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.
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Idiomatic stress: phrasal verbs
According to the Longman Pronunciation Dict. (See Macmillan here too, and the perspective of Multi-word verbs (MWVs))
Like other phases, a phrasal verb (= a verb word and an adverbial
particle) is ...
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Why do some compound nouns retain stress on the second element (“Madison Avenue”) while most shift stress to the first (“football”)?
Most English compound nouns have primary stress on the first element (e.g., “blackboard”), but proper compounds like “Madison Avenue” or “Mount Everest” retain stress on the second.
What are the ...
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Stress in "agentic"
Wiktionary gives the pronunciation of agentic (meaning agent-based or having agency) as
/eɪˈd͡ʒɛn.tɪk/, /əˈd͡ʒɛn.tɪk/
with the stress on the second syllable.
Why?
The related word agency has its ...
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Why do words such as 'admirable' and 'preferable' have stress on a different syllable than 'admire' and 'prefer'?
admirable /ˈædmərəbl/, preferable /ˈprɛfrəbl/
admire /ədˈmaɪər/, prefer /prɪˈfər/
However, this shift doesn't happen for other words (e.g. 'avoid'/'avoidable', 'afford'/'affordable', and 'convert'/'...
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"Suburb" uncommon stress pattern, regionalism?
I've very occasionally heard "suburb" pronounced with the stress on the second syllable as opposed to the prevailing pronunciation where it falls on the first syllable. This pronunciation is ...
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Stress in binominal classifying expressions with possessive 's
According to Swan's Practical,
In some classifying expressions we use a structure with possessive 's (there are exceptions, such as baby clothes or birdcage), which is common when the first noun ...
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How to pronounce name initials?
Initialisms are usually late-stressed, e.g., CIA /ˌsiaɪˈeɪ/, or mph /ˌempiːˈeɪtʃ/
However, I don't know how to pronounce initials from personal names, such as
J.K. Rowling
J.R.R. Tolkien
O.J. Simpson....
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Rhetorical device in which two intonations of a phrase yield two different meanings?
I am looking for a name for a rhetorical device in which the same string is uttered with two different intonations, yielding two different meanings.
A famous example comes from The Conversation (1974)....
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How to emphasise that you yourself CAN as opposed to the other person being able to, without using typography like capitals or italics in a sentence?
Yesterday I was writing a letter and I stumbled upon a linguistic issue that I couldn't solve in a more elegant way. As such I'm searching for an answer to this puzzle.
I'm Dutch and in my language we ...
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Pronunciation of initialisms from early-stressed compounds
Orange juice is early-stressed, but initialisms are usually late-stressed (e.g., CIA /ˌsiaɪˈeɪ/), so how is OJ pronounced?
Compare knockout /ˈnɒk aʊt/ and KO /ˌkeɪ ˈəʊ/
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Stress pattern in "Little Red Riding Hood"
I was surprised to see that the primary stress in the phrase "Little Red Riding Hood" falls into the first syllable in "Riding". I expected the primary stress would fall into the ...
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Excuse: verb /ɪkˈskjuːz/ vs noun /ɪkˈskjuːs/ - Does this follow a pattern?
I would like to know if the word excuse, with different pronunciations as a noun and a verb (homographs) follows some kind of phonological pattern of SoP conversion (in either direction)
The only ...
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Do compounds ending in "college" have initial stress in British English but final stress in American English?
Zwicky (1986, p. 54) claims that compounds ending in college have initial stress in British English but final stress in American varieties. Thus, Brits would say KING'S college but Americans ...
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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.
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Is "bedsit" more commonly primarily stressed on the first or second syllable?
Bedsit is one of those Britishisms that seem mildly extremely amusing (in a way that's not at all intentionally offensive, insulting, derogatory, incendiary) but not too out of the ordinary, so I just ...
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Why are the words “geography” and “geomancy” stressed differently?
Geography is stressed on the 3rd last syllable while Geomancy on the 1st and 3rd. Why is this the case? Is my guess true that a word having entered the English language for a long time would tend to ...
