LISTE BLEU (BLOC DES LEADERS UNIS POUR L’EXCELLENCE): SECTION ANGLAISE

A ne pas vendre !
Pour plus d‟exemplaires,
contactez-nous au 782069575

TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. International Phonetics Alphabets (IPA) ......................................................................................... 3
1. VOWELS .................................................................................................................................... 3
a) Short Vowels IPA Symbols: ........................................................................................................ 3
b) Long Vowels IPA Symbols: .................................................................................................... 3
c) Diphthong Vowels IPA Symbols: ........................................................................................... 4
d) Triphthong vowels IPA Symbols: ........................................................................................... 4
2. CONSONANTS .......................................................................................................................... 5
a) Consonants Sounds: Plosives IPA Symbols: ........................................................................... 5
b) Consonants Sounds: Fricatives IPA Symbols: ........................................................................ 5
c) Consonants Sounds: Affricates IPA Symbols: ........................................................................ 5
d) Consonants Sounds: Nasals IPA Symbols: ............................................................................. 6
e) Consonants Sounds: Approximants IPA Symbols: ................................................................. 6
II. Place of Articulation ........................................................................................................................ 7
a) Bilabial ................................................................................................................................ 7
b) Labio-Dental ........................................................................................................................ 8
c) Dental .................................................................................................................................. 9
d) Alveolar ............................................................................................................................... 9
e) Post-Alveolar ..................................................................................................................... 10
f) Palatal ................................................................................................................................ 11

1
 g) Velar .................................................................................................................................. 12
h) Glottal ................................................................................................................................ 13
III. Manner of Articulation .............................................................................................................. 15
a) Nasal .............................................................................................................................. 15
b) Stop (Plosive) ................................................................................................................ 16
c) Fricative ......................................................................................................................... 17
d) Affricate......................................................................................................................... 18
e) Approximant .................................................................................................................. 19
f) Lateral............................................................................................................................ 20
IV. Phonation (Voicing) .................................................................................................................. 20
V. Consonant Charts: ......................................................................................................................... 23
VI. Describing consonants? ............................................................................................................. 24
VII. Practice: ..................................................................................................................................... 25
VIII. Classifying and describing vowels ............................................................................................ 25
IX. Word Stress rules....................................................................................................................... 29
1) Two-Syllable nouns and adjectives ........................................................................... 29
2) Two-Syllable verbs and prepositions ........................................................................ 30
3) More about word stress on two-syllable words ......................................................... 30
4) Three-Syllable words................................................................................................. 31
a) Words ending in er, ly ........................................................................................... 31
b) Words ending in consonants and in y .................................................................... 31
c) Words with various endings .................................................................................. 31
d) Words ending in ade, ee, ese, que, ette, oon .......................................................... 32
e) Stress on penultimate syllable (Stress on the second from the end syllable) ........ 32
f) Stress on ante-penultimate syllable (Stress on the third from end syllable) .......... 33
5) Word stress for compound words .............................................................................. 33
a) Compound nouns................................................................................................ 33
b) Compound adjectives ......................................................................................... 33
c) Compound verbs ................................................................................................. 34
d) Noun + compound nouns ................................................................................... 34
e) Proper nouns....................................................................................................... 34
f) Reflexive pronouns ............................................................................................. 34
g) Numbers ............................................................................................................. 35

2
Phonetics can be broadly defined as a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce
and perceive sounds. The field of phonetics is traditionally divided into three sub-disciplines
that are: articulatory phonetics, acoustic phonetics and auditory phonetics. Articulatory
phonetics is the study of how vocal tracts produce sounds, acoustic phonetics is the study of
physical properties of sounds, and auditory phonetics is the study of how listeners perceive
sounds.

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system where each symbol is associated
with a particular English sound. By using IPA you can know exactly how to pronounce a
certain word in English. This helps in improving English pronunciation and feeling more
confident speaking in English.

