Alaa_Turbo  +  195077 Fri, 10 Feb 06 02:20 PM Hi there I have a problem, when someone says for example Understand, it looks like he stressed ER+STAND because when the speaker slows on ER, it looks like he is stressing on 'em, I get in that trouble a lot, any advice or suggestion? Thanks in advance and wish you good luck  Alaa_Turbo Joined on Wed, May 11 2005 Kingdom of Bahrain New Member 48 I am absobloodylutely High For ever

	Mister Micawber  +  195868 Sun, 12 Feb 06 12:32 PM Can you give us some more examples, so we can understand the problem better?  You have trouble hearing, or speaking, the words? Mister Micawber Joined on Wed, Aug 4 2004 Yokohama Veteran Member 30,788 'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master-- that's all.'

	Swiss Jake  +  204126 Tue, 07 Mar 06 10:00 PM I think I know what he (she?) means. It is about stressing the right syllable. I have that problem too. E.g. I used to say phoTographer instead of photOgrapher. Another one, it's aPOstrophe not apoSTRophe. The only tip I can give you AT, is to study the phonetics (pronounciation keys). The stressed syllabels are usually marked with '. Or, you could listen to the pronounciation audios of dictionaries. I don't know if there are any rules that tell you when to stress what part of a word. Best wishes, Jake Swiss Jake Joined on Fri, Dec 30 2005 Full Member 196 Please, correct my mistakes in my posts. Thank you! "The only real mistake is the one from which you learn nothing." -- John Powell Phonetics, Apostrophes

	CalifJim  +  204605 Thu, 09 Mar 06 12:34 PM There are all sorts of rules, but they don't work 100% of the time.  The examples you mentioned (photography, apostrophe) are examples of four-syllable words derived from Greek ending in the EE sound (spelled 'y', but sometimes 'e').  These take the main stress on the second of four syllables, which is often an 'o', but not always. biography, hyperbole, geology, ontology, biology, economy, astronomy, telemetry, optometry, antipathy, lobotomy, ... As usual, there are exceptions. CJ CalifJim Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004 California Veteran Member 22,391 "There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche Apostrophes, Hyperboles

	Swiss Jake  +  204770 Fri, 10 Mar 06 01:32 AM  CJ, that's excellent. "There are all sorts of rules, ..." Do you know a website with the rules? I'd be very pleased to hear the rules. Jake Swiss Jake

	Xess  +  205273 Sat, 11 Mar 06 08:20 PM Yeah, the stress rule is one of the hardest things to learn in English. Unfortunately, it's also one of the most important aspects of the language as it ups intelligeability greatly. It is actually quite hard to understand if someone speaks flatly with no stress and equal rythm. Knowing where to stress and where to speed up and slow down is an important part of the language. Like an example of confusion for the word 'understand' could be; if you stress the DER instead of the STAND, i might think you said "Under Stan." Then, I'd think, who in the world is Stan? I don't think there are any websites which list these stress rules in great detail because it really does differ from word to word. And the exact same word can have a different stresses as well. An example would be "a big bird" and "Big Bird (the one from Sesame St.)". The first one has a rising intonation, with the stress on 'bird'. The latter would have a dropping intonation, with the stress on 'big' and spoken faster as well. The best way to learn in my opinion is hearing native speakers talk. In time, hopefully you'll be able to pick up a pattern on exactly where to stress. Xess Joined on Sat, Feb 25 2006 Junior Member 59 Intonations

	CalifJim  +  205383 Sun, 12 Mar 06 08:48 AM Jake, No, I don't know of a website that deals with this topic, but maybe through Google you could find one.  Try keywords like English stress pronunciation. I believe that some bilingual dictionaries give a few tips on stress placement in the pages near the beginning of the dictionary.  Generally speaking these tips are given in terms of certain endings.  For example, almost all words ending in -ic are adjectives and are stressed on the next-to-last syllable -- the syllable which precedes -ic. music, comic, historic, public, supersonic, photographic Words in -ical are stressed on the syllable before the -ical, and words in -ically are similarly stressed on the syllable which precedes -ically.  (ically is pronounced as two syllables, as if icly.) musical, comical, historical, biological, allegorical biologically, futuristically, sympathetically Again, the stress occurs in the syllable just before the endings -tion, -sion, -ssion, -ious, -iate, -ity, -ify -itude. nation, tension, impression, luxurious, appreciate, electricity, gratify, latitude alteration, constitution, vision, associate, vanity, insanity, hilarity, petrify, acidify, aptitude Two-syllable verbs derived from Latin are usually stress on the final syllable, the first syllable being a prefix. devote, concern, impress, expect, conflict, preserve, propel, sustain, transgress, addict, dismay, persist, permit, demand If there is a noun spelled the same way as these verbs, the stress is often on the first syllable.  (This rule doesn't always work very well!) permit, addict, prospect, conflict Also, alternate stress is common in English.  That is, the usual pattern of syllables is stressed - unstressed - stressed - unstressed.  So once you know where the main stress is, secondary stress occurs in this pattern.  For example, electricity is ElecTRIcity.  photographic is PHOtoGRAPHic. Remember:  These rules don't work 100% of the time. CJ CalifJim Pronunciation, Verbs, Nouns

	Xess  +  205771 Mon, 13 Mar 06 04:06 PM Yeah, it's a wonder why we were never taught about stress and pronunciation in school. Perhaps it's because there are just too many rules, and learning them will end up confusing the learner even more. We learn all the word stresses by rote. Then, we get a general picture of how things should be pronounced. When coming across new words which we've never seen before, we can only guess the stress. Honestly, we wouldn't know where to stress if someone wrote down a foreign or unknown word and asked us to read it. Xess Pronunciation