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Is /ʌ/ really a stressed schwa, appearing only in stressed syllables?
If /ʌ/ occurs only in stressed syllables, why does punctilious /pʌŋkˈtɪliəs/ have it in an unstressed syllable? Same with upbraid /ʌpˈbreɪd/.
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Pronunciation of "es" at the end of the words [duplicate]
Is there a some of kind of rule affecting the pronunciation of "es" coming at the end of a word? In some words I hear "-es" as "ɪz" and in some others I hear it as a &...
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Is there a term for when in Indian English stress is placed on the word "the" before a noun?
I often hear speakers of Indian English place stress-accent on the word "the", with a pause before finishing a sentence with a noun. There's a raised pitch and stress on the word "the&...
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“Upset”: different stress pattern for attributive and predicative use
Today I came across an English adjective which has one stress pattern when used predicatively: her cat died: she's very up‵set, and the other when used attributively: he won't be coming: he has an ‵...
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Do prefixes change the prounciation of stem?
I know some words which have suffixes and these suffixes change the pronunciation of the stem.
For example
sociopath sociopathy (you can check the pronunciations and you will realize that there are a ...
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What are the relative stress order among noun, adj., verb., adv., negative word when they meet in a sentence? Is there grammar sentence stress rules [closed]
the example sentences are, "the dog ate a piece of black meat quickly. " , "Tom bought an extremally interesting book in the store for his brother." I hope get the default sentence ...
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Why does “revocable” have first-syllable stress?
Read the following “canonical” sets of related words, and notice the (uncontroversial) stress patterns:
Renew, renewable, renewably
Regret, regrettable, regrettably
Repeat, repeatable, repeatably
(...
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What could possibly cause the stress shift in adverbs ending in -arily compared to adjectives ending in -ary?
While adjectives ending in -ary (British English /əri/, American English /eri/) never have stress on the second last syllable (the /e/ in AmE, and obviously the /ə/ in BrE), their derivative adverbs ...
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Pronunciation of 'Taxman'
Like Postman /ˈpəʊstmən/, Policeman /pəˈliːsmən/ and Fireman /faɪəmən/, one would assume that Taxman would also be pronounced with a schwa in the man. But this is not the case and it is pronounced /...
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The stress of the prefix 'inter-'
In some words, the stress is on the first syllable of inter, for stance, intercourse, interview, internet, interval.
However, there are also some words, in which the stress is on the second syllable ...
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How is "composite" as a verb pronounced in British English?
I always pronounce "composite" as COM-posite when it is used as an adjective or a noun. But in some technical contexts as "alpha compositing" it is also used as a verb, and in this ...
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Why is emphatic "Yes, I know THAT" okay, but not "Yes, I know IT"?
In the context of this ELL question asking about using pronoun "it" as an object, it struck me that whereas it's perfectly natural to place heavy stress for emphasis on the "...
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How to recognize stressed and unstressed syllables? (E.g. admit vs limit) [duplicate]
I wonder is there any simple rules to recognize is a syllable stressed or unstressed.
When I try to pronounce any word, I don't recognize any of the following features of a stressed syllable: 1) ...
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How many allophones possible of phoneme /ə/ are there in American English? [closed]
I am an ESL student. I want to speak American English fluently.
Due to influence of my local dialect in my country, I only discover that there is [ə ɐ ɪə ɑ] doubtably according to my ear, and native ...
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"Fairly/Quite": stresses for "not exactly small" and "almost huge."
When spoken, the meaning can vary with the tone of voice and stress:
He was fairly/quite big can mean anything from "not exactly small" to "almost huge".
https://en.wiktionary.org/...
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Syllable stress of the word begonias
I am currently studying syllable stress.
When I look at the word begonia we can split it into 3 syllables with the stress on 'go'. E.g bih-gohn-yuh.
However, the plural form of the word gives me 4 ...