I. International Phonetics Alphabets (IPA)

1. VOWELS

a) Short Vowels IPA Symbols:

[e] Pen, let, wet, letter, intend, send, went, said, paid.

[æ] Nap, flat, have, back, had, hat, pat, bat, apple.

[ʌ] But, cut, study, fun, love, money, blood, flood, monkey, cousin,
double, country, touch, cough, enough.

[ʊ] Put, full, pull, look, took, should, would, cook, book, good.

[ɒ] Rob, top, spot, lot, watch.

[ə] Alive, again, mother, doctor, dangerous, famous.

[ɪ] Bit, sit, win, become, return, build, guilt village, courage, money,
happy.

b) Long Vowels IPA Symbols:

[i:] Need, bee, cheese, beat, dream team, believe, deceive, cede,
complete, be.
[ɜ:] Nurse, turn, bird, dirty, search, worse, word, colonel, work.

[ɔ:] Walk, talk, saw, law, bored, jaw, ball, tall, bought, caught,
faucet, auction, laurel, cord, corner, court.

[u:] Boot, fool, choose, lose, gloomy, blue, fruit, chew, crew.

3
[ɑ:] Fast, car, hard, smart, heart, art bath, half, calf, palm, aunt.

c) Diphthong Vowels IPA Symbols:

[ iə] Near, ear, here, clear, tear, beer, fear, career. Behaviour.

[ju] Tune, music, interview, news, neutral.

[eə] Wear, bear, hair, pair, there, care, stairs, fare, square, various.

[ei] Face, age, cage case, space, ate, eight, rain.

[ɔi ] Joy, employ, toy, coil, boil, oyster.

[ai] My, cry, by, buy, sight, pride, kind, fight.

[əʊ] No, stones, alone, soul, though, soap, loan most, old.

[aʊ] Mouth, house, brown, cow, out, loud, doubt, drought, foul, now,
plow, mountain, round, power.
[ʊə] Doer, boor, poor, jury, sure, tour, tourist, tourism.

d) Triphthong vowels IPA Symbols:

[aiə] Fire, tyre, tired, lier, flyer.

[eiə] Player, mayor.

[ɔiə] Employer, loyal, royal.

[aʊə] Hour, our, tower, shower, power.

[əʊə] widower, blower.

4
 2. CONSONANTS

a) Consonants Sounds: Plosives IPA Symbols:

[P] Pin, cap, people, pause.

[b] Bag, bubble, build, robe.

[t] Time, train, tow, late.

[d] Door, day, drive, down, feed.

[k] Cash, quick, cricket, sock.

[g] Girl, green, grass, flag.

b) Consonants Sounds: Fricatives IPA Symbols:

[f] Full, Friday, fish, knife.

[v] Vest, village, view, cave.

[θ] Thought, through, think, bath.

[ð] The, there, those, brothers, other.

[z] Zoo, crazy, lazy, nose.

[ʒ] Television, delusion, casual, measure, pleasure, mirage, garage,

seizure.

[ʃ] Shirt, rush, shop, cash, english.

[h] High, help, hello.

c) Consonants Sounds: Affricates IPA Symbols:

[ ʈʃ ] Choose, cheese, church, watch

[dʒ] Joy, juggle, juice, gentle, stage, large.

5
 d) Consonants Sounds: Nasals IPA Symbols:

[m] Room, mother, mad, more.

[n] Now, nobody, knew, turn.

[ŋ] King, thing, song, swimming, think, drink length, anger, song.

e) Consonants Sounds: Approximants IPA Symbols:

[r] Road, roses, river, ring, ride.

[j] Yellow, usual, used, yesterday, yard.

[w] Wall, walk, wine, world.

[l] and [ɫ] Law, lots, leap, long, pill, cold, chill, melt.

There are a few other discrepancies between IPA and English writing that may trip you up.

