Stress in syllables

As last class, today we continued working the stress in different words. In three, four and five syllables with the stress in the beginning, and in the middle also. We have to remember that the stress is in English language, what is the accent for the Spanish language. It is the part you pronounce loudly, making emphasis.

But more specific, we worked with nouns and came clear with some rules:

• In two syllables words, the stress goes for most of the times, in the first part. (i.e. holly, signal, scholar) But there are some exceptions to this rule. (i.e. cigar)
• In three syllables words, the stress goes also for most of the times, in the first part. (i.e. preference, energy, signature).
• In three, four and five syllables ending with –sion/-tion, the stress goes right before this. (i.e. restriction, celebration, elimination).
• In four syllables ending with –ity, the stress goes in the second. (i.e. humidity, community, security). When the ending is in five syllables words, the stress goes in the middle (i.e. opportunity, university).

We worked with adjectives too, in which you normally stress the root. In example, the roots of the words beautiful and horrible, are beauty and horror. So, the stress goes in beautiful, horrible.

We also have to remember that the pronunciation of prefixes and subfixes is weak. (i.e. compare, console)
However, with –ic/-ical, -cial/-tial, -cient/-tient, -cious/-tious, you stress the syllable before the suffix. It doesn’t matter how many syllables it has. In example we have the words:

Theoretical
Superficial
Artificial
Efficient
Patient
Supersticious
Delicious

Native speakers stress the sounds naturally, but we have to make a huge effort in order to get a better pronunciation of the language. If you want to improve yours, go to this page, listen to the audio and try to do some activities by yourself.

If you need more help to understand what stress is and how it works, or maybe you have missed classes, you can access to this websites. They are clear and easy to understand, with tips that will make you feel a little bit confident when you are speaking.

Sounds of English
How to Improve

In the last part of the class, we had an activity. Making the difference between the stress in nouns, adjectives and when you are referring a person. (i.e.)

Noun- Photograph
Adjective- Photographic
Person- Photographer

I have to make clear that, for every rule, there are always exceptions. This is just a guide for us to pronounce stress easily.