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Word Stress

English is a syllable stressed language and you need some knowledge of which syllable is stronger or stressed than other syllables to convey the right meaning.

Mistakes in word stress are a common cause of misunderstandings in oral presentations.

Word stress is particularly difficult when using new or unfamiliar vocabulary so it is always important to check the correct word stress or pronunciation before using the word in a presentation.

Listening #1 - Syllable Stress
Listen and tick either A or B ... whichever has the correct pronunciation

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Now listen to the words used in the passage below describing the Island of Fiji. Pay special attention to the words in bold and listen to the syllable stress. Discuss the correct syllable stress with a partner and highlight the parts of the words that you both agree should be stressed.

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Fiji is a tropical island in the Pacific Ocean

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Stress in two-syllable words
Listen to this description of a village in the north of England.  All the green highlighted nouns and adjectives have two syllables. Notice how they are pronounced.

Cartmel's a lovely little village in Cumbria. It's by a river and the buildings are all made of stone. There are lots of gardens with flowers, and the people are really friendly. It's in a valley withforests and you can see the mountains in the distance. It's famous for its old church, the horse races in summer, and the superb fishing.

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Listen to this description of a village in the north of England and mark the words in your book to show the syllable stress.

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Listen to this advice for a visitor to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Check the passage in you book and focus on all the blue verbs which have two syllables. Notice how they are pronounced.

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Some words are both nouns and verbs. For example, record is a noun if you put stress on the first syllable, and a verb if you put stress on the second syllable.  Listen to these examples. You will hear each word twice, first as a noun and then as a verb. Repeat them after the speaker.

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Listening 3 Syllable Stress In Nouns And Verbs.m4a

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Underline all the examples of nouns and adjectives with a stressed first syllable   in this text. There are 19 in total.  Listen then check

This is a picture of a kitchen. There's a basket with apples, lemons and an orange. There are a few onions and carrots, and there's a cupboard with some sugar and coffee. There are yellow curtains with a flower pattern in the window. Outside, there's a garden and the weather is sunny

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Underline all the examples of nouns and adjectives with stressed syllable at the front. There 19 in total.

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Listen and underline the word with a different stress pattern from the others.

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Pronunciation 4 Find The Different Stress Pattern.m4a

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Listen and write the words in the box in the correct part of the table according to their stress pattern.

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Say each word below and combine it with either of these endings -ion or -ic to make a new form of the word. Listen and check some examples.

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Sentence Stress - Listen to the speaker say the following sentences with stress on different words. Notice how the change stress in the sentence changes the meaning slightly in each one.

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Listen to the speaker say out loud an extract from the TedTalk. Mark the pauses // and underline the focus/content words. Practice reading the extract with the same pauses and stress as the speaker.

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Listen to the speaker read Tip 1 and mark the speech units or pauses with //

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Listen and highlight/underline the content words that the speaker stresses to give meaning to the message.

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Listen and use arrows to indicate where the speaker's voice goes up and where it goes down.

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Listen to the speaker and practice using the same intonation and pausing for each speech unit and for the whole passage.