Find them below:

 The /j/ (voiced palatal approximant) is usually represented in English with the letter “y”
in words such as “young” and “yard”. It is NOT sound that „j‟ usually represents in
English writing (the „j‟ in “job” is actually a /dʒ/)
 The English letter „g‟ is sometimes used to represent the /dʒ/ sound too, as is the case with
words like “gin” and “genuine”. Just remember that that IPA symbol /g/ ALWAYS
represents the voiced velar stop from words like “guy” and “guilt”.
 The letter „c‟ in English can be either /k/ sound as it is in “cat” and “car” or an /s/ sound
as it is in “cycle and “cinder”
 The letter „s‟ in English is often used to represent the /z/ sound and NOT the /s/, as is the
case in words like “prison” and “chasm”

6
 II. Place of Articulation

Bilabial
Labio-Dental
Dental
Alveolar
Post-Alveolar
Palatal
Velar
Glottal

The diagram below gives a view of the human mouth with arrows pointing to
the places of articulation used in English.

In other words, these are the places where the constrictions and obstructions of air
occur.

a) Bilabial
Bilabial consonants occur when you block/constrict airflow out of the mouth by bringing
your lips together.
English contains the following three bilabial consonants:
 /p/ as in “purse” and “rap“
 /b/ as in “back” and “cab“
 /m/ as in “mad” and “clam“

7
 b) Labio-Dental
Labio-dental consonants occur when you block/constrict airflow by curling your lower lip
back and raising it to touch your upper row of teeth.
English contains the following two labio-dental sounds:

 /f/ as in “fro” and “calf“

 /v/ as in “vine” and “have”

8
 c) Dental
Dental consonants occur when you block/constrict airflow by placing your slimy
tongue against your upper teeth.
English contains the following two labio-dental sounds:
 /θ/ as is “thick” and “bath“
 /ð/ as in “the” and “rather”

d) Alveolar
The alveolar ridge is where your teeth meet your gums.
You create Alveolar consonants when you raise your tongue to the alveolar ridge
to block or constrict airflow.

9
The English alveolar consonants are as follows:
 /n/ as in “no” and “man“
 /t/ as in “tab” and “rat“
 /d/ as in “dip” and “bad“
 /s/ as in “suit” and “bus”
 /z/ as in “zit” and “jazz”
 /l/ as in “luck” and “fully”

e) Post-Alveolar
When you retract your tongue back just a bit from the alveolar ridge, the sounds change
enough to be recognized as distinct consonants.
So post-alveolar consonants are those that occur when the tongue blocks or constricts airflow
at the point just beyond the alveolar ridge.

The post-alveolar english consonants are as follows:

 /ʃ/ as in “shot” or “brash”

 /ʒ/ as in “vision” or “measure”
 /tʃ/ as in “chick” or “match”
 /dʒ/ as in “jam” or “badge”
10
 f) Palatal
The roof of your mouth is the hard palate. You may know it as “the place that burns like
hell when I eat pizza that is too hot.”

You create Palatal consonants when you raise the tongue to this point and constrict airflow.

English has only one palatal consonant:

 /j/ as in “yes” and “bayou”

11
 g) Velar
Behind your hard palate you have the velum or soft palate. Unlike the bony hard palate in
front of it, the this consists of soft, mucousy tissue.

You make Velar Consonants when you raise the back of your tongue to the velum to block or
restrict airflow.

English has the following velar consonants:

 /ŋ/ as in “going” and “uncle” (note that the „n sound‟ in these words is NOT
made at the alveolar ridge, which is why it is distinct from /n/).
 /k/ as in “kite” and “back”
 /g/ as in “good” and “bug“
 /w/ as in “wet” and “howard”

12
 h) Glottal
The glottis is actually two vocal folds (i.e. vocal cords). It acts as a sort of bottle
cap to your windpipe.

Inhale and then hold your breath for a few seconds while keeping your mouth open.
What you are actually doing to keep the air from expelling out of your lungs by
closing your glottis.

