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MAIOR EN ESTUDIOS INGLESES / 2025

ENGLISH PHONETICS & PHONOLOGY / Main HO Unit 4

UNIT 4: STRESS IN ENGLISH

4.1. THE NATURE OF STRESS

• Suprasegmental (or prosodic) features (vs. segments, i.e. vocalic & consonantal phonemes): features
that don’t confine themselves to a segment; vocal effects that are spread over more than one segment:

stress, intonation, pitch, loudness, rhythm, length

• Stress is a property of the syllable: a syll is stressed when it is more prominent than the other syllables in
a word/sentence. From a production point of view, stress is increased air pressure from the lungs, which

involves greater articulatory effort as the air is pumped out using greater muscular energy. In this sense,

it is an articulatory feature. But this is not the only factor involved in producing the auditory effect of

prominence (perception).

• Prominence is achieved by one or several of the following factors:

-pitch [= tone: the relative height/lowness of the voice governed by the frequency of vibration of vocal

folds]: usually by raising it

-loudness: making the syllable louder

-length: making the syllable longer

-the quality of sounds: i.e. their inherent sonority > some are by nature more sonorous than others.
In English pitch and length are more important than the other factors.

• A vital aspect of English pronunciation: unstressed syllables tend to have weak and obscure features
(esp. with regard to their vowels). This is an important difference with Spanish:

-Spanish: syllables –whether stressed or not– are given basically the same length; prominence of stressed

syll is not much greater than that of unstressed ones.

-English: considerable difference between stressed & unstressed syllables regarding length & vowel

tenseness > stressed syll. are much more prominent / unstressed syll. much weaker, shorter and laxer.

• Consequence of this reduction: limited repertoire of vowels which can appear in unstressed syllables

in English > // (“weak Vs”). These are all centralized/central Vs: not long, not peripheral, not

diphthongs.
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MAIOR EN ESTUDIOS INGLESES / 2025
ENGLISH PHONETICS & PHONOLOGY / Main HO Unit 4

-// only appears in totally unstressed syll,

as do the syllabic consonants /l, n, m/

-// may occur in both stressed & unstressed syll.

-All other vowels (including diphth.) can only occur in stressed syll.
 “strong Vs”. They can have different degrees of stress, though.

4.1.1. NEUTRALISATION: weak vowels /i/ & /u/ (“happy tensing”)

• Relatively easy to distinguish // vs /i:/ (close front Vs) and // vs /u:/ (close back Vs) in stressed

syllables: bit / beat; full / fool. BUT: difference is not so clear for unstressed syllables in certain contexts,

including weak final position: happy, busy. (The same applies to the contrast // vs /u:/ in “to eat”, for

ex, -see below)

GB speakers would not agree on which phoneme to choose as a permanent representation of their

pronunciation in the contexts above (happy, busy, food to eat). Besides, there is no real possibility of

phonemic contrast in these contexts bt. // - /i:/ & // - /u:/. Therefore > the two distinctions which exist

within strong syllables are neutralised in certain positions. Such neutralisation is shown in transcription with

the symbols /i/ -for the front pair- and /u/ -for the back pair. These symbols represent weak vowels which

share the properties of the corresponding tense-lax pairs & are not in contrast with them.

When are these two pairs neutralised? Two contexts:

a) when the vowel is in a weak syllable at the end of a word (or at the end of part of a compound word or
of a stem, ie, when inflectional suffixes are added):

happy ˈhæpi happier ˈhæpiər anyone ˈeniwʌn

valley hurrying ˈhʌriɪŋ anybody ˈenibɒdi

babies ˈbeɪbiz easiest ˈiːziɪst

b) when the vowel is in a weak syll before another vowel belonging to a different syll (eg. in prefixes like
re-, pre-, de-, or in the suffixes –iate, -ious, when they have 2 syllables). See more examples in footnote p. 3):

deactivate diˈæktɪveɪt radiation reɪdiˈeɪʃn̩ glorious ˈɡlɔːriəs

preoccupied variation hilarious
react appreciate imperious

situation sɪtʃuˈeɪʃn̩ influenza ɪnfluˈenzə evacuation

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MAIOR EN ESTUDIOS INGLESES / 2025
ENGLISH PHONETICS & PHONOLOGY / Main HO Unit 4

In those two contexts, some speakers use // or //, others use /i:/ or /u:/; some use something

intermediate and some fluctuate between both. The symbols /i - u/ reflect this range of possibilities (1).

