STRESS PATTERNS IN WORDS
Consonants and vowels combine to form a word. Every English word must
have at least one vowel, but it may or may not have a consonant sound. A
vowel, in other words, is central to a word. A consonant, on the other hand, is
optional. The words eye, ear, oh, ah, for example, have only one vowel but no
consonants. All, cat, spoil, spilt, on the other hand, have one, two, three and
four consonants respectively, in addition to one vowel each.
All three words have only one vowel each and are therefore words of one
syllable each. However, many English words have more than one vowel and
therefore have more than one syllable. In other words, there are as many syllables in a word as there are vowels. For example, the words thirteen (thirteen) and shortage (short-age) have two vowels and therefore two ables each, the words disappear (dis-ap-pear) and educate (e-du-cate) have three vowels
and therefore three syllables each.
Here are a few examples of words stressed on different syllables.
i Words stressed on the first syllable:
Two-syllable words Three-syllable words Longer Words
'husband 'literature 'aristocrat
'stomach 'character 'benefactor
ii Words stressed on the second syllable:
Two-syllable words Three-syllable words Longer Words
Nar'rate ap'pendix par'ticipant
Bal'loon ef'ficient ri'diculous
iii Words stressed on the third syllable:
Three syllable words Four-syllable words Longer Words
Guaran'tee appli'cation irre'sponsible
Engi'neer appa'ratus satis'factory
iv Words stressed on the fourth syllable:
civili'zation
exami'nation
mechani'zation
partici'pation
inferi'ority
The above lists clearly show that stress in individual words has to be learnt
individually.
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