Glottal consonants aren‟t actually consonants; they just play consonant roles in the language.
In English, the following things happen at the glottis:

 /h/ as in “hi” and “Bahamas.” Say these words and notice how you‟re not actually
constricting or blocking airflow for this /h/ sound. You‟re just exhaling a little bit harder
than you would for a normal vowel sound in transition to the following vowel sound.
 /?/ – This is actually the culprit behind many of the “silent syllables” we discussed in the
first lesson. For example, in the phrase “wha(t) time is it?” the /t/ in “what” is dropped and
the vowel sound before it is closed at the glottis.

13
14
III. Manner of Articulation

Nasal
Stop
Fricative
Affricate
Approximant
Lateral

The manner of articulation is the way the airstream is affected as it flows from the lungs
and out the nose and mouth.

a) Nasal
Nasal consonants are created when you completely block air flow through your mouth and let
the air pass through your nose.

There are three nasal consonants in English.

 /m/ – “mad” and “clam” – oral passage is blocked by closing the lips (bilabial).
 /n/ – “no” and “man„ – oral passage is blocked by pressing tongue tip against the alveolar
ridge (alveolar).
 /ŋ/ – “going” and “funk” – Oral passage is blocked by pressing the the back of your
tongue against the soft palate (velar).

15
 b) Stop (Plosive)
Like nasal consonants, stop consonants occur when the vocal tract is closed
completely. But for stops the airflow is NOT redirected through the nose.

Instead, the air quickly builds up pressure behind the articulators and then releases
in a burst.

English contains the following stop consonants.

 /p/ – purse and rap – oral passage is blocked by closing the lips (bilabial).
 /b/ – “back” and “cab” – oral passage is blocked by closing the lips (bilabial).
 /t/ – “tab” and “rat” – oral passage is blocked by pressing the tongue tip against
the alveolar ridge (alveolar)
 /d/ – “dip” and “bad” – oral passage is blocked by pressing the tongue tip
against the alveolar ridge (alveolar)
 /k/ – “kite” and “back” – block airflow with the back of the tongue against the
soft palate (velar).
 /g/ – “good” and “bug” – block airflow with the back of the tongue against the
soft palate (velar).

16
 c) Fricative
While nasal and stop consonants involve a complete blockage of the vocal tract,
fricative sounds involve only a partial blockage of the vocal tract so that air has to
be forced through a narrow channel.

For example, you create a /t/ stop consonant when you block airflow completely
with your tongue against the alveolar ridge. But if you let up with the tongue a bit
and let the air seep through, you make an /s/ fricative consonant.

The English fricative sounds are as follows:

 /f/ – “fro” and “calf“- air is forced through the upper teeth and lower lip
(labiodental)
 /v/ – “vine” and “have” – air is forced through the upper teeth and lower lip
(labiodental)

 /θ/ – “thick” and “bath” – air is forced through upper teeth and tongue (dental)
 /ð/ – “the” and “rather” – air is forced through upper teeth and tongue (dental)

 /s/ – “suit” and “bus” – air is forced through tongue and alveolar ridge (alveolar)
 /z/ – “zit” and “jazz” – air is forced through tongue and alveolar ridge (alveolar)

 /ʃ/ – “shot” and “brash” – air is forced through the tongue and point just beyond
alveolar ridge (post-alveolar)
 /ʒ/ – “vision” and “measure” – air is forced through the tongue and point just
beyond alveolar ridge (post-alveolar)

 /h/ – “happy” and “hope” – actually /h/ isn‟t a fricative. It‟s technically not even
a real consonant sound since there‟s no constriction/obstruction of airflow.

17
 d) Affricate
When stop consonants mix with fricative consonants, the result is

an affricate consonant. Affricate consonants start as stop sounds with air building

up behind an articulator which then releases through a narrow channel as a fricative

(instead of a clean burst as stops do).

