So, this week we’re back into the wonderful world of word stress. We’ve spoken about this a little before when we looked at schwa a year ago (S1, Ep 4), and of course when we looked at those unstressed words – the weak forms of grammar words – at the beginning of Season 3. I’m willing to bet that word stress is an area you’ve struggled with in the past: it isn’t always obvious in English, and every learner will stress a word in the wrong place from time to time. In fact, I almost never teach a class, even at the highest level, where word stress doesn’t come up at all.
It's also worth noting that word stress can be different in different global Englishes and even from speaker to speaker, so what you hear from one speaker might not be the same as you hear from another. It will be great practise over the next few days and weeks as you’re listening to other sources of English, to see if you notice any differences in word stress with the words we’re going to talk about today, or any others. Also, as with all other aspects of language, things are constantly evolving here: word stress does change, so what you hear today might not always match stress patterns from the past or future!
With all of that said, while confusion over word stress is inevitable to some extent, I think it’s still important to get word stress right where you can, because incorrectly placed word stress is often the source of momentary miscommunication: your listener will be expecting the stress to fall in a certain place, and can fail to understand the word if it doesn’t.
The good news is that there are some places where – if not rules, then there are guidelines about where to place word stress. This week, we’re thinking just about two-syllable nouns and verbs where the word can be stressed differently depending on its word class. Here, the stress on the noun tends to be on the first syllable and the verb on the second. For example, in this week’s title, record (verb) is stressed on the second syllable, but record (noun) on the first. As I said, this isn’t an absolute rule – there are many exceptions – but it’s a pretty good guideline to follow.
I will add here that these contrasts in stress can affect some noun or verb and adjective pairs too, but these are less common and they follow guidelines even less… we may talk about them another day!
Listen and repeat, practising really stressing that stressed syllable: exaggerate your mouth position, and make the stressed syllable a little louder, a little higher, and a little longer. I often find that my learners feel this is too exaggerated, but I promise it isn’t.
As you listen, or the second time you listen, if you can, also consider whether the noun and verb have a very similar meaning, or if there is a difference between them.
Noun Verb
- conduct - conduct
- conflict - conflict
- contest - contest
- contract - contract
- convert - convert
- desert - desert
- escort - escort
- export - export
- extract - extract
- insert - insert
- insult - insult
- object - object
- permit - permit
- present - present
- progress - progress
- project - project
- rebel - rebel
- recall - recall
- record - record
- subject - subject
- survey - survey
- suspect - suspect
Fantastic. If you need to listen to those again, pause the podcast here and rewind. If you’re ready to move on, let’s practise some sentences with some of those pairs. Listen, and repeat. As usual, I’ll read once slowly, for you to grasp the meaning. I’ll give you a little thinking break, and then read two more times, at a more natural pace, pausing after each one for you to repeat. As before, make sure you’re really exaggerating that word stress!
- As you progress I’ll note your progress.
- Do you recall the product recall?
- He was so insulted by the insult!
- The convert had quickly converted.
- The exports are exported daily.
- The project projected impressive profits.
- The subjects were subjected to stress.
- The survey surveyed three groups of patients.
- They conflicted over the root of the conflict.
- We extracted the extract slowly.
And to finish, five more sentences which use more than one pair!
- I suspect that the suspect contested the contest.
- The permit permitted them to desert the desert.
- The rebel rebelled and recorded a record.
- We escorted the escort to present a present.
- They objected to the objects inserted in the inserts.
And after the podcast, it would be a great exercise to think of some more sentences for the other pairs of words, or to see if you can think of more two syllable words where the noun and verb form have different stress patterns… I’ve picked those I feel are most common today, but there are many more!