2 More Strategies for Pronouncing the American Way

In order to speak English like an American you must learn to use major stress. In American English, syllables with major stress are pronounced louder and with a higher pitch than the other syllables in a word and the vowel sounds are long and clear.

Of course once you understand how important it is to apply major stress, the problem becomes figuring out which syllable to stress!

In the previous lesson I wrote about one suffix based pattern that you can use to predict where to apply major stress. This week I will describe two more patterns.

Pattern # 2 - Stress the Syllable Directly Before the Suffix

In many words major stress falls on the syllable just before the suffix. This is a very common pattern. In the table below the suffixes are listed in the first column and a sample word with each suffix is listed in the second column. The syllables with major
stress are CAPITALIZED, 

Listen to how these words are pronounced by clicking on the play button below:

Take a minute to think of other English words that have the suffixes displayed in the chart. They will be pronounced with the major stress on the syllable before the suffix.

Pattern #3 - Stress the Second Syllable Before the Suffix

In verbs ending with the suffix 'ate' the second syllable before the suffix receives the major stress. Here are a few examples:

GRADuate

apPREciate

comMUNicate

arTIculate

 

Listen to how these words are pronounced by clicking on the play button below:

Take a minute to think of other English verbs that have the 'ate' suffix. They will be pronounced with the major stress on the second syllable before the suffix.

Using suffix-based patterns is just one technique you can use to determine which syllable receives major stress in English words. I present many more syllable stress rules, patterns and practice activities in Confident Voice Course on Syllable Stress in English Words.

Using a Dictionary for Pronunciation Help

I have found that many of my students don’t know how to use a dictionary to find the pronunciation of a word. This is understandable for two reasons. The first is that dictionaries use special phonetic symbols to show pronunciation and students are not familiar with these symbols. The second reason is that these phonetic symbols are not the same in every dictionary!

Let me describe a few of these phonetic symbols:

• To show the number syllables in a word, many dictionaries use dots or hyphens to separate the syllables, for example: ba-na-na.  

• Many dictionaries use ' before syllables with major stress (primary stress) and a lower or lighter ' before the syllables with minor stress (secondary stress).  

• Unstressed or reduced syllables are not marked with but are indicated by the symbol for the schwa vowel. The schwa symbol is written like an upside down e. 

• Vowels that are pronounced long sometimes have a  -  over the vowel letter.   

• Short vowels are written using phonetic symbols such as /ae/ for the vowel sound in the word ‘accent’  

• Some consonants may also be written using phonetic symbols such as the /k/ to represent the sound for ‘cc’ in the word ‘accent’  

These days there are many online dictionaries with audio files that allow you to hear the pronunciation! I describe one of my favorite online dictionaries in the next section.

Merriam Webster Learners Dictionary

Merriam Webster has an excellent online dictionary. The definitions are clear and the digital voice used for the pronunciation has a good standard North American accent.    They also have great ESL section! There are ten 'Perfect Pronunciation Sessions' featuring commonly mispronounced vowel and consonant sounds. Each Perfect Pronunciation session includes exercises with words, sentences and quizzes.    Click on the image to go to the site now.

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