The English affricate sounds are:

 /tʃ/ – “chick” and “match” – air is blocked with tongue just beyond the alveolar
ridge (post-alveolar), then released as a fricative.
 /dʒ/ – “jam” and “badge” – air is blocked with tongue just beyond the alveolar
ridge (post-alveolar), then released as a fricative.

18
 e) Approximant
Approximants are when two articulators come close together but not quite close

enough to create air turbulence.

The resulting sound is more like a fast vowel than anything else. For example, the

/w/ approximant is like a fast /u/ sound (say /u/ + /aɪ/ really fast and you get the

word “why”). Notice how your tongue never actually comes in contact with the top

of your mouth.

There are three English approximants:

 /w/ – “wet” and “howard” – back of tongue raises to velum (but not too close!)
and lips are rounded (velar)
 /j/ – “yes” and “bayou” – tongue raises to hard palate (but not too close!)
(palatal)
 /ɹ/ – “right” and “roar” – tongue raises to hard palate (but not too close)
(alveolar/post-alveolar)

19
 f) Lateral
Lateral consonants are when the tongue blocks the the middle of your mouth so that
air has to pass around the sides. You create this when you
There is one lateral consonant in English

 /l/ – “luck”- place the tip of the tongue at the alveolar ridge (alveolar)

Now that you can decipher place and manner of articulation, the last feature we

need to study is phonation.

IV. Phonation (Voicing)

When you contract the muscles in your throat to bring your vocal cords together,

they start to vibrate. The resulting sound is your voice! The presence or absence

of voicing is the third major defining feature of consonants, and the technical

term for it is phonation.

20
Voiced vs. Voiceless
 When your vocal cords are vibrating, the phonation of that consonant is voiced.
 When your vocal cords are NOT vibrating, the phonation of that consonant
is voiceless.

Some pairs of consonant sounds already have the same place and manner of

articulation. In these cases, the phonation is what makes them different.

Phonation Pairs:
Below, you will find all the phonation pairs of English consonants. In these pairs,

the first consonant sound is voiceless while the second is voiced.

As you follow along, try to make these sounds out loud to feel the difference.

[Bilabial] [Stop]

/p/ vs. /b/

“pat” vs. “bat”

[Velar] [Stop]
/k/ vs /g/
“card” vs. “guard”

[Dental] [Fricative]
/θ/ vs. /ð/
“thigh” vs. “thy”

[Interdental] [Fricative]
/f/ vs. /v/
“fat” vs. “vat”

21
[Alveolar] [Stop]
/t/ vs. /d/
“tire” vs. “dire”

[Alveolar] [Fricative]
/s/ vs. /z/
“sit” vs. “zit”

[Post-Alveolar] [Fricative]
/ʃ/ vs. /ʒ/
“fishin‟” vs. “fission”

[Post-Alveolar] [Affricate]
/tʃ/ vs. /dʒ/
“batch” vs. “badge”

22
V. Consonant Charts:
A consonant chart lists all of the consonant sounds for a given language while neatly
organizing them by place of articulation, manner of articulation and phonation.

Below you will find a consonant chart of English containing all of the phonemes we
discussed. While reviewing the IPA symbols, take note of the following:

 The columns are labeled by place or articulation.

 The rows are labeled by manner of articulation.
 When two consonants are next to each other in the same cell (i.e. they share the same
place and manner of articulation), the consonant on the left is voiceless and the consonant
on the right is voiced.

23
VI. Describing consonants?
The convention for describing a consonant sound is as follows:

[phonation] [place of articulation] [manner of articulation]

For example:

 The /f/ sound is called – voiceless labiodental fricative.

