Syllable and Syllable Stress

Vasundhara Rawat

1
Examination
Now try breaking each word
Kindergarten into parts and pronounce
again.
Chimpanzee

Fonder

Rat
• Ig-za-mi-na-tion
• Kin-der-gar-ten
• Chim-pan-zee
• Fon-der
• Rat
May be on the basis of
i , a , o ,u , e sounds?

You may wonder we have a name for this:-

Yes, ‘Syllable’ .
 What is a Syllable?
A syllable is the sound of a vowel
that is created while pronouncing the letters
A, E, I, O, U and their combinations.
We can say that,
The number of times that you hear the sound
of a vowel is the number of syllables in a
word.
20 vowel sounds
12 monophthongs
and 8 Dipthongs
Words can be mono-syllabic and polysyllabic.
Ig-za-mi-na-tion 5 syllabic
Examination

Kin-der-gar-ten 4 syllabic
Kindergarten

Chim-pan-zee 3 syllabic
Chimpanzee
Fon-der 2 syllabic
Fonder
Rat Mono syllabic
Rat
 Word stress
All words that have more than
one syllable have word stress .
 How
do we give

to a word
When a syllable is stressed, it is pronounced

 longer in duration
higher in pitch
louder in volume
 Presentation
A stressed syllable is denoted by placing a stress
mark(‘) just before the stressed syllable.
For example, receive will be transcribed as
/ri’si:v/
Look at this
And this..
 Importance of word stress
 Mistakes in word stress are a common cause
of misunderstanding in English.

 Stressing a word differently can change the

meaning or type of the word .

 Stressing the wrong syllable in a word can

make the word very difficult to hear and
understand.
On the other hand, knowing the right syllable
stress can help you understand the words
even in poor audibility.

Fluent English speakers use word stress to

communicate rapidly and accurately.
 Look at these words

Photograph PHO-to-graph

Photographer Pho-TO-gra-pher

Photographic Pho-to-GRA-phic
 Word stress Rules
 We can only stress vowels, not the
consonants.
 When a multi-syllable word has a long vowel,
usually this is stressed.
emplo’yee exam: ig-’zam
 Stress is usually on the first syllable of 2
syllablic nouns
'pen/cil 'a/pple 'prin/ter 'Chi/na
 And 2 syllable adjectives
'o/pen 'fa/mous ‘cle/ver 'clum/sy
 Stress is usually on the last or ultimate syllable
of 2 syllable verbs.
re/'view de/'cide be/'gin o/'bey
 Examples
1• Her ‘conduct is good. (noun)
• She con’ducts herself well. (verb)

2•-What is our ‘import policy. (adjective)

• We im’port this item from USA (verb)

3•-He was ‘present here yesterday . (adjective)

• Please pre’sent your case . (verb)

4•-Tell me the ‘object of your case. (noun)

• I ob’ject to your ideas. (verb)

5•What are your ‘subjects of study? (noun)

• He was sub’jected to torture. (verb)
 Stress is on the penultimate syllable
(penultimate means ‘second from end’) for
words with the endings below:
Words ending in -ic 'gra/phic
ge/o/'gra/phic, a/'ller/gic, e/'ccen/tric, al/co/'ho/lic
Words ending in -sion and -tion
de/mon/'stra/tion, e/du/'ca/tion, in/for/'ma/tion,
a/'dop/tion,
Words ending in -ious
de/'li/cious, 'glo/rious, 'con/scious,
Stress on ante-penultimate syllable (ante-
penultimate means ‘third from end’) for words
with the endings below:
Words ending in -cy, -ty, -phy and -gy
de/'mo/cra/cy, de/pen/da/'bi/li/ty,
pho/'to/gra/phy, ge/'o/lo/gy, 'sa/ni/ty
Words ending in -al 'cri/ti/cal, ge/o/'lo/gi/cal,
'e/thi/cal
Words ending in -ise 'su/per/vise, 'or/ga/nise,
'e/xer/cise, 'ad/ver/tise, 're/cog/nise
Words ending in -ate co/'mmu/ni/cate, 're/gu/late,
a/'ppre/ci/ate, 'cal/cu/late, 'con/cen/trate
• Examination Ig-za-mi-’na-tion

• Kindergarten ‘Kin-der-gar-ten

• Chimpanzee Chim-pan-’zee

• Fonder ‘Fon-der

• Rat ‘Rat
THANK YOU!