Those of you who read my blog frequently know that using syllable stress correctly is one of the very best ways to improve your comprehensibility when you speak English.  That said, here are a few syllable stress patterns for compound words that you may find useful.

Compound nouns are stressed on the first word in the compound.

• bedroom
• someone

Compound verbs are stressed on the second word in the compound.

• outsmart
• overdue

In compound adjectives the stress is on the second part of the compound.

• bad-tempered
• old-fashioned

Hyphenated compound words often have short words in the middle. Some of these are stressed on the first part of the compound such as:

• mother-in-law
• free-for-all

Click here to read more about syllable stress in American English.