Word stress (Easy)

Vocabulary points to take away:

Word stress is when you pronounce a particular syllable of a word more strongly than the
other syllables in the word. It is important to get the stress right. Speaking with the wrong
word stress can make your English sound unnatural.
For example, when you say the word ‘photograph’, which has three syllables, you say it with
the stress on the first syllable. You say photograph, not photograph or photograph.
In the dictionary, word stress is shown like this:
photograph – /ˈfəʊtəɡrɑːf/
The ˈ before the /f/ sound shows us that the stress is on the first syllable: photograph.
We can also show the stress pattern of a particular word by drawing a diagram like this:
And with these diagrams we can show how word stress patterns change in words that
come from the same root word:

Stress on the third
syllable from the end
Stress on the
penultimate syllable (4-
syllable words)
Stress on the
penultimate syllable (3-
syllable words)
biography
geography
photography
alphabetic
biographic
geographic
photographic
artistic
dramatic
Cloze Test

CLOZE TEST

1.BBCCatherineFinnaand
atbecausecgeographyhearheresininterestingkind
locationsofoutp-h-yrightsomestresssyllabletheatretheytopwhilewhowithyou

Hello and welcome to 6 Minute Vocabulary. Im Catherine…

Finn

And Im Finn. Catherine, look at this photo  � do you like it? I took it this morning.

Catherine

Wow, Finn. Thats not bad. I didnt know were into photography.

Finn

Well, I love taking photographs.

Catherine

Really? Well funnily enough, the words photography photograph are good examples of

todays topic, which is word stress. Were going to look at the way word can change

in words that come from the same root word.

Finn

Well show you how to work the stress of these words…

Catherine

Therell be a quiz…

Finn

And well leave you with a tip for learning vocabulary.

Catherine

But first, lets listen to John. Hes a photographer, which is a person takes photos as a

job. Hes talking about his latest project.

Finn

Heres a question to think about you listen: whats Johns project?

INSERT

John

The book is a collection of photographs of my father. He studied as a young man

and went all over the world during his career. He visited some very interesting geographic

 � the Andes, the Sahara  � beautiful places. The books like a photographic record

of his life  � a of a biography in pictures.

STING

Finn

So, thats John. We asked you: what was his project?

Catherine

And the answer is: a biography.

Finn

A biography is the story of someones life  � usually book.

Catherine

But, Johns a photographer, so he told the story of his fathers life in photographs. Lets

a clip.

INSERT 1 CLIP 1

He studied geography as a young man…

Finn

Johns dad was interested geography: the study of the physical features of the earth. And

geography is a key word in todays show of its stress.

Catherine

Yes. Now, geography has four syllables, ge-o-gra-phy---, and the stress falls on the third

from the end. Geography, not geography, geography or geography. Its geography.

Finn

Words that end in the letters - pronounced ‘�fee��’ - usually have this stress pattern.

Like biography and photography. Do you like photography, Catherine?

To be honest, not really.

Finn

Not really? Sorry to hear that.

Catherine

No, never mind. Anyway, these words  � like geography, biography and photography - are all

nouns. We can change them to adjectives, by changing the y the end to i-c  � pronouncedik‘’. And when we do this, the word stress moves to a different place the word. Heres’

John again.

INSERT 1 CLIP 2

He studied geography as a young man [……] He visited very interesting geographic

locations…

Catherine

Did you hear the difference? When we say adjectives that end with i-c-, the falls on

the penultimate syllable, thats the syllable just before the last one. So its geography, but

geographic.

Geography, geographic. And we have photography, pho-to-graph-ic---…

Catherine

And there are other words like dramatic, to do with and drama; alphabetic, to do

with the alphabet, and artistic, to describe things to do with art. Finn, are artistic?

Finn

Well, I like to think of myself as quite artistic, yes. And Catherine, whats the most

geographic location youve been to?

Catherine

Its a lovely place in Turkey called Öü.*%ldeniz�ü.

IDENT

Youre listening to Learning English.

Finn

And were talking about word stress. Weve looked at the stress patterns of words that

end p-h-y--, like photography.

Catherine

And words ending with i-c-, like photographic.

Finn

And now, its time for quiz. Choose the correct pronunciation for the words in these

sentences. Catherine will tell you the answers. Ready? Number I like reading books about

famous people. I love a good a) biography, b) biography or c) biography?’

And its b) biography.

Finn

Well done if you got that right. Number 2. ‘The police arrested him when found  � a)

photographic evidence, b) photographic evidence or c) photographic evidence.’

Catherine

And the answer is - ) photographic evidence.

Finn

And thats the end of the quiz  � well done if you got them all .

Catherine

And that almost brings us to the end of the programme.

Finn

But before we go, todays top tip for learning vocabulary: if you use an online

dictionary, you can usually hear an audio recording a words pronunciation. Listen

carefully to the word stress and try to copy it.

Catherine

Top tip, Finn.

Thank you.

Catherine

Theres more about this at bbclearningenglishcom.. Join us again for more 6 Minute

Vocabulary.

Both

Bye!

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created with the online Cloze Test Creator © 2009 Lucy Georges

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