Lesson Five: It's Important To Stress The Correct Syllable In A Word
Another reason that English is difficult to speak is how words are stressed. For words of more than one syllable, some syllables are always accented or stressed more than others.
Here is an example: 'carry'
In this word the first syllable 'car' is more stressed than 'ry'.
If you were to pronounce it with the second syllable stressed, like:
ca RRY
This would sound very strange.
You may be wondering how to you actually make a syllable sound stressed. Here is how:
Pitch
Your pitch should be higher for a stressed syllable
Length
A stressed syllable should be longer than an unstressed one
Loudness
A stressed syllable is usually louder than an unstressed one
Vowel sounds
The vowel sound in a stressed syllable is normally more pronounced, your tongue is further away from the middle of your mouth than an unstressed one. Here is an example:
'Company' com pa ny
For this word, 'com' is stressed and 'pa' is not stressed. For this reason, the vowel in 'pa' is not stressed, and when you say this syllable, your tongue is in the middle or your mouth. This neutral vowel sound is called 'schwa'
Please compare the correct pronunciation to the incorrect one:
Company
comPAny
Here are some examples of common words with the stress shown for you. Stressed syllables are shown in bold