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Apprendre l'anglais > Cours & exercices d'anglais > Exercices d'anglais > test d'anglais n°76222 : Accent tonique - cours

Dans les mots comportant 2 syllabes ou plus, l'une d'elles est accentuée. Cet accent porte sur une voyelle.

un exemple classique

mots

prononciation

nombre de syllabes

syllabe accentuée

PHO TO GRAPH

photographie

3

1re

PHO TO GRAPH ER

photographe

4

2e

PHO TO GRAPH IC

photographique

4

3e

PHO TO GRAPH I CALLY

photographiquement

5

3e

Dans les dictionnaires, à côté de chaque mot, on trouve une écriture phonétique de ce mot.
Une apostrophe est placée devant la syllabe accentuée.

PHO TO GRAPH

/ ˈfəʊ tə grɑ:f /

PHO TO GRAPH ER

fə / ˈ tɒ grəf əɼ /

PHO TO GRAPH IC

fəʊ tə / ˈ græf ɪk /

PHO TO GRAPH I CALLY

fəʊ.tə /ˈgræf.ɪ.kli /

L'accent tonique est très important: exemples

DES SERT

/ dɪ ˈzɜːt /

dessert

DE SERT

/ ˈ de.zət /

désert

(to) RE CORD

/ rɪ ˈ kɔːd /

verbe : enregistrer

(a) RE CORD

/ ˈ rek ɔːd /

nom: disque

Si l'on met l'accent tonique sur la mauvaise syllabe on a peu de chance de se faire comprendre.

Il existe plusieurs règles pour savoir où se trouve l'accent tonique,
mais elles sont compliquées et comportent des exceptions.

Le mieux, lorsque l'on apprend un mot, est d'apprendre en même temps sa prononciation.

En voici quelques-unes

1.

Mots de deux syllabes

nom

accent sur la 1re syllabe

TA ble CHI na

adjectif

accent sur la 1re syllabe

CLE ver HAP py

verbe

accent sur la 2e syllabe

en joy, com plain

ceci pour la plupart des mots, mais il y a des exceptions. Entre autres;

de nombreux verbes qui se terminent en ow, en, y, er, le, ish ont l'accent sur la première syllabe.

follow, open, carry, offer, sparkle, fin ish

Ecoutez

adjectifs

noms

verbes

some (beau/belle) grace ful (gracieux/euse) fi nal (dernier/ère) love ly (ravissant/e) slender (mince) wooden (en bois)
suspect (suspect/e)

pre
sent (présent/e)
gor geous (superbe) hand

sent (cadeau) accent (accent)
contest (combat)
increase (augmentation)
incline (pente)
pre progress (progrès)
protest (protestation)
suspect (suspect)
transport (transport)

ac cent (accentuer)
con test (contester)
in crease (augmenter)
in cline (incliner)
pre sent (présenter)
pro gress (avancer)
pro test (protester)
sus pect (soupçonner)
trans port (transporter)

2.

Mots composés

noms composés

accent sur la 1re partie

greenhouse, steamboat, snowball, rain bow

adjectifs composés

accent sur la 2e partie

red-pered, old- haired, bad -tem fash ioned

verbes composés

accent sur la 2e partie

over flow, under stand, be have, for give

3.

Accent tonique et suffixes

l'accent tonique est sur la dernière syllabe

l'accent tonique est sur la syllabe qui précède le suffixe

Japa NESE mountai NEER

expla NAtion fan TAS tic

L'accent est sur la 2e syllabe avant le suffixe:

a POlogise cer TI ficate

ther

MOmeter bi O graphy

If you per fect your intonation your accent will be per fect.

Le texte de la vidéo est repris dans l'exercice.

Ecoutez-la avec attention et dites pour chaque mot écrit en bleu quelle est la syllabe accentuée.

🎬 Aide : voir la vidéo

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En anglais toutes les syllabes ne se prononcent pas avec la même intensité. Dans les mots comportant 2 syllabes ou plus, l'une d'elles est accentuée. Cet accent porte sur une voyelle. ...

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Learn English with our free online listening, grammar, vocabulary and reading activities. Practise your English and get ready for your Cambridge English exam.

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When a word has more than two syllables in English, one syllable will receive more importance than the others when it is pronounced. This is the syllable that receives the primary word stress. This means that, compared to the other ones, the vowel sound of that syllable will be slightly:

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Fun way to practice Word Stress placement with the 3.000 most frequent words and the New Academic Word List.

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Word Stress Quiz | Pronunciation | EnglishClub

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Test your understanding of English word stress with this fun online multiple-choice quiz. Pronunciation for learners of English.

