What is Stress?
Stress means emphasis. The emphasis you put on a word or a part of word when you pronounce it, so that it sounds louder. When we pronounce an English word made up of more than one syllable, we pronounce it in such a way that one of the syllables is more important than the other syllable(s) in the same word. The syllable that is prominent in the word is called stressed or strong syllable and that are pronounced without prominence are called unstressed or weak syllables.
There are three types of Stress :-
1. Syllable Stress
2. Word Stress
3. Sentence Stress
In this post we will cover only WORD STRESS.
Some Rules of Word Stress:
Rule – 1. Words with weak prefixes always take the Stress on the root word.
Examples:- a’broad a’board a’head a’lone be’come be’cause be’low be’neath
Rule -2. Words with –ed , -s/es, -ing added to them take the Stress on the same syllable as the words to which they have been added.( –ed, -s/es and –ing do not affect the Stress as they are inflectional suffixes)
Examples:-
–ed ac’count ac’counted af’fect af’fected de’mand de’manded
-s/es a’buse a’buses com’pose com’poses re’lax re’laxes
-ing be’gin be’ginning ‘reason ‘reasoning ‘happen ‘happening
Rule -3. Words ending in ion receive the Stress on the second last syllable.
Examples:- ‘action ad’diction admi’ration appli’cation combi’nation de’duction ‘nation ‘notion ‘station
Rule -4. Words ending in –ic, -ical, -ically, -ious, -ial, and –ially receive the Stress on the syllable before the suffix.
Examples:- –ical bio’logical e’lectrical ‘optical psycho’logical –ically ‘chemically sta’tistically –icous a’trocious cere’monious –ial com’mercial me’morial –ially com’mercially confi’dentially
Rule -5. Words ending in –ity take the Stress on the third last syllable.
Examples:- a’bility bar’barity ca’pacity elec’tricity e’normity fu’tility o’pacity gene’rosity hospi’tality oppor’tunity
Rule -6. Words ending in –aire, -eer, -ier and –ee take the Stress on last syllable.
Examples:-
–aire millio’naire optio’naire questio’naire
–eer engi’neer profi’teer
–ee addres’see draw’ee ru’pee [Exceptions – ‘coffee , ‘toffee]
Rule -7. If words ending in –ate have two syllables, they take the Stress on last syllable.
Examples:- cre’ate dic’tate re’late mi’grate trans’late nar’rate col’late
Rule -8. If words ending in –ate have more than two syllables they take the Stress on third last syllable.
Examples:- ‘educate ‘cultivate ‘passionate ‘generate ar’ticulate ‘liberate par’ticipate reca’pitulate
Rule -9. If words ending in –ize/-ise have two syllables, they take the Stress on last syllable.
Examples:- re’rise de’rise cap’size bap’tize [Exception – ‘realize]
Rule -10. If words ending in –ize/-ise have more than two syllables, they take the Stress on third last syllable.
Examples:- ‘criticize a’natomize ‘agonize [Exceptions – i’dealize, ‘characterize]
Rule -11. Words ending in –ental take the Stress on second last syllable.
Example:- ‘dental
Rule -12. Words ending in –graphy, -logy, -metry, -sophy, -cracy, -crisy, -phony, -gamy, -nomy, -ian, and –ics take the Stress on the syllable just before these suffixes.
Examples:- gi’ography bi’ology phi’losophy de’mocracy hy’pocrisy ca’cophony mo’nogamy mathe’matics pho’netics e’conomy ma’gician
Rule -13. Words with –ain suffix take the Stress on last syllable.
Examples:- de’tain at’tain enter’tain abs’tain main’tain re’frain
Rule -14. Words with –esce and –isce suffixes take the Stress on last syllable.
Examples:- effer’vesce coa’lesce
Rule -15. Words ending in –fy take the Stress on the third last syllable.
Examples:- ‘amplify ‘qualify ‘beautify ‘classify ‘gratify i’dentify a’cidify e’lectrify
Rule -16. If words ending in –ute have two syllables, they receive the Stress on last syllable.
Examples:- sa’lute im’pute
Rule -17. If words ending in –ute have more than two syllables, they receive the Stress on third last syllable.
Examples:- ‘constitute ‘institute ‘execute [Exceptions:- at’tribute dis’tribute con’tribute] cre’ator trans’lator spec’tator
Rule -18. If words ending in –ator have more than three syllables, they take the Stress on the fourth syllable from ending.
Examples:- ‘calculator ‘operator ‘demonstrator e’valuator
Rule -19. Words with –meter suffix take the Stress on third last syllable.
Examples:- ther’mometer spee’dometer ba’rometer pa’rameter
Rule -20. Words with –oid (two syllables) take the Stress on first syllable.
Examples:- ‘cycloid ‘hydroid
Rule -21. Words ending in –itor will take stress on the 3rd syllable from the last as it’s in the given examples.
Examples:- ‘auditor ‘monitor
I hope this post will be very helpful to you for RPSC 1st and 2nd Grade (English) Exams. Special thanks to Vijay Daiya Sir [Ramgarh, Jaisalmer (Rajasthan)]
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