• Start › Cram Up › Pronunciation › Lesson Five: It's Important To Stress The Correct Syllable In A Word

Lesson Five: It's Important To Stress The Correct Syllable In A Word

The main reasons why speaking English is so hard

This special pronunciation section will explain to you why English is hard to speak correctly and give you some help on improving your pronunciation. These are the main reasons why English is so hard. There is a lesson for each one.

Note that the pronunciation examples are in American English accent. In the last lesson you will find American and British English examples.

These lessons are sponsored by: EyeSpeak English

Another reason that English is difficult to speak is how words are stressed. For words of more than one syllable, some syllables are always accented or stressed more than others.

Here is an example: 'carry'

In this word the first syllable 'car' is more stressed than 'ry'. If you were to pronounce it with the second syllable stressed, like:
ca RRY

This would sound very strange.

You may be wondering how to you actually make a syllable sound stressed. Here is how:

Pitch

Your pitch should be higher for a stressed syllable

Length

A stressed syllable should be longer than an unstressed one

Loudness

A stressed syllable is usually louder than an unstressed one

Vowel sounds

The vowel sound in a stressed syllable is normally more pronounced, your tongue is further away from the middle of your mouth than an unstressed one. Here is an example:
'Company' com pa ny

For this word, 'com' is stressed and 'pa' is not stressed. For this reason, the vowel in 'pa' is not stressed, and when you say this syllable, your tongue is in the middle or your mouth. This neutral vowel sound is called 'schwa'

Please compare the correct pronunciation to the incorrect one:

Company comPAny

Here are some examples of common words with the stress shown for you. Stressed syllables are shown in bold

ba lance		Hun dred		Ex change		Val u a ble
Con si der		Ur gent		Com pu ter		E very thing

How To Test, See And Hear Your Pronunciation On Your Computer

Do you want to quickly and easily perfect your English pronunciation?

These lessons are a good start, but if you really want to learn how to speak english perfectly then you'll need a little more help. EyeSpeak English have an amazing system that can listen to your pronunciation, analyze it and then instantly teach you how to improve. It's a really great idea.

We've put together a special package with EyeSpeak for Ego4U visitors:

Hear 2,000 words in American and British accents.
Test your English speech and see where you're going wrong, and how to quickly fix your accent. The EyeSpeak software can actually listen to you and shows you how to improve quickly.
It's not just words. EyeSpeak can also analyze over 700 useful English phrases and sentences.
There are 45 interactive English conversations to practice with.
As well as 2,000 spelling games.

Plus three special bonuses worth over US$100 and a 15 % discount off the regular price.

The special Ego4you EyeSpeak English package for people who want to quickly reduce their accent and improve their English pronunciation is only available at this link:

www.eyespeakenglish.com

Changed: 10th Dec 2010 19:35

URL: http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/pronunciation/accents