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iambic pentameter, stress, and monosyllables
I am studying poetry structure and I am focusing on iambic pentameter at the moment.
From what I have read, there are 10 syllables per line and 5 stressed and 5 unstressed syllables.
It goes ...
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Is modern 'five countries' English the only type of English with stress patterns that change across the entire word depending on the suffix?
The capital letters represent where the main stress in each word lies
TELephone, telePHONic, teLEphony.
PHOTograph, photoGRAphic, photOgraphy.
biOLogy, bioLOGical.
What about in the past, including ...
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syllable stress in pronunciation of frequently used expressions [closed]
I think that the first case in which stress in a frequently used expression starting to gnaw at my mind occurred after hearing someone pronouncing a noun adjunct in a way deviating from the way I was ...
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In the example, who do the pronouns she and her refer to?
Page 277 of Beyond the Segment: Stress, Rhythm and Intonation reads
Jane said she’d been delighted long enough and Margaret offended her.
The nuclear stress rule tells us that nuclear stress falls on ...
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Why are the vowels in "harmony", "harmonic" and "harmonious" pronounced differently?
The "O" in all these words represents a different vowel:
Harmony → /ˈhɑː.mə.ni/
Harmonic → /hɑːˈmɒn.ɪk/
Harmonious → /hɑːˈməʊ.ni.əs/
(UK pronunciations from Cambridge Dictionary)
I know ...
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Comment on the accentual structure of the following word: overvalue
I tried to describe the stress pattern of the word overvalue, but the only thing that I found is that it has the secondary stress. How to describe it fully?
Thanks in advance!
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Stress in the -ing form of verbs with initial-stress-derived nouns
It seems some verbs change the stressed syllable in the -ing form:
proCESS -- PROcessing
transPORT -- TRANsporting
and some do not:
diRECT -- diRECTing
proVIDE -- proVIDing
Is this related with ...
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Is “an historical” correct? [duplicate]
Why do some people say or write an historical but not an ham sandwich or an hint?
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Why can't we say "... of its"?
In a comment on the question Is there any rule regarding when not to use the pattern "noun phrase + of + possessive pronoun"?, such as "a friend of his", John Lawler writes
First ...
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-IZE: unstressed (though strong)
According to the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary
-IZE /aɪz/: This suffix is unstressed (though strong) in Received Pronunciation and General American, but sometimes stressed in other varieties"....
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Each sentence is emphasising a different message depending on the word stress?
I need to talk to our lecturer tomorrow.
I need to talk to our lecturer tomorrow.
I need to talk to our lecturer tomorrow.
I need to talk to our lecturer tomorrow.
I need to talk to our lecturer ...
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Why is chocolate pronounced as CHOK-LATE and not CHO-KO-LATE? [closed]
So there are many words in which one syllable gets reduced.
For example, chocolate could be pronounced as CHO-KO-LATE but instead it's pronounced as CHOK-LATE, it's now 2 syllable word.
Another ...
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Reason for pronunciation differences between different meanings of offense
At least in American English, the word offense has two different pronunciations used for two different meanings:
I took offense at his joke
The team's offense is quite good
How did this ...
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What is the correct pronunciation of "elytra"?
The word elytra refers to
one of the anterior wings in beetles and some other insects that serve
to protect the posterior pair of functional wings
according to Merriam-Webster. The word is also ...
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Syllables and word stressing [closed]
I am an english learner but when it comes to syllables and streesing, a lot of words give me problems in pronoucing them. When I was taught syllables and streesing they told me that every word has ...
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Is the repetition of a pronoun instead of stressing it possible?
In English it is usual to stress a personal pronoun or a noun so as to introduce a departure from the preceding spell of conversation in which is mentioned another agent in relation to the same ...
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Should the first instance of an author-made word in a work use an accent mark? [closed]
If an author makes up proper nouns for their text, for example, Bilgebauth, should the very first instance in the text be typeset with an accent: Bilgebáuth to inform the reader of the proper stress ...
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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?
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