 The /ʒ/ sound (from vision) is called – voiced post-alveolar fricative
 The /p/ sound is called – voiceless bilabial stop

See? These big phonetic terms aren‟t so scary once you break them down. The IPA symbols
are pretty simple to learn too once you isolate the ones that are different from English writing:

 /θ/ – voiceless dental fricative – “th” sound from “theater” and “thick”
 /ð/ – voiced dental fricative – “th” sound from “then” and “rather”
 /ʃ/ – voiceless post-alveolar fricative – “sh” sound from “ship” and “ash”
 /ʒ/ – voiced post-alveolar fricative – “s” sound from “measure” and “vision”
 /tʃ/ – voiceless post-alveolar affricate – “ch” sound from “child” and “pouch”
 /dʒ/ – voiced post-alveolar affricate – “j” sound from “john” and “g” sound from
“vintage”
 /ŋ/ – velar nasal (voiced is redundant because all nasal sounds are voiced, otherwise
you‟re just blowing snot-rockets out your nose). – “n” sound from “going” and “flunk”.
 /?/ – glottal stop – dropped consonant sound from phrases like “wha(t) time is it”

24
VII. Practice:
For today‟s wrap-up exercise, name each of the consonants below and list one word
(from any language) that contains this sound (try not to scroll up and cheat).

1. /s/
2. /tʃ/
3. /n/
4. /ʃ/
5. /g/

VIII. Classifying and describing vowels

Take a look at the IPA chart for vowels and the picture below. Instead of a nice
rectangle, it‟s shaped like a trapezoid. That‟s because the chart is meant to
correspond in a very direct way with the shape of the mouth and the position of the
tongue in the mouth. We classify vowels according to four pieces of information:
The high/mid/low distinction has to do with how high the tongue is in the mouth
during the articulation of a vowel.

The height is the vertical position of the tongue relative to either the roof of the
mouth or the aperture of the jaw. In closed vowels, the tongue is positioned high in
the mouth, whereas in open vowels, the tongue is positioned low in the mouth.

The backness is the the position of the tongue during the articulation of a vowel
relative to the back of the mouth. In front vowels, the tongue is positioned forward
in the mouth, whereas in back vowels, the tongue is positioned towards the back of
the mouth.

The roundedness refers to whether the lips are rounded or not. In most languages,
roundedness is a reinforcing feature of mid to high back vowels, and is not
distinctive. Usually, the higher back vowel is the more intense rounded.

25
Say this list of words:

Beet, bit, bait, bet, bat.

Now do the same thing, but leave off the “b” and the “t” and just say the
vowels. You can feel that your tongue is at the front of your mouth and is moving
from high in the mouth for [i] to fairly low in the mouth for [æ].
We can do the same thing at the back of the mouth. Say the words boot, boat.
Now do it again with just the vowels, [u] [o]. Your lips are rounded for both of
them, but the tongue is higher for [u] than it is for [o]. The lowest vowel at the
back of the mouth is [ɑ]. We don‟t round our lips for [ɑ], and we often drop the
jaw to move the tongue low and back.

26
The final piece of information that we use to classify vowels is a little trickier to
explain. English makes a distinction between tense and lax vowels, which is a
distinction that a lot of other languages don‟t have. Tense vowels are made with
greater tension in the muscles of the vocal tract than lax vowels. To feel this
difference, say the two words sheep and ship. And now make just the vowel
sounds, [i], [ɪ]. The [i] sound in sheep and the [ɪ] sound in ship are both produced
with the tongue high and front, and without lips rounded. But for [i], the muscles
are more tense than for [ɪ]. The same is true for the vowels in late and let, [e] and
[ɛ]. And also for the vowels in food and foot, [u] and [ʊ].

27
The English language has five vowels: a, e, i, o and u. These vowels have the
ability to represent a variety of sounds. English phonology traditionally classifies
these vowels into types known as lax and tense. The key difference between lax
and tense vowels is that tense vowels are relatively longer than lax novels of the
same height when all other factors affecting the vowel length remain the same.

For example, /i:/ in we („wi: ) is longer than the /ɪ/ in („bɪg)

In addition, lax vowels mostly occur in one syllable words that end in consonants.
Ex: but, rat, big, had, put, hat, cat whereas tense vowels usually occur at the end of
one syllable words (open syllable words). Ex: spa, law, see, due, too, do.

