Aula de inglês: Stress Patterns
Channel: Rui English
Date: 2018-02-12

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RuiEnglish Lesson: Stress Patterns

SPEAKING
Why these words are pronounced differently?
contest contest

Why are the endings to these two words pronounced differently?
record record

Stress patterns
Every word in English has a stress pattern.

Stress refers to the emphasis you place on certain words in a sentence or on a syllable within a word.

A stressed word or syllable is louder, longer, and higher pitched than unstressed words or syllables.

In some cases, the stress pattern of a word can determine its part of speech.

Look at the following noun-verb pairs of words. They are alike except for the stress pattern.

Contest n /ˈkänˌtest/ a competition
Contest v /kənˈtest,ˈkänˌtest/ argue against

Record n /ˈrekərd/  written documentation
Record v  /rəˈkôrd/ make an audio recording

The nouns are stressed on the first syllable and the verbs are stressed on the second. 

Even if you put all the correct sounds together, you may not be understood unless you use the correct stress patterns.

Using the wrong stress pattern can cause misunderstandings.