Gramática inglesa en audio. The Rules of Word Stress, Part 1

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In English, syllable stress is hugely important for communication. The word “stress” here means saying part of a word louder and holding the sound a little longer than other parts.

For example: movie. I said MO- a little louder and longer than -vie. If I had said, mo-VIE, people probably would have had no idea what I was saying.

In today’s Ask a Teacher, we will tell you some rules of English word stress, a request from our reader Larissa.

Answer:

Hello Larissa,

Thanks for asking! The good news is that English has a few word stress rules. The bad news is that English also breaks those rules from time to time. Still, the rules can act as useful guides.

Before we start, you need to be familiar with syllable counting. If you are not, visit our Ask a Teacher page and read “How to Count Syllables.”

For today, we will focus on two-syllable words.

Ok, let’s begin.

Most two-syllable nouns and adjectives stress the first syllable. Listen to some examples. The word meaning is not important:

quiet
enzyme
coffee
playdate
fussy
table

Some exceptions include “asleep” “machine” and “hotel,” which stress the second syllable. But don’t try to memorize exceptions. You will get to know them from exposure and practice.

2. Two-syllable words that end in -er or -en almost always stress the first syllable, too. It does not matter whether the words are nouns, verbs or adjectives. Have a listen:

smarter
father
writer
listen
open
spoken

3. Most two-syllable verbs and prepositions stress the second syllable. Take a listen:

within
enjoy
involve
around
escape
beneath

Again, there are some exceptions, like the verbs “follow” and “cancel.”

4. Here’s where it gets a little tricky: Some English words can be nouns or verbs, depending on stress. With stress on the first syllable, the following words act as nouns. And on the second, they act as verbs:

record - record
present - present
produce - produce
suspect - suspect
desert - desert

Again, there are exceptions. Some two-syllable words act as nouns or verbs with no change in stress, like “answer,” “promise,” “visit” and “reply.”

All in all, listening and speaking are the best ways to get comfortable with word stress in English. In time, your ear will tell you what sounds correct.