Word Stress - I

 

Word Stress - I

English is an international language that has to be spoken with a proper accent and rhythm. Accent refers to the stress with which a word is pronounced in English. This word accent differs from language to language. The word accent or stress means a particular syllable in a word that is stressed with much more prominence than other syllables. This kind of prominent stress is called Primary Stress, which is usually indicated by a vertical bar, (ˈ) in front of the syllable. In most Indian languages, primary stress occurs on the first syllable. Secondary stress is indicated by (ˌ) bar at the bottom of a syllable.

Generally, monosyllabic words always take primary stress on the first syllable. For example, map, bat, car, tea.

Words that take more than one syllable may take different stress patterns. Disyllabic words accent on both the first and second syllable. The following exercises will help practise stress patterns. The highlighted words indicate Primary Stress. Whereas, the nonhighlighted words indicate the Secondary Stress syllables.

Fa – ther

Wa – ter

Doc – tor

Can – teen

For – get

Re – cord

Trisyllabic Words accent on both the first and the second syllables.

Beau – ti – ful

Go – vern – ment

Dra – ma – tist

Dra – ma- tic

Af – fec – tion

As – sess – ment

Like these, there are a lot of words in English with different stress patterns. We will discuss those patterns in the next post.

Author

K. Nandhakumar

Assistant Professor of English

Sri Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya College of Arts and Science

Coimbatore-641 020