
| phonetic spelling for plastic | |
|---|---|
| dictionary A | dictionary B |
| /plæs' tIk/ | /'plæs tIk/ |
Notice that dictionary A uses a different system to dictionary B to show which syllable is stressed. Of course, it's the same word (plastic), and the stress is the same (the first syllable). But dictionary A puts an apostrophe after the stressed syllable, and dictionary B puts an apostrophe before the stressed syllable. You need to check your dictionary's notes to know which system it uses.
Word Stress Rules
There are two very simple rules about word stress:
- One word has only one stress. (One word cannot have two stresses. If you hear two stresses, you hear two words. Two stresses cannot be one word. It is true that there can be a "secondary" stress in some words. But a secondary stress is much smaller than the main [primary] stress, and is only used in long words.)
- We can only stress vowels, not consonants.
Here are some more, rather complicated, rules that can help you understand where to put the stress. But do not rely on them too much, because there are many exceptions. It is better to try to "feel" the music of the language and to add the stress naturally.
A. Stress on first syllable
| rule | example |
|---|---|
| Most 2-syllable nouns | PRESent, EXport, CHIna, TAble |
| Most 2-syllable adjectives | PRESent, SLENder, CLEVer, HAPpy |
https://www.englishclub.com/audio/pronunciation/stress-a.mp3
B. Stress on last syllable
| rule | example |
|---|---|
| Most 2-syllable verbs | preSENT, exPORT, deCIDE, beGIN |
https://www.englishclub.com/audio/pronunciation/stress-b.mp3
There are many two-syllable words in English whose meaning and class change with a change in stress. The word present, for example is a two-syllable word. If we stress the first syllable, it is a noun (gift) or an adjective (opposite of absent). But if we stress the second syllable, it becomes a verb (to offer). More examples: the words export, import, contract and object can all be nouns or verbs depending on whether the stress is on the first or second syllable.
C. Stress on penultimate syllable (penultimate = second from end)
| rule | example |
|---|---|
| Words ending in -ic | GRAPHic, geoGRAPHic, geoLOGic |
| Words ending in -sion and -tion | teleVIsion, reveLAtion |
https://www.englishclub.com/audio/pronunciation/stress-c.mp3
For a few words, native English speakers don't always "agree" on where to put the stress. For example, some people say teleVIsion and others say TELevision. Another example is: CONtroversy and conTROversy.
D. Stress on ante-penultimate syllable (ante-penultimate = third from end)
| rule | example |
|---|---|
| Words ending in -cy, -ty, -phy and -gy | deMOcracy, dependaBIlity, phoTOgraphy, geOLogy |
| Words ending in -al | CRItical, geoLOGical |
https://www.englishclub.com/audio/pronunciation/stress-d.mp3
E. Compound words (words with two parts)
| rule | example |
|---|---|
| For compound nouns, the stress is on the first part | BLACKbird, GREENhouse |
| For compound adjectives, the stress is on the second part | bad-TEMpered, old-FASHioned |
| For compound verbs, the stress is on the second part | underSTAND, overFLOW |
https://www.englishclub.com/audio/pronunciation/stress-e.mp3
Word Stress Quiz
You can do this quiz online or print it on paper. It tests your understanding of the word stress pages. For each question, the correct choice is the one in which the stressed syllable is capitalized, as in voCABulary.
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