CHECK YOURSELF:
1. What is the articulatory description for the vowel sound represented by the IPA
symbol [i]?

 High front unrounded tense vowel.

 Mid central unrounded lax reduced vowel.
 High front unrounded lax vowel.
 High back rounded tense vowel.
 High back unrounded lax vowel.

2. What is the articulatory description for the vowel sound represented by the IPA
symbol [ɛ]?

 High back rounded tense vowel.

 Mid front unrounded lax vowel.
 Mid back rounded tense vowel.
 High front unrounded tense vowel.
 Mid central unrounded lax vowel.

3. What is the articulatory description for the vowel sound represented by the IPA
symbol [ɑ]?

 High front unrounded tense vowel.

 Mid back unrounded lax vowel.
 Low back unrounded lax vowel.
 Mid back rounded tense vowel.
 Low back unrounded tense vowel.

28
IX. Word Stress rules
Word stress is the emphasis we place in a specific syllable of a word when
pronouncing it. English has its own rhythm, complete with its own vocal music.
This means that one part of a certain word is said louder and longer than other parts
of the same word.

There are two very simple rules about word stress:

1. One word has only one stress. (One word cannot have two stresses. If you
hear two stresses, you hear two words. Two stresses cannot be one word. It
is true that there can be a "secondary" stress in some words. But a secondary
stress is much smaller than the main [primary] stress, and is only used in
long words.)
2. We can only stress vowels, not consonants.

Here are some more, rather complicated, rules that can help you understand where
to put the stress. But do not rely on them too much, because there are many
exceptions.

1) Two-Syllable nouns and adjectives

In most two syllable nouns and adjectives, the first syllable takes on the stress.

Examples:

 SAMples
 CARton
 PURple
 RAIny
 CHIna
 HAPpy

29
 2) Two-Syllable verbs and prepositions

In most two syllable verbs and prepositions, the stress is on the second syllable.

Examples:

 reLAX
 reCEIVE
 diRECT
 aMONG
 aSIDE
 beTWEEN
 deCIDE

3) More about word stress on two-syllable words

 About 80% of two-syllable words get their stress on the first syllable.
 There are, of course, exceptions to this rule, but very few nouns and
adjectives get stress on their second syllable.
 Verbs and prepositions usually get stress placed on the second syllable, but
there are exceptions to this too.

Note:
There are many two-syllable words in English that can be pronounced in two
different ways. The stress change also changes the part of speech of the word.

Examples:

 PREsent = a gift (noun); non past or future (adjective)

 preSENT = to give something to someone (verb)
 OBject = something you can see and touch (noun)
 obJECT = to disagree with something (verb)

30
 4) Three-Syllable words

For three-syllable words, look at the word ending (the suffix), using the following
as your guide:

a) Words ending in er, ly

For three-syllable words ending with the suffixes er or ly, the stress is placed on
the first syllable.

Examples:

 ORderly
 SIlently
 LOvingly
 MAnager
 GARdener
 EAsier

b) Words ending in consonants and in y

If there is a word that ends in a consonant or in a y, then the first syllable usually
gets the stress.

Examples:

 RARity
 OPtimal
 GRAdient
 GEnorous

c) Words with various endings

Take a good look at the list of suffixes below (suffixes are word endings).
The stress is going to be on the syllable right before the suffix. This applies to
words of all syllable lengths.

