Fashion, Style, Events, Trends, Promotions, Brands et al.: WORD STRESS PATTERNS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE

English words have certain patterns of stress which you should observe strictly if you want to be understood. The best way to learn English stress is to listen to audio materials and to repeat them after the speaker. The links on the entrance pages of the sections Phonetics, Phrases, and Vocabulary lead to the sites that offer a lot of useful listening materials, including sounds, syllables, words, sentences, and conversations.

An overview of typical English patterns of word stress in this material will help you to recognize and understand word stress when you work with listening materials.

In multi-syllable words the stress falls on one of the syllables while the other syllables tend to be spoken over quickly. This leads to sounds that are not clear (muted) on unstressed syllables. In order to improve your pronunciation, focus on pronouncing the stressed syllable clearly. However, don't be afraid to "mute" (not say clearly) the other unstressed vowels. Listen to the examples by clicking on "listen". Return to this page using the "back" button on your browser.

Note: Main stressed syllable in the word is indicated by capital letters in this material, for example, LEMon. In words with two stresses, capital letters with a stress mark before them show the syllable with primary stress, and small letters with a stress mark before them show the syllable with secondary stress, for example, 'eco'NOMics.

Generally, common English nouns, adjectives, and adverbs are more often stressed on the first syllable than on any other syllable. Verbs with prefixes are usually stressed on the second syllable, i.e., on the first syllable of the root after the prefix. English words can't have two unstressed syllables at the beginning of the word; one of these syllables will be stressed. If a word has four or more syllables, there are usually two stresses in it: primary stress (strong stress) and secondary stress (weak stress). Also, secondary stress may be present (in addition to primary stress) in shorter words in the syllable in which the vowel remains long and strong.

Prefixes are often stressed in nouns and less often in verbs. Suffixes at the end of the word are rarely stressed, except for a few noun, adjective, and verb suffixes that are usually stressed: rooMETTE, 'ciga'RETTE / 'CIGa'rette, Chi'NESE, 'SIGni'fy, 'ORga'nize, 'DECo'rate. In longer derivative words, stress may fall on a suffix or prefix according to typical patterns of word stress. Endings are not stressed.

For example:

Listen to these specific examples:

PersonNEL
TOtally
InDUstrial
ToMAto
FanTAstic

Unstressed syllables keep the correct sound, but sound muted. Sometimes, unstressed vowels become a schwa sound - like a soft "uh" sound.

For example:

Listen to these specific examples:

Little
Repeat
Tomato

At other times, the vowel is pronounced but not stressed.

For example:

Listen to these specific examples:

Industrial
Noisily

With this in mind, here are the eight common word stress patterns in English.

One Syllable - Stressed

All one syllable words have the stress on the one syllable. The intonation should go down. Listen to the general pattern.

EAT
DRINK
SIGN
WELL

Two Syllable - First Syllable Stressed