Learning English

Stress in long words

In any word with more than one syllable, one syllable will be 'stressed'. This means it is pronounced in a stronger way than the other syllable or syllables in the word. When a word has three, four or even more syllables it can be difficult to work out where the stress goes. Tim has some advice on this topic in this video.

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Summary

If you're not sure where the stress comes in a word, the best thing to do is to check in a dictionary. In the sound transcription of the word you will see the symbol ' before the stressed syllable. 

When writing down new words it's a good idea to make a record of the stress pattern as well. You can use sound transcription or other methods, such as writing the stressed syllable in a different colour, or in capital letters.

There are some general rules for stress, particularly with certain suffixes.

Many common two syllable nouns and adjectives have stress on the first syllable:

• WAter
• FINGer
• PEOple
• UGly

Generally prefixes and suffixes aren't stressed in English. However, the following suffixes are stressed:

• -ee => employEE, payEE, 
• -ese => BurmESE, VietnamESE
• -eer => enginEER, voluntEER

If a word has the following suffixes, the stress is usually on the syllable before the syllable with the suffix, no matter what the stress of the base word is.

• -ive => deCIsive, exCLUsive
• -ity => disaBIlity, QUALity
• -graphy => phoTOGraphy, geOGraphy
• -logy => techNOlogy, geOlogy
• -ious/-eous => PREcious, simulTAneous

The same is also true for the following suffixes:

• -ient, -iant, -ial, -ion, -ic, -ian, -ical, -iate, -iary, -iable, -ish, -ify, -ium, -ior, -io, -iar, -ible

To do

Using your knowledge, this page and/or a dictionary, see if you can get the right stress.

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Many thanks to the staff and students of Rose of York Language School for their help with this feature.

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