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Page 3

Here you can find exercises relating to English pronunciation.

Word Stress Pattern Matching

Match the words with the stress pattern. For example, you would match "Italian" with "oOoo", with the second syllable stressed.
Word Stress Pattern Matching - Exercise 1 Word Stress Pattern Matching - Exercise 2 Word Stress Pattern Matching - Exercise 3 Word Stress Pattern Matching - Exercise 4 Nationalities Word Stress Pattern Matching - Exercise 4
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Find The First Stressed Syllable

You will see three words for each question. Choose the word whose first syllable is stressed. The other two words will not have their first syllable stressed.
Find The First Stressed Syllable - Exercise 1 Find The First Stressed Syllable - Exercise 2 Find The First Stressed Syllable - Exercise 3 Find The First Stressed Syllable - Exercise 4
Find The Most Syllables

For each question, choose the word that has the most syllables.
Find The Most Syllables - Exercise 1 Find The Most Syllables - Exercise 2 Find The Most Syllables - Exercise 3 Find The Most Syllables - Exercise 4 Find The Most Syllables - Exercise 5 Find The Most Syllables - Exercise 6

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Pronunciation Exercises, Page Three | esl-lounge Student

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Page 3 Here you can find exercises relating to English pronunciation. Match the words with the stress pattern. For example, you would match "Italian" with "oOoo", with the second syllable stressed.

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When you speak English, do you say the words evenly or do you sing them?

You should be singing!

No, I'm not talking about karaoke.

What I mean is that your intonation and pitch should fluctuate (go up and down)

You should produce some sounds longer than others.

There should be a rhythm to English sentences. It shouldn't sound flat, monotone (all in the same tone) and boring!

I know it sounds like an additional challenge, especially when speaking English is already difficult.

However, when you pronounce every bit of a word and sentence with the same pitch, volume and length, it might make it difficult for native speakers to understand you.

Let's start with a real-life example.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Why Word Stress Matters

In her head, this sentence was understandable to Saskia:
"Dessert is my favorite thing!"
But when she said this to a friend, a native English speaker, he looked confused and asked her:
"Why? It's just sand and has no life. It could also be dangerous!"
Then it was Saskia's turn to be puzzled.

Can you guess the source of the problem?

Well, the problem here is word stress. Saskia got the word ("dessert"-the sweet heavenly thing) right, but she said it with the emphasis in the wrong place and the word sounded like "desert"-a dry perilous place.

This is just one example of how important word stress is to improving your pronunciation and speaking English like a native speaker. Perhaps you don't know much (or anything at all) about the stress in English words yet, but trust me, it's the key to improving your communication skills, both with speaking to a native English speaker and listening to English.

Also, I'm not just telling you how important word stress is. This guide will take you through the basics of this pronunciation challenge and provide you with eight rules to start doing it right.

Learning word stress is a crucial part of becoming an advanced English learner.

In addition to word stress, it is important to learn the pronunciation of the English dialect you want to speak.

What Is Word Stress?

In English, the individual sounds of a word (i.e. syllables-which we'll discuss in just a moment) aren't pronounced with the same weight. One syllable receives more emphasis than the others.

For example, there are three syllables in the word "beautiful" /BEAU-ti-ful/ and the word stress falls on the first one /BEAU/. (Please note that in this guide, I'll demonstrate the stress in a word by capitalizing all the letters that make up the syllable.)

Now that you have the definition of word stress, let's dive deeper into syllables to comprehend word stress.

Identifying syllables to understand word stress

A syllable is a unit of pronunciation that has one vowel sound. A word might have one syllable (like "an" or "can") or more, such as "po-lice" (two syllables), "com-pa-ny" (three syllables), "ne-ce-ssa-ry" (four syllables), etc.

Just for fun, do you know the English word with the most syllables?

The answer is "antidisestablishmentarianism." (The opposition of the belief that there shouldn't be an official church in a country.)

The word has 12 syllables!

Remember that syllables aren't similar to letters. For example, "scratch" has seven letters but one syllable, while "umami" has five letters but three syllables. Whatever the word, pay attention to the vowels because one of them will be where you find the stress of a word.

Features of a stressed syllable

Now you know that you need to emphasize a particular vowel in a specific syllable of a word. However, you might still wonder exactly how to do so. Let's take a look at a native speaker's speech pattern.

When a native speaker stresses a syllable in a word, this is what they do:

Raise the pitch of the syllable to a higher level

Pronounce it with clarity

Create a more distinctive facial movement

Don't forget these five features next time you pronounce a word!