• Neutralisation also applies to the unstressed forms of function words that finish with a close front or
back V: he, she, we, me, be, the (+V), to (+V), you, into, do, who, through (ex.: to us; into a country; the

accent...) /hi, 

4.2. ENGLISH WORD STRESS

• English tends to stress alternately: it is relatively uncommon to find stress on adjacent syllables, unless

they form part of a compound/derived word.

• Monosyllables: two types, depending on whether they carry sentence accent or not. (They will be
studied in section 4.3, Sentence stress  CONTENT vs. FUNCTION WORDS)

• Polysyllabic words: one syllable always carries the main/primary stress, whose position is both fixed

and free > on any particular word the stress always falls on the same syllable (see exceptions below), but

this syllable is essentially unpredictable (unlike French or Polish, but like Spanish):

-last syll.: be’hind, re’sult, ciga’rette …

-penultimate syll.: ‘answer, to’gether, im’portant …

-antepenultimate syll.: ‘yesterday, ‘afterwards, ‘critical …

Stress Symbols:
syllable with primary stress (= 1)
syllable with strong vowel and secondary stress (= 2)
syllable with strong vowel and tertiary stress (=3)
unstressed syllable (= 0)

ALSO:  (raised line= primary stress; lowered line= secondary str.; not all authors use
tertiary stress)

(1)
 Further word endings with pronunciation i / u + V (add to suffixes above)

i+ə u+ə

-ial (bilabial, managerial) -uent (affluent)

-ian (avian, Chomskian) -uence (influence)
-ium (premium, medium) -ual (actual, usual)
-ient (lenient, convenient) …
-iary (aviary, intermediary)
…
 Note pronunciation i + ə in word-final position in non-suffixed words: Australia, Austria, Romania, Bohemia, inertia, India,
million, idiot, media, video …
 Compression of bisyllabic /i ə/ into monosyllabic /jə/, (and /u ə/ into /wə/) is common in rapid speech, sometimes /jə/ or
/wə/ being the only pronunciation in frequently used words (e.g. onion)
[see Wells’ Longman Pronunciation Dictionary]
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MAIOR EN ESTUDIOS INGLESES / 2025
ENGLISH PHONETICS & PHONOLOGY / Main HO Unit 4

NOTE: In the examples below, notice particularly the distribution of the types of vowels in stressed and
unstressed syllables.

WORD STRESS PATTERNS

1) TWO-SYLLABLE WORDS

0 1 behind, contain 2 1 untie, antique

1 0 never, pillar 1 3 window, pillow

2) THREE-SYLLABLE WORDS

1 0 0 luckily, quantity 1 0 2 telephone, appetite

0 1 0 solution, eleven 2 1 0 uncertain, re-entry

2 0 1 entertain, cigarette 0 1 3 potato, embargo

3) FOUR-SYLLABLE WORDS

0 1 0 0 photography, affirmative 1 0 2 0 appetizing, helicopter

2 1 0 0 subliminal, rhinoceros 1 0 0 2 capitalise, counterattack

0 1 0 2 enumerate, acclimatize 2 0 0 1 superimpose, aquamarine

1 0 0 0 melancholy, criticism 2 0 1 0 circulation, photographic

4) WORDS OF MORE THAN FOUR SYLLABLES: A SELECTION

1 0 0 0 0 capitalism 0 2 0 1 0 0 impossibility

0 1 0 0 0 administrative 2 0 0 1 0 0 characteristically

0 2 0 1 0 consideration 2 0 1 0 0 0 indistinguishable

2 0 1 0 0 satisfactory 0 2 0 0 1 0 personification

0 2 0 0 1 0 0 impenetrability

0 2 0 0 0 1 0 industrialization

2 0 2 0 1 0 0 unreliability

• Variable stress in long words

Some polysyllabic words show alternative stress patterns, following the tendency to alternate stressed and

