Rules for word stress

Rules for Word Stress in English

While there are some general rules for word stress in English, there are also many exceptions. Here are some common patterns:

General Rules:

1. Suffixes:
   • -tion, -sion, -ation: Stress is usually on the second-to-last syllable (e.g., “education”, “decision”).
   • -ic, -al, -ity: Stress is usually on the second-to-last syllable (e.g., “fantastic”, “musical”, “reality”).
   • -ness, -ful, -less: Stress is usually on the syllable before the suffix (e.g., “happiness”, “careful”, “useless”).
2. Prefixes:
   • Prefixes like “un-“, “re-“, “dis-“, “pre-“, “post-” do not usually affect the stress pattern of the root word (e.g., “unhappy”, “redo”, “dislike”, “predict”, “postpone”).
3. Two-syllable words:
   • If the first syllable is a consonant, the stress is usually on the first syllable (e.g., “happy”, “clever”, “famous”).
   • If the first syllable is a vowel, the stress is usually on the second syllable (e.g., “about”, “above”, “around”).

Exceptions:

• Common exceptions: Many common words have irregular stress patterns that do not follow these rules (e.g., “police”, “tomato”, “banana”).
• Borrowed words: Words borrowed from other languages may have different stress patterns than native English words.

Note: These are general guidelines, and there are many exceptions to these rules. The best way to learn word stress is to listen to native speakers and practice pronouncing words correctly.

Would you like to practice some words with different stress patterns?

Syllabus for Pronunciation of English Language