Resources to Perfect Your Word Stress Skills

Before going into the eight rules of word stress, here are some resources to learn about this important factor of English pronunciation:

Forvo - Forvo is definitely one of the more popular audio dictionaries on the market. Translations are provided if you type in a word in English, and a map is shown to give you audio clips of how people say the particular word in varying dialects. For your convenience, we've linked the words in the guide to this resource so you'll be able to hear the pronunciation immediately.

Merriam-Webster - Merriam-Webster is a well-known dictionary and has high-quality definitions-all available offline. It lets you save favorites, has a word of the day and keeps track of recent searches you did. It's also available as an app on both iOS and Android devices. Other dictionaries with pronunciation citations you can check out are MacMillan and Cambridge.

English Club - English Club is a popular site for both English learners and teachers. It provides grammar lessons in small, easy-to-understand parts. There are also fun quizzes and games so you can practice the knowledge you learn. It's entirely free. You can also find more word stress quizzes and exercises from Word Stress Rules and esl-lounge.

1. Nouns and adjectives with two syllables

The rule: When a noun (a word referring to a person, thing, place or abstract quality) or an adjective (a word that gives information about a noun) has two syllables, the stress is usually on the first syllable.
Examples:
table /TA-ble/

scissors /SCI-ssors/

pretty /PRE-tty/,

clever /CLE-ver/

Exceptions: Unfortunately, there are exceptions to this rule. It could be that a word was borrowed from another language or it could be totally random. You just have to learn these "outsiders" by heart. Here are three words you can start with:

hotel /ho-TEL/

extreme /ex-TREME/

concise /con-CISE/

2. Verbs and prepositions with two syllables

The rule: When a verb (a word referring to an action, event or state of being) or a preposition (a word that comes before a noun, pronoun or the "-ing" form of a verb, and shows its relation to another word or part of the sentence) has two syllables, the stress is usually on the second syllable.
Examples:
present /pre-SENT/

export /ex-PORT/

aside /a-SIDE/

between /be-TWEEN/

3. Words that are both a noun and a verb

The rule: Some words in English can be both a noun and a verb. In those cases, the noun has its word stress on the first syllable, and with the verb, the stress falls on the second syllable.

If you've been paying attention, you'll see that this rule is a derivation from the prior two sections and notice some of the same words. However, this is a separate section since those pairs of words are relatively common in English and they're likely to cause misunderstanding due to the same spelling.
Examples:
present /PRE-sent/ (a gift) vs. present /pre-SENT/ (give something formally)

export /EX-port/ (the practice or business of selling goods to another country or an article that is exported) vs. export /ex-PORT/ (to sell goods to another country)

suspect /SU-spect/ (someone who the police believe may have committed a crime) vs suspect /su-SPECT/ (to believe that something is true, especially something bad)

There are, however, exceptions to this rule. For example, the word "respect" has a stress on the second syllable both when it's a verb and a noun.

4. Three syllable words ending in "er" and "ly"

The rule: Words that have three syllables and end in "-er" or "-ly" often have a stress on the first syllable.
Examples:
orderly /OR-der-ly/

quietly /QUI-et-ly/

manager /MA-na-ger/

5. Words ending in "ic," "sion" and "tion"

The rule: When a word ends in "ic," "sion" or "tion," the stress is usually on the second-to-last syllable. You count syllables backwards and put a stress on the second one from the end.
Examples:
creation /cre-A-tion/

commission /com-MI-ssion/

photographic /pho-to-GRA-phic/

6. Words ending in "cy," "ty," "phy," "gy" and "al"

The rule: When a word ends in "cy," "ty," "phy," "gy" and "al," the stress is often on the third to last syllable. Similarly, you count syllables backwards and put a stress on the third one from the end.
Examples:
democracy /de-MO-cra-cy/

photography /pho-TO-gra-phy/

logical /LO-gi-cal/

commodity /com-MO-di-ty/

psychology /psy-CHO-lo-gy/

7. Compound nouns

The rule: In most compound nouns (a noun made up of two or more existing words), the word stress is on the first noun.
Examples:
football /FOOT-ball/

keyboard /KEY-board/

8. Compound adjectives and verbs

The rule: In most compound adjectives (a single adjective made of more than one word and often linked with a hyphen) and compound verbs (a multi-word verb that functions as a single verb), the stress is on the second word.
Examples:
old-fashioned /old-FA-shioned/

understand /un-der-STAND/

Mastering the subject of word stress isn't easy, as there are many rules and exceptions. While native speakers do it naturally, English learners have to get there through a lot of practice and repetition.