unstressed syllables. In most cases, the change in stress produces sound changes in the word too:

controversy | ˈkɒntrəvɜːsi - kən’trɒvəsi | capitalist | ˈkæpɪtəlɪst - kə’pɪtəlɪst |

despicable, aristocrat …
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MAIOR EN ESTUDIOS INGLESES / 2025
ENGLISH PHONETICS & PHONOLOGY / Main HO Unit 4

• Distinctive stress patterns with Noun (or Adj) / Verb pairs

2-syllable words
Sometimes there is only stress shift (abstract, import), and other times the shift is accompanied by
vowel changes (conduct, desert):
N/A V

3-syllable words
A: Shift of primary stress and sound changes:
   N /A V

 alternate    

B: Constant primary stress, change of secondary stress and sound changes:

separate    

• Complex word stress: English suffixed words

Leaving aside compound words, English complex words may be prefixed words (pre-war, un-pleasant) or

suffixed words (home-less, magnet-ic). Words with prefixes do not seem to show regular stress behaviour

(they are better learned as if they were simple words), whereas most suffixed words fall into one of 3 groups,

as suffixes are fairly predictable in their stress behaviour (see next page). Bear in mind, though, that there are
many exceptions to these regularities.

NOTE: i) the stem that results after removing a suffix is not always a real word (audac-ity, evacu-ee); ii) suffixes

that alter the stress pattern of the stem often produce sound changes too (  )
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ENGLISH PHONETICS & PHONOLOGY / Main HO Unit 4

1) SUFFIXES CARRYING PRIMARY STRESS THEMSELVES ( “stress-carrying suffixes”)

2) SUFFIXES THAT DO NOT AFFECT STRESS PLACEMENT ( “neutral suffixes”)

3) SUFFIXES THAT INFLUENCE STRESS IN THE STEM ( “stress-moving suffixes”)

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MAIOR EN ESTUDIOS INGLESES / 2025
ENGLISH PHONETICS & PHONOLOGY / Main HO Unit 4

4.3. ENGLISH SENTENCE STRESS.

CONTENT & FUNCTION WORDS; WEAK & STRONG FORMS; RHYTHM

• Variations of accentual prominence like those found in words can be found in connected speech, ie,

phases or sentences (=utterances, pieces of connected speech beginning and ending with a pause):

photographic // ~ Alice took it   stress pattern 2 0 1 0

capital ~ wait for them 1 0 0

architecture ~ Tom can watch him  1 0 2 0

• Differences with word stress:

-Word stress patterns  generally unalterable vs. accentual patterns of sentences  will vary according to

sense.

-Word stress scarcely ever distinguishes meaning (see exceptions of Ns & Vbs above) vs. the accentual
pattern of the sentence will actually depend on the meaning the speaker wants to convey:

He should tell ‘her. Write your ‘name. Why don't you ‘try?

He ‘should tell her. Write ‘your name. ‘Why don't you try?

‘He should tell her. ‘Write your name. Why don't ‘you try?

Check differences in meaning by varying the accentual pattern of: Molly bought apples in the market

• Content and function words

The words most likely to carry strong accent (not necessarily the main accent) in a sentence are those which
are most important for its meaning, ie, nouns, main verbs, adjectives, adverbs (also, demonstratives
pronouns, quantifiers, wh- words when interrogative…). These are known as content words.
Words such as articles, prepositions, personal & relative pronouns, possessives, auxiliary & modal verbs, and

conjunctions, are called grammatical or function words (they have little or no semantic content; mainly used

to indicate the grammatical relationships between content words). They are normally unaccented, BUT

speakers may need to accent them:

So 'both of them 'left on the 'six o'clock 'train

It was 'better to 'go on 'foot

'Send them a'way at 'once But: Here's my pen. (non-neutral, emphatic.)

