Word Stress

Output No. 1

English 8

Submitted by:
Von Edric C. Josafat
Student – Grade 8 Sunflower

Submitted to:

Mrs. Angeline Quiachon Elisan

English Teacher

Word Stress Matters

The sentence may be understandable to someone:

“Dessert is my favorite in every party!”

But when you start saying this to a friend, a native English speaker, he
might look confused and may ask: “Why? It’s just sand and has no life. It could
also be dangerous!”
 Then it turns to be a puzzle. Do you know the source of the problem?

The problem here is word stress. I got the word (“dessert” — the sweet
heavenly thing) right, but if I say it with the emphasis in the wrong place and
the word will sound like “desert” — a dry perilous place.

This is one example of how important word stress is help one pronounce
and speak English like a native English speaker.

Meaning of Word Stress?

The individual sounds of a word (i.e. syllables) are not pronounced with
the same weight. One syllable receives more emphasis than the others.

Example: “beautiful”

There are three syllables in the word /BEAU-ti-ful/ and the word stress
falls on the first one /BEAU/ (the stress in a word is being capitalize and all
the letters that make up the syllable).

That is the definition of word stress.

Here are more examples:

1. compound

Noun: COMpound “The armed men lived in a compound.”

Verb: comPOUND “Current arm policies compound the problems.”
2. conduct

Noun: CONduct “The conduct of the student leaders was unacceptable.”

Verb: conDUCT “The Congress conducts an enquiry.”

3. conflict

Noun: CONflict “They’re reporting armed conflict in Basilan.”

Verb: conFLICT “President Duterte’s opinion conflicted with my opinion.”

4. contract
 Noun: CONtract “Have you signed the contract Jean?”
Verb: conTRACT “The Philippine economy is contracting.”

5. contrast

Noun: CONtrast “There’s a big contrast between the two.”

Verb: conTRAST “The artist contrasted the two pictures.”

6. contest
Noun: CONtest “Julia entered a beauty contest.”
Verb: conTEST “Grade 7 contested the results of the survey.”

7. detail

Noun: DEtail “It’s only a minor detail.”

Verb: deTAIL “The painting details the struggle of Filipinos with poverty.”

8. escort

Noun: EScort “Reina needs an escort to get through security.

Verb: esCORT “Von escorted her out of the door.”

9. insert

Noun: INsert “Put a the inserts in this text Angel.”

Verb: inSERT “Angel inserted a few words into the paragraph.”

10. insult

Noun: INsult “Their offer is too low and it seems an insult.”

Verb: inSULT “Don’t insult me!”

11. invite

Noun: INvite “I sent her invite to the party.”

Verb: inVITE “Josh and Aaron invited me to their school.”

12. misprint
 Noun: MISprint “A misprint in the book would cause a reprint.”
Verb: misPRINT “The publisher misprinted the word.”

13. object

Noun: OBject “Don’t let her treat you like an object!”

Verb: obJECT “She objects to the idea of same sex marriage.”

14. permit

Noun: PERmit “Do you need a permit to get the examination?”

Verb: perMIT “She won’t permit him to enter the room.”

15. perfume
Noun: PERfume “He bought her a bottle of perfume as a present.”
Verb: perFUME “The sweet orchids perfumed their garden.”

16. present

Noun: PREsent “Edward gave her mom a present.”

Verb: preSENT “The doctor is going to present his findings to the family.”

17. protest

Noun: PROtest “There is a student protest tomorrow.”

Verb: proTEST “They are protesting against the new school policy.”

18. refuse

Noun: REfuse “The refuse collectors are going to make a strike.”

Verb: reFUSE “The teachers refused permission.”

19. reject

Noun: REject “That is one of the rejects from the production.”

Verb: reJECT “The teacher rejected his alibis.”

20. rewrite
 Noun: REwrite “It is a rewrite of the old declamation piece.”
Verb: reWRITE “I will rewrite your story.”

21. subject

Noun: SUBject “What subjects do you study everyday Carlo?”

Verb: subJECT “The gay community was subjected to harsh criticism.”

22. survey

Noun: SURvey “The students did a popularity survey yesterday.”

Verb: surVEY “They surveyed over 2000 people in the campus.”

23. update

Noun: UPdate “I have some updates for my classmates.”

Verb: upDATE “My teacher will be updating my files.”

24. upgrade

Noun: UPgrade “Jennifer got an upgrade on the movie seat.”

Verb: upGRADE “You need to upgrade your computer software.”

25. upset

Noun: UPset “The victory was an upset in the championship’s game.”

Verb: upSET “You upset me with your unkind remarks.”