Learn Syllable Stress - English Pronunciation - Improve Your English pronunciation 2

This is video 2 in my series on English  pronunciation. In this video, I’m going  

to introduce the importance of syllable  stress when pronouncing English words.  

In the first video of this series on  pronunciation, I explained that a syllable  

is a single unit of pronunciation – and each  English word is made up of 1 or more syllables.  

For English words with more than one syllable,  there is a natural stress to the word. A stressed  

syllable is a syllable that you pronounce with  louder volume than an unstressed syllable.

For example: Helmet (the first  syllable of this word is stressed)

You don’t pronounce the word:  helMET (that’s incorrect)

Another example: Hotel (the second  syllable of this word is stressed)

You don’t pronounce the word  HOtel (that’s incorrect)

Let’s look at some longer words  and see where the stress lies.

Accountant (second syllable) Understand (first and third) 

Fascinate (first and third) Intelligent (second and fourth)

If you look up a word in a dictionary, it will  usually tell you which syllable or syllables  

are stressed. Knowing where the stress is can be  important for many reasons. One immediately useful  

reason is, syllables that are not stressed will  often receive the “uh” sound – especially when  

the unstressed syllable comes between stressed  syllables. Let’s look at some examples.

Uh COUNT unt UND uhr STAND 

FASC uh NATE In TELL uh GENT 

Fi NAN shull PROP uh SI shun 

IN CONT truh VERT uh bull IN stuh TOO shun ull uh ZAY shun

Stress tells you more about how to pronounce  a word sometimes than spelling does.

In later videos, I’ll show you  more about how to use stress  

to make your sentences sound  more like native speakers.

But let’s look at one more interesting  fact about syllable stress. There are a  

few dozen words in English which actually change  meaning depending on which syllable is stressed.  

Let’s look at some significant examples:

First, some words change from a noun to  a verb depending on stress. For example:

CONflict is the noun… when two  people don’t agree on something, they 

Have a CON flict with each other. 

conFLICT is the verb… your story and  my story disagree, they CONFLICT.

CONtrast is the noun… there is a  CONtrast between our views and their 

Views. They aren’t the same. conTRAST the verb…  

compare and contrast these two poems, show the differences between them. 

IMport is a noun that means  something brought in from outside the 

Country. This coffee is an import from Bali. ImPORT is the verb meaning to bring something in.  

We imported this Coffee from Bali.

Some words change their meaning entirely  depending on stress. For example:

AD-dress an address is where someone  lives or where they can be reached. 

What is your email address? A-DRESS means to speak to someone directly.  

I want to address my remarks to Everyone on the council. 

CON-sole is an area for the controls of some  

equipment or machine. I have an X-box gaming console. 

Con-SOLE is a verb meaning to comfort  someone. I consoled her after dad’s death. 

SUB-ject is a topic. The subject of  today’s lesson is syllable stress. 

Sub-JECT is a verb meaning to impose  something or to make someone endure 

Something. “I don’t want to  subject you to another test.”

Notice the “uh” sound in many of  the unstressed syllables above

Uh-DreSS 

Cun-SOLE Sub-JECT

But it doesn’t always work – AD-dress,  

CON-sole, SUB-ject. This isn’t a 100% rule.  Nothing in English pronunciation is 100%!

Now, let’s do some practice. Try to notice  where the stress is on each of these words:

Adjective AD ject IVE Verbalize VERB ull IZE 

Refuse ruh FUZE Determined duh TER mund 

Wonderful WON dur FUL Sanctimonious SANC tuh MO nee us