These eight English speaking and word stress rules in this guide might seem a bit overwhelming but they work as references. Next time you hear a word or look something up in a dictionary, come back to these rules.

Make it a habit to be more aware of what you learn and soon you'll perfect your pronunciation.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

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Don't Stress Over Word Stress! 8 Rules to Master English Word Stress in No Time

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When you speak English, do you say the words evenly or do you sing them? You should be singing! No, I'm not talking about karaoke. What I mean is that your intonation and pitch should fluctuate (go up and down) You should produce some sounds longer than others.

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Qu’appelle-t-on Accent Tonique en Anglais et Comment l’Utiliser ?

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Vous allez vous lancer dans l’apprentissage de la langue anglaise ? Pensez à vous familiariser sur l’accent tonique en anglais !

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L'intonation constitue en quelque sorte la " mélodie " de la chaîne parlée. La hauteur de la voix (" pitch " en anglais) se modifie continuellement, ces variations donnant lieu à une structure intonative dont dépend l'interprétation de l'énoncé.

La syllabe nucléaire (" nucleus ")

L'unité de base de l'intonation est un groupe de mots que l'on appelle la phrase intonative (" intonation phrase " ou " I.P. " en anglais). Un énoncé complexe peut en comporter plusieurs. Il sera question ici d'énoncés simples qui constituent une seule phrase intonative.

Chaque phrase intonative comporte nécessairement une syllabe qui est proéminente sur le plan intonatif et que l'on appelle la " syllabe nucléaire ".

La syllabe nucléaire par défaut sera la syllabe accentuée du dernier mot de l'énoncé. (" Last lexical item rule " ou " L.L.I. rule " en anglais). Dans les énoncés de ce chapitre, la syllabe nucléaire est soulignée.

Dans la mesure où les mots grammaticaux et " be " ne sont pas accentués, la syllabe nucléaire appartient généralement au dernier mot lexical de l'énoncé. Ainsi on peut proposer comme suite pour l'énoncé " Has anyone seen my papers ? ", l'énoncé suivant : " I can't find them ". Considérez aussi les énoncés suivants :

L'accent nucléaire indique quel message le locuteur souhaite faire passer. Prenons par exemple cet énoncé : " Jane told Bill to ask the new doctor ". Si l'énoncé est considéré hors contexte, il sera " neutre ". Aucune des informations qu'il contient n'est l'objet d'une focalisation spécifique et l'accent nucléaire est donc porté par la syllabe accentuée du dernier mot de l'énoncé, en l'occurrence " doc ". Mais on peut aussi imaginer d'autres possibilités... L'accent nucléaire pourrait être porté par " new ". On comprendrait alors qu'il est important de bien distinguer le nouveau médecin de ses confrères. (Peut-être a-t-on déjà posé la question aux autres médecins). Si l'accent nucléaire est porté par " Bill ", il est suggéré que quelqu'un d'autre que Bill a posé la question au médecin, contrairement à ce qui avait été demandé par Jane. Enfin, si " Jane " porte l'accent nucléaire, cette proéminence permet de créer un énoncé équivalent à " It was Jane who told Bill to ask the new doctor ".

Le placement de l'accent nucléaire dépend du contexte conversationnel. Il est possible d'illustrer ce principe en imaginant différents contextes conversationnels pour un seul et même énoncé. La syllabe nucléaire sera choisie en fonction du sens de l'énoncé qui précède dans le dialogue. Considérons l'énoncé " I'm from the North of England " et imaginons que ce soit la réponse à une question. Quelle question ? C'est le choix de la syllabe nucléaire qui nous l'indiquera. Ainsi pour " I'm from the North of England ", la question était certainement " Where are you from?" alors que si on entend " I'm from the North of England ", la question était plutôt " Which part of England are you from?". Dans les dialogues suivants, la réplique de B reste la même. L'accent nucléaire se déplace en fonction de ce qui vient d'être dit par A :

Le choix de la syllabe nucléaire est également lié à l'importance relative de l'information contenue dans l'énoncé. Il faut replacer l'énoncé dans son contexte pour comprendre ce principe. Ce sont les mots qui apportent des informations nouvelles qui seront marqués par l'accent nucléaire. On pensera au fameux personnage de film, l'espion 007, connu sous le nom de James Bond. Lorsqu'il se présente, James Bond a traditionnellement recours à 2 phrases : " My name is Bond ". (Petite pause). " James Bond ". Dans le premier énoncé, 007 révèle son patronyme. " Bond " constitue donc la syllabe nucléaire. Mais le deuxième énoncé sert à apporter une information nouvelle, à préciser le prénom. L'accent nucléaire se déplace et se trouve sur " James ". Dans le discours cité ci-dessous, l'accent nucléaire est porté à chaque fois par l'élément nouveau :

I'm a smoker. I wouldn't say I was a heavy smoker. I used to smoke a lot. Forty cigarettes a day. Now it's only about five. Of course my family are delighted. They were worried about the health risks smoking brings. Not to mention the money problems my habit caused.

