A better guide to effective mastering of English stress

Stress placement on words that end in -ate, -ify -logy, -al, and -phy = audio embedded for repeated practice and drill

Sep 26, 2022

Words that end in -ATE, -IFY, AL, -LOGY, and -PHY have their stress on the antepenultimate syllable—third syllable from the end.

In this week’s newsletter, I’m going to reveal to you the secrets of mastering stress patterns effectively in English and what you need to pronounce English words with the appropriate stress placement.

To get a full grasp of the nature and dynamics of stress in English, please read

Pre-Varsity English

Introduction to the study of English stress

Stress is an aspect of suprasegmental features of English pronunciation. The other two aspects are rhythm and intonation. The mastery of these three features is essential for effective oral communication in the English language. However, I’ve found out from my experience that many students merely memorize the stress rules without actually pronouncing En…

3 years ago · 5 likes · 2 comments · Francis Ikuerowo

In my experience in class and with my students, I’ve discovered that many students only master or rather cram the syllables which carry the stress in words but never take conscious efforts to articulate the stress in that syllable. In many cases, many students cannot recognize which syllable carries a particular stress when a native speaker pronounces a word. They learn stress placement for the sake of passing their exams. I must say that this is a poor approach to language learning and mastery.

In Introduction to the study of English stress, I wrote that “…in English, stressed syllables are louder than non-stressed syllables. Also, they are longer and have a higher pitch.”

Stress, I’ve argued, is better learnt by drills—intensive instruction or training in something, typically by means of repeated exercises. Today, we’re going to do just that.

In the long run, after repeated practice and drills, even when you’re tempted to pronounce a word with a wrong stress placement, your brain wouldn’t comply. Why? It has been reconfigured, reformatted, and reprogrammed to function the right way.

For the sake of this class, the letters of the syllable that carries the stress are written in capital letters. When you produce this word, be honest with yourself; the three qualities of stress must be found: loudness, higher pitch, and longer than the other syllables. This involves extra effort and some degree of vocal force which invariably makes your breath go up, as in when you say MIIIIII. Does your breath go up when you say MIIII? Pronounce REAsonable, dePARTment, SOcialize, and FEminism. Be honest with yourself. Then, play the embedded audio below.

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Did my pronunciation sound like yours? If yes, good job. If no, don’t worry, you’re in the right place to learn stress patterns.

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When I teach stress patterns in class, I teach it in such a way that my students can pronounce words independently with the correct stress placement and also recognize the correct stress placement when a native speaker pronounces some words..

You might not believe it. Mastering English stress is a step to effective communication in the language; your ticket to getting the gift of the gab — the ability to speak with eloquence and fluency.

By now, you should’ve been able to pronounce a couple of words correctly by yourself. If you put the stress placement wrongly, change your breath and articulate the syllable with some some vocal force, with emphasis on loudness, length, and higher pitch. Let’s consider the words below.

comPEtitive, deCOrum, aBIlity, reLAtionship, conTRIbute, appliCAtion, indePENdence, engiNEER

Before you play the audio below, try to pronounce the words above and see if you’d get them right.

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