Practice Word Stress Patterns
Copy this spreadsheet to practice your own words
Organized by Stress
I have two different spreadsheets I use in my Meetup groups to practice word stress. The one in American English Pronunciation Q&A includes a space for how a word is used in context with other words and looks like this:
This is useful during the Meetup because I can enlarge the screen to make it easy to see the words and the short phrases that we add to the list.
The one I use in the American English Intonation Meetup has columns that organize words by stress pattern and looks like this:
I created the second one so people could practice words that all have the same stress pattern. You can read the spreadsheet by going down column A and reading the words in the order they were added to the list, or you could read down each column to see words that all have the same stress pattern.
You can make a copy of this Google Sheet here:
I made a video demonstrating how I use this spreadsheet and will describe it here as well.
Start with Syllables
Before dividing words into syllables, let’s define “syllable.”
First, separate the idea of vowel letters (a, e, i, o, u, y) and vowel sounds. There are only 6 vowel letters but there are 16 vowel sounds. You’ll have to trust your ears to know what you are hearing and not include silent letters like the silent-E at the ends of words.
A syllable is a part of a word that has one vowel sound. That’s it, that’s the definition of a syllable. You can have a vowel sound on it’s own like in the word “idea” = i-de-a. You can’t have a consonant on it’s own (wellll, we have practiced the syllabic-N before, so there are always exceptions to the rules).
It doesn’t really matter where you put the consonants when you divide a word as long as you only hear one vowel sound in the syllable. You can divide the word “syllable” like this: syl-la-ble, or like this: sy-lla-ble, or like this: syll-a-ble, but not like this: s-yl-la-ble. The consonant /s/ can’t be a syllable without a vowel sound.
Every word has one syllable that receives “primary stress.” The vowel sound in that syllable is pronounced with higher pitch (Hz) and is stretched longer in duration than the vowels in unstressed syllables.
How do you know which syllable is stressed? Look it up in the dictionary. Most dictionaries use a small little line near the top of the first letter of the stressed syllable like this example from Merriam-Webster:
Some dictionaries use bold, like this example from Dictionary.com (this website will show both the IPA form of the word and the non-IPA style of spelling):
In the spreadsheets, I use capital letters to represent the stressed syllable.
I also create any kind of spelling that represents the sound of the word because English spelling and pronunciation can be very different. If you find that helpful, trust your ears to spell the word the way it sounds. If you find that more confusing than just remembering the real spelling, then stick with the real spelling.
Word Stress Patterns
How many syllables are in a word means that’s how many choices you have for stress placement.
Single-syllable words can’t be divided, so you just stretch the vowel longer in those words. How long is long enough? Long enough so that you can identify the vowel sound.
Two-syllable words have two choices: stress on the first syllable or stress on the second syllable. Three-syllable words have three choices, and on and on.
The spreadsheet has the stress pattern written in number form:
ONE-two = stress on the first syllable
one-TWO = stress on the second syllable
Below each pattern is an example word with that pattern. You should change these to any words that are easy for you to remember. My words for these two patterns are:
ONE-two = “baby” BA-by
one-TWO = “balloon” ba-LOON
Practice by Pattern
When you add a word to column A to practice, you also type that word (either with real spelling or any spelling that helps you remember how it sounds) in the column with that stress pattern. Now, when you read down each column you are practicing the same pattern. You should fall into a rhythm as you stretch the stressed vowels longer and shorten the unstressed vowels.
Practicing the stress patterns of words will help you more easily identify that pattern when you see that word again than memorizing which syllable is stressed in every word.
Remember to change the example words to anything you want to help you remember that pattern.
You can make a copy of this Google Sheet here:
I made a video demonstrating how I use this spreadsheet and will describe it here as well.