De la même façon, dans les énoncés des dialogues ci-dessous, la syllabe nucléaire appartient à chaque fois à l'élément qui apporte une nouvelle information :

Les contours intonatifs

Rappelons d'emblée que l'intonation de l'anglais ne peut être systématisée aussi parfaitement que la grammaire écrite ou l'accentuation. Nous nous limiterons ici aux cas simples qui reposent sur 1) l'intonation descendante et 2) l'intonation montante afin d'indiquer les tendances les plus répandues. Nous ne pourrons proposer que des indications générales.

Le ton retenu est celui qui caractérise la syllabe nucléaire de l'énoncé, indiqué comme suit :

Notez que dans les deux énoncés cités ci-dessus, c'est l'intonation qui détermine le sens du propos. En choisissant une intonation descendante, (" ↘Sorry! "), le locuteur présente ses excuses. Mais le choix d'une intonation montante traduit une demande que l'on peut gloser ainsi : " Could you repeat that please? ".

Il serait judicieux de commencer par préciser que l'idée selon laquelle l'intonation descendante est exclusivement utilisée pour les affirmations et l'intonation montante pour les questions, est fausse ! Comme nous allons le voir, certaines questions utilisent une intonation descendante.

L'Intonation descendante

- Affirmations/assertions

L'intonation descendante est le ton de l'objectivité. Elle convient pour les énoncés simples et informatifs car elle traduit l'idée de certitude et indique que le destinataire n'est pas sollicité.

- Questions avec mot interrogatif (" wh-questions ")
- Structures impératives
- Exclamations
- Question tags rhétoriques
Le tag n'est pas toujours une vraie question. Il peut constituer un marqueur rhétorique ou une simple formule de politesse.

L'Intonation montante
- Questions fermées (" yes/no-questions ") - Questions avec mot interrogatif (" wh-questions ") répétées ou ayant une fonction expressive
La " wh-question " peut exprimer la surprise, l'inquiétude ou même la colère du locuteur. Dans ce cas, c'est le mot interrogatif se trouvant en tête d'énoncé qui constitue la syllabe nucléaire et le contour montant ainsi amorcé se prolongera dans la suite de l'énoncé. Reprenons ici les questions déjà citées pour l'intonation descendante :

Notez bien que l'intonation montante est également utilisée pour demander à son interlocuteur de répéter ce qu'il/elle vient de dire :
- Question tags demandant confirmation
Lorsque le question tag est prononcé avec une intonation montante, il sert réellement à demander au destinataire de confirmer la véracité de ce qui est dit ; il indique que l'affirmation qui précède n'est pas une certitude. Reprenons les énoncés déjà cités pour l'intonation descendante :

It's warm today, ↗isn't it? (Is it as warm as I think? I haven't been outside yet but you have)
You're pleased, ↗aren't you? (= I think you are pleased but you don't look it)
You stole it, ↗ Peu probable. Si confirmation était demandée, l'accusation ne serait pas fondée.
Mum doesn't want it, ↗does she? (= I suspect you are about to tell me that she does)

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L'intonation constitue en quelque sorte la " mélodie " de la chaîne parlée. La hauteur de la voix (" pitch " en anglais) se modifie continuellement, ces variations donnant lieu à une structure intonative dont dépend l'interprétation de l'énoncé.

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The following are dialogues from Friends with the corresponding transcript and some information about the tonic syllable and the type of tone that the speakers use. Play the video, read the transcript paying attention to the intonation information provided, and then try to reproduce the dialogues imitating the speakers. Exercise 1 […]

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Learn English with our free online listening, grammar, vocabulary and reading activities. Practise your English and get ready for your Cambridge English exam.

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Apprendre l'anglais > Cours & exercices d'anglais > Exercices d'anglais > test d'anglais n°674 : Intonation : montante ou descendante ?

S'agit-il d'une intonation montante (rising) ou descendante (falling)?

Fin de l'exercice d'anglais "Intonation : montante ou descendante ?"
Un exercice d'anglais gratuit pour apprendre l'anglais.
Tous les exercices | Plus de cours et d'exercices d'anglais :

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S'agit-il d'une intonation montante (rising) ou descendante (falling)?