English Pronunciation

SYLLABLES

Syllables are combined by consonant+ vowel + consonant

but there are various combination such as

V only as a

C+V as me

V+C as eat

C+V+C as bag

each syllable contains only one vowel (monophthongs or diphthongs)

consonant clusters: consequence of consonant with no vowel sound

between them. "text" "split" " spring"

WORD STRESS

When a word has more than one syllable, one of them has the stress, it's

more force or emphatic.

it is indicated with '

Stress in a word is also indicated with o O o .... O o o .... o o O...

When a syllable contain the SCHWA is never stressed.

When a word has suffixes or prefixes. the stress is on the root word.

The syllable before two consonant is usually stressed. (beginner, letter)

In long words we also have secondary stress indicated with , in

dictionaries.

SENTENCE STRESS

English is stress-timed. The stress goes in the word which carries the

meaning.(alternation with stress and unstress causes alternation)

in which words?

There are grammar words (preposition, auxiliary verbs, conjunctions

pronouns, determiners) and content words ( nouns, adjectives, adverbs,

main verbs).

in neutral situation content words are stressed while grammar words are

not, but not necessarily every content words is stressed. (nouns and verbs

are more important, more stressed)

In open compound, the stress is usually on the first word