{"id":563,"date":"2010-11-20T15:05:41","date_gmt":"2010-11-20T15:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eltweekly.com\/elt-newsletter\/?p=563"},"modified":"2010-11-20T15:05:41","modified_gmt":"2010-11-20T15:05:41","slug":"74-susan-ryans-tip-how-to-use-the-correct-syllable-stress-pattern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eltweekly.humbeestudio.xyz\/?p=563","title":{"rendered":"#74, Susan Ryan\u2019s Tip: How to Use the Correct Syllable Stress Pattern"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stressing syllables correctly in spoken English is often an area of great difficulty for south Asian language speakers.<\/p>\n

Speakers of South Asian languages frequently place stress on the first syllable of a word.\u00a0 However, in spoken American and British English the stress or emphasis may fall on many different syllables.<\/p>\n

When speakers place stress on the wrong syllable it makes it very difficult<\/strong> for native English listeners to understand what they are saying.<\/p>\n

Here is an example.<\/strong><\/p>\n

At a recent Toastmasters meeting here in Florida we were talking about hurricanes. One of our members, a Hindi speaker, said that hurricanes occur when the weather system is de<\/strong>pressed.\u00a0 Looking at the faces of the listeners, I could see that they were confused about what he said.<\/p>\n

What happened? Our member had used the wrong stress pattern when he said the word depressed. The verb depress<\/strong> should be stressed on the second syllable.<\/p>\n

If he had pronounced the word as depressed<\/strong>, with stress on the second syllable, no one would have been confused.<\/p>\n

Here is how English syllable stress works:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every English word has one syllable that receives strong emphasis or stress. The sound of the vowel in a stressed syllable is articulated with a long, high, clear sound. The vowel sounds in the other syllables are reduced.<\/p>\n

Although English syllable stress may seem random there are some predictable patterns one can use to learn this.\u00a0 Here are two of the most common patterns.<\/p>\n

Two-syllable Nouns<\/strong><\/p>\n

The most common stress pattern for two syllable nouns is to stress the first syllable. Stressed syllables are bolded.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 All of the re<\/strong>cords are up to date.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I need to buy some pro<\/strong>duce.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Do you have a min<\/strong>ute?<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That show is a re<\/strong>peat. I\u2019ve seen it before.<\/p>\n

Two-syllable Verbs <\/strong><\/p>\n

A common stress pattern for two syllable verbs is to stress the second syllable. Stressed syllables are bolded.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Did you record <\/strong>the seminar?<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The company has not produc<\/strong>ed much this year!<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There was a delay<\/strong> at the Airport.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Could you please repeat<\/strong> that?<\/p>\n

You can see by saying the above sentences that syllable stress placement is key to creating comprehensible speech!<\/p>\n

*******<\/p>\n

Susan Ryan<\/strong> is an American English pronunciation teacher and accent reduction coach. She currently lives in South Florida. Read more articles by Susan at http:\/\/www.confidentvoice.com\/blog\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stressing syllables correctly in spoken English is often an area of great difficulty for south Asian language speakers. Speakers of South Asian languages frequently place stress on the first syllable of a word.\u00a0 However, in spoken American and British English the stress or emphasis may fall on many different syllables.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","omw_enable_modal_window":"enable","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,39,42,136],"tags":[851,858,1012],"class_list":["post-563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elt-articles-and-research-papers","category-elt-newsletter","category-elt-pronunciaion-tips","category-eltweekly-issue74","tag-elt-newsletter","tag-elt-pronunciaion-tips","tag-eltweekly-issue74","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eltweekly.humbeestudio.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eltweekly.humbeestudio.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eltweekly.humbeestudio.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eltweekly.humbeestudio.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eltweekly.humbeestudio.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/eltweekly.humbeestudio.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eltweekly.humbeestudio.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eltweekly.humbeestudio.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eltweekly.humbeestudio.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}