Examples:
1. able: ADDable, DURable, LAUGHable
2. ial: differENTial, SOcial, fiNANcial
3. cian: muSIcian, phySIcian, cliNIcian
4. ery: BAkery, SCEnery
5. ian: coMEdian, ciVILian, techNIcian

31
 6. ible: reSIstible, imPOSsible, TERRible
7. ic: arCHAic, plaTOnic, characteRIStic
8. ics: diaBEtics, paediAtrics, TOpics
9. ion: classifiCAtion, repoSItion, vegeTAtion
10. ia: MEdia, bacTERia, vicTORia
11. ient: inGREdient, PAtient, ANcient
12. ious: mySTERious, reLIgious, VARious
13. ish: SELfish, ENglish, PUnish
14. osis: hypNOsis, diagNOsis, osMOsis

d) Words ending in ade, ee, ese, que, ette, oon

Words that use the suffix ade, ee, ese, eer, que, ette, or oon have the primary stress
actually placed on the suffix.

This applies to words of all syllable lengths.

Examples:

1. ade: lemoNADE, cruSADE, arCADE

2. ee: aGREE, jamborEE, guaranTEE
3. eer: sightSEER, puppeTEER
4. ese: SiamESE, JapanESE, chEESE
5. ette: cassETTE, CorvETTE, towelETTE
6. que: unIQUE, physIQUE
7. oon: baLOON, afterNOON, carTOON

e) Stress on penultimate syllable (Stress on the second from the end

syllable)

You put stress on the second syllable from the end of the word with words ending
in ic, sion, and tion.

Examples:

 iCONic
 GRAPHic
 hyperTENsion
 teleVIsion
 nuTRItion
 reveLAtion

Note: Native English speakers don't always agree on where to place the stress on a
word. For example, some people pronounce television as "TELevision" while
others say "teleVIsion."
32
 f) Stress on ante-penultimate syllable (Stress on the third from end
syllable)

You put stress on the third from end syllable with words that end
in cy, ty, phy, gy and al.

Examples:

 deMOcracy
 geOGraphy
 ALlergy
 NAUtical
 CLArity
 CRItical

5) Word stress for compound words

a) Compound nouns

A compound noun is a noun made out of two nouns that form one word. In a
compound noun, the most stress is on the stressed syllable of the first word.

Examples:

 SEAfood (sea + food)

 ICEland (ice + land)
 TOOTHpaste (tooth + paste)
 FOOTball (foot + ball)
 BAsketball (basket + ball)

b) Compound adjectives

A compound adjective is an adjective made of at least two words.

Often, hyphens are used in compound adjectives. In compound adjectives, the most
stress is placed in the stressed syllable of the second word.
Examples:

 ten-MEter
 rock-SOlid
 fifteen-MInute
 old-FAshioned

33
 c) Compound verbs

A compound verb is when a subject has two or more verbs. The stress is on the
second or on the last part.

Examples:

 Matilda loves bread but deTESTS butter.

 Sarah baked cookies and ATE them up.
 Dogs love to eat bones and love to DRINK water.

d) Noun + compound nouns

Noun + compound Nouns are two word compound nouns. In noun + compound
noun, the stress is on the first word.

Examples:

 AIRplane mechanic
 PROject manager
 BOARD member

e) Proper nouns

Proper nouns are specific names of people, places or things. For example: Jeniffer,
Spain, Google.

The second word is always the one that takes the stress

Examples:

 North DAKOTA
 Mr. SMITH
 Apple INCORPORATED

f) Reflexive pronouns

Reflexive pronouns show that the action affects the person who performs the
action. For example: I hit myself.

The second syllable usually takes the stress.

34
Examples:

 mySELF
 themSELVES
 ourSELVES

g) Numbers

If the number is a multiple of ten, the stress is placed on the first syllable.

Examples:

 TEN
 FIFty
 ONE-hundred

Remember, there are exceptions to all of these rules. The best way to learn word stress is to
look at a dictionary or a word pronunciation guide and practice speaking English daily. The
more experience you have with English, the easier it will be.

References:
Anderson (2018): Classifying Vowels – Essentials of Linguistics – Pressbooks:
ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub

Ness (2019): Place of Articulation –The Mimic Method: www.mimicmethod.com

Zur (2021): Word Stress Rules in English – Really Learn English: www.really-learn-
english.com

782069575

35