English Stack Exchange
English Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [stress]

Stress refers to which syllable or syllables in a word or phrase are "accented" or receive the most emphasis in their pronunciation.

The symbol for stress in the International Phonetic Alphabet is a raised vertical line /ˈ/ placed before the stressed syllable (a lowered vertical line /ˌ/ marks secondary stress). In English, the placement of stress can serve to differentiate words that are otherwise identical: for example, the verb record /rɪˈkɔrd/ and the noun record /ˈrɛkərd/.

143 questions
5
votes
2 answers

Prosodic stress

What difference do different stress positions make to the meaning of the following sentence: What would you like? What would you like? What would you like? What would you like?
H4iku
  • 161
3
votes
1 answer

Stress in "control" word

I heard the "control" word (and other similar words) stress depends on whether it is a noun or a verb. But I can't find any proof to that. Is it really so?
SiberianGuy
  • 627
2
votes
2 answers

What do we need for a stress in a word?

I am non-native in English, so this question may be a meaningless one or even a silly one. Why do we need a stress on one or more letters in a word? Indeed, a native person can read a word containing stress; even I omit duplicated letters. Is this…
Mikasa
  • 601
2
votes
1 answer

How can I predict the stressed syllable in proper/brand/trademark/foreign nouns?

I often encounter nouns that I hear of for the first time, and I can not determine which syllable to stress. Unfortunately, I can not find most of these nouns in dictionaries to check the stressed syllable. These nouns are most often proper nouns,…
Abdullah
  • 21
2
votes
3 answers

What sort of stress is isochronous in English?

English is oft said to be stress timed, so that strongly stressed syllables should occur at (roughly) the same intervals. For the purposes of this question, please assume that. Is a syllable isochronous because it is stronger than its surrounding…
user99677
2
votes
3 answers

Why is English foot generally regarded as left-dominant foot?

I'm now thinking about the foot in English. This is an unit of rhythm. And I think that the English foot is seen as left-dominant, which is always started with a strong syllable. But I don't know the reason. What do you think the reason is?
Motoki
  • 421
1
vote
1 answer

Initial stress-derived nouns rules and patterns

Is this the correct term for words which are nouns when the first syllable is stressed, and verbs when the second syllable is stressed? Examples include PERmit and perMIT, and CONtract, and conTRACT. There are frequently-occurring suffixes such as…
Ecstatic blender boogie
  • 21
1
vote
3 answers

Can sentence vary non-primary stress?

Can the number and position of non-primary stresses vary depending on the sentence it appears in? E.g. assuming the word catastrophe, in RP, has a stress on the second syllable /kəˈtastrəfi/ Can we sometimes stress the 2nd and 3rd, sometimes the 2nd…
user99677
0
votes
2 answers

How do different stresses change the meaning of the sentence "I don't know"

If one says "I don't know" in 3 different ways, like, when they stress "I", "don't" and "know" respectively. How does the meaning of this sentence change?
Pith
  • 193
0
votes
1 answer

Which syllable is primarily stressed in the word "television"?

I was taught to stress the first syllable of "television", but some dictionaries stress the syllable before -sion. My other question is "Does stressing VI before -sion exist in AmE?
user223941
  • 53
0
votes
2 answers

Why does the stress fall on the antepenult of "carCInogen" but on the preantepenult of "halLUcinogen"?

I note that "carcinogen" might also be stressed on its preantepenult, in which case the question would become why the two words should have their stress so far away from the end when a stress nearer to it sounds easier on the ear (i.e. "carCInogen"…
Catomic
  • 298
0
votes
2 answers

Marking stress for a syllable

In the word 'cartoon', sound is /kɑːtuːn/ word has two syllables, kɑː and tuːn and the syllable tuːn is stressed. But the online dictionaries don't show the dot (.) between these two syllables. but stress mark is marked for the syllable tuːn. Could…
Zidane
  • 11
-1
votes
1 answer

How to decide if the syllable of a word can never be stressed in any sentence

Is there a way of deciding whether the syllable of a word, in RP, can never be stressed in any sentence? E.g. congenital /kənˈdʒɛnɪt(ə)l/ I would assume that '(ə)l' can never be stressed, whatever it appears in. If only because I then say it…
user99677