One important aspect of pronunciation which is often overlooked is stress. Stress is the emphasis given to a part of a word, or to a whole word within a sentence. In this post, we’ll discuss stress within individual words, specifically stress patterns of 2 syllable nouns and verbs.
A word can be broken down into individual syllables, which are units of speech containing one vowel sound plus the consonant(s) surrounding that vowel, if any.
Some examples of words broken down by syllable:
- “Purple” has 2 syllables: pur · ple
- “Internet” has 3 syllables: in · ter · net
- “Pronunciation” has 5 syllables: pro · nun · ci · a · tion
If you’re not sure how many syllables are in a word, you can look up the word in an online dictionary and the word will be broken down as above, with dots between each syllable. Or, another trick is to think of the word as set to music – each syllable would be its own note or beat.
When we talk about “stress in words” in English, we’re talking about the fact that in multisyllabic words, one syllable is pronounced louder and slightly longer than the other syllable(s) in that word. This louder, emphasized syllable is called the stressed syllable of a word. Any remaining syllables in the word are called unstressed syllables.
Here are the same examples above, with their stress indicated by bold letters:
- “Purple” has 2 syllables: pur · ple
- “Internet” has 3 syllables: in · ter · net
- “Pronunciation” has 5 syllables: pro · nun · ci · a · tion
Stress is a very important element of clear English pronunciation, and stressing the wrong syllable can even cause misunderstandings.
In fact, there are a number of word pairs where 2 different words are spelled the same, but sound different due to having different stress. (Stress also affects the actual sounds of the vowels in words, a phenomenon known as vowel reduction, which will be discussed further in a future blog post.) The list below shows some common 2-syllable words that are spelled the same but have different pronunciations and meanings: these words have first syllable stress if they’re nouns, and second syllable stress if they’re verbs (or sometimes adjectives.) For example, the written word “record” has 2 pronunciations: the noun is re·cord and the verb is re·cord. For example: “The band is excited to re·cord a new re·cord.”
It is useful to memorize the most common words which fall into this pattern:
| Word | Noun | Verb or Adjective |
| abstract | ab · stract | ab · stract |
| addict | ad · dict | ad · dict |
| affect | af · fect | af · fect |
| combat | com · bat | com · bat |
| commune | com · mune | com · mune |
| conduct | con · duct | con · duct |
| conflict | con · flict | con · flict |
| console | con · sole | con · sole |
| content | con · tent | con · tent |
| contest | con · test | con · test |
| contract | con · tract | con · tract |
| contrast | con · trast | con · trast |
| convert | con · vert | con · vert |
| convict | con · vict | con · vict |
| defect | de · fect | de · fect |
| desert | de · sert | de · sert |
| discount | dis · count | dis · count |
| escort | es · cort | es · cort |
| export | ex · port | ex · port |
| increase | in · crease | in · crease |
| insert | in · sert | in · sert |
| insult | in · sult | in · sult |
| intrigue | in · trigue | in · trigue |
| object | ob · ject | ob · ject |
| permit | per · mit | per · mit |
| present | pre · sent | pre · sent |
| produce | pro · duce | pro · duce |
| project | pro · ject | pro · ject |
| progress | pro · gress | pro · gress |
| protest | pro · test | pro · test |
| rebel | re · bel | re · bel |
| record | re · cord | re · cord |
| refund | re · fund | re · fund |
| refuse | re · fuse | re · fuse |
| reject | re · ject | re · ject |
| subject | sub · ject | sub · ject |
| suspect | sus · pect | sus · pect |
| transport | trans · port | trans · port |
Interestingly, although there are few hard-and-fast rules about stress in English that are always true, one helpful guideline is that most 2 syllable nouns have stress on the first syllable, and most 2 syllable verbs have stress on their second syllable. The above examples are a stark illustration of this pattern in action.
Do you have more questions about stress in American English, or are you interested in accent training? Reach out and contact me!