See also set of examples above (He should tell ‘her, etc.)
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MAIOR EN ESTUDIOS INGLESES / 2025
ENGLISH PHONETICS & PHONOLOGY / Main HO Unit 4

• Stress/accent and intonation are interconnected

-Accent > certain parts of a word/sentence sound more prominent than others.
-Intonation > the way in which the tone (or pitch) of the voice rises or falls on a given syllable, thus
determining the overall melody -and meaning- of the utterance.

Each utterance has an intonation pattern, based on the parts of a sentence which are prominent (accented).

Among such parts (syllables), one is more relevant than the others since it starts a significant variation in the
pitch of the voice (either rising or falling, or both). This syll carries the nuclear accent (aka tonic syllable or

nucleus of intonation). When the intonation is neutral –i.e., there is no special emphasis for semantic or
attitudinal reasons–, the nucleus falls on the last accented syllable of the utterance (a content word). In
non-neutral intonation –i.e. when we wish to focus attention on one particular element of the sentence

which may not be the element normally receiving the main stress–, the nuclear accent/tonic syllable will fall

on this element we want to focus on (it may be a content wd or a function wd - ‘Write your name, Here's

‘my pen, -see above).

• Weak vs. strong forms of function words. RHYTHM in English

A crucial feature of English pronunciation is the noticeable weakening and reduction of function words

when intonation is neutral (the general or unmarked case). Thus, in natural speech, an English speaker would

never say
She has gone to the shops as:   
     

This weakening is closely linked to the nature of rhythm in English. [RHYTHM = “the perceived regularity of
prominent units in speech” -Mott 2005]

English is said to be a stress-timed language since the basis for rhythm is the distribution of accent and lack

of accent in the utterance. Unlike Spanish, which is syllable-timed, in English, rhythm is not governed by
syllables, but by where the accents fall, ie, by the stressed syllables. These tend to occur at regular

intervals, rather like a beat: the time elapsing between two stressed syllables (two strong beats) is, generally

speaking, the same, regardless of the number of weak syllables in between. As a result, the speed at which
the unstressed/weak syll. are uttered will depend on how many of them occur between the strong beats, ie.,

the more weak syll there are, the more compressed they’ll be.

[In Spanish it is assumed that syllables, whether stressed or not, have approximately the same prominence,
and they mark the rhythm of the utterance]
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ENGLISH PHONETICS & PHONOLOGY / Main HO Unit 4

Examples:
(a) ‘kevin is ‘looking for a ‘new ‘house
KEV LOOK NEW HOUSE

(b) ‘What have you been ‘doing to’day

WHAT DO DAY

(c) She ‘put the ‘cake in the ‘oven

PUT CAKE OV

(d) He ‘DROVE ‘JANE ‘HOME

(e) He has ‘DRIven ‘CAtherine ‘HOME
(f) He has been ‘DRIving ‘CAtherine ‘HOME

Compare the following utterances: they have the same number of syllables, but differ in the number of

strong syll and so their rhythmic patterns are very different:

The ‘first ‘six have ‘all ‘won a ‘prize vs There were ‘prizes for ‘six of them

The nature of English rhythm determines the general features of weak forms:

-the length of sounds, esp. vowels, is reduced

-vowels are obscured in the direction of // or the neutralizations

-elision of vowels and consonants is common (auxiliary verbs are usually contracted)

In conclusion, most function words have two or more quantitative and qualitative patterns: a weak form,
used when unstressed (as is usual), and a strong form, used in cases of emphatic intonation, in some special

cases or when the word is said in isolation (see Roach, chapter 12)
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ENGLISH PHONETICS & PHONOLOGY / Main HO Unit 4

Reading assignment

ROACH, P. 2009:
Chapter 9: "Strong & weak syllables":

9.3. Close front and close back vowels

Chapter 10: "Stress in simple words"

Chapter 11: "Complex word stress"
Chapter 12: "Weak forms" (to be read by Students)

Chapter 15: "Intonation 1":

15.4. Some functions of English tones

MOTT, B. 2005:
Chapter 7: "Rhythm"

7.1. Introduction

7.2. The rhythm of English