TS Inter 2nd Year English Grammar Word Stress

Telangana TSBIE TS Inter 2nd Year English Study Material Grammar Word Stress Exercise Questions and Answers.

TS Inter 2nd Year English Grammar Word Stress

Q.No.19 (8 × 1/2 = 4 Marks)

‘Stress’ is an import aspect of the English Language. In words with two or more syllables, one syllable gets more prominence than the other syllables in pronunciation. The syllable that gets more prominence is called the stressed syllable.

That a particular syllable is stressed in the given word is shown with a small vertical bar’ placed at the beginning and just above that syllable.

Example: ‘teacher The first, syllable ‘teach’ is stressed. If the given word has only one syllable, the question of more prominence doesn’t arise. Hence monosyllabic words are not stressed. But, they may be stressed in connected speech, i.e. in sentences.

As a foreign learner, we are not habituated to placing the stress correctly. Not at all stressing or wrong placing of it leads to misunderstanding or not understanding at all. Therefore it is very much necessary to acquire the right stress habits if we want to communicate effectively.

To know the stressed syllable in a given word, listening to the native speakers and noticing stress is a natural and easy way. But we don’t have that kind of environment. The only alternative way is to depend on dictionaries. But it is very difficult to go to dictionaries every time.

Here are some general principles that help us to some extent to pick up this complex aspect.

• Monosyllabic words in isolation have no stress.
• Disyllabic words (words with two syllables) with word final ‘r’ have the stress on the first syllable.
  Examples: ‘father, ‘doctor, ‘teacher, ‘sister, ‘painter.

Examples in word stress:

1. In the following disyllabic words, the stress falls on the first syllable. Read them aloud:

2. In the following disyllabic words. on the other hand, the stress falls on syllable. Read them aloud:

1. Rules of word stress

Now it may seem that word-stress in English is upredictable.
However, the following rules of word-stress are available.
Rule I: Words with weak prefixes
The following words beginning with weak prefixes such as a, be, de, re, con, have stress on the second syllable,

Rule 2 : Compound words

A compound word is a word that is composed of two separate words. In such words stress usually falls on the first syllable.

However, there are some compound words which take stress on the second part of the word. For instance, the words that end in -ever’, ‘-self and -selves’ take stress on the second part.

Rule 3: Words which denote numbers have a specific stress pattern.

a) words that end in ‘-teen’ get the stress on ‘-teen’.
fifteen
eighteen

b) for the words that denote the multiples of ten, the stress falls on the first syllable.
‘fifty
thirty
‘sixty

Rule 4: Suffixes

a) Most words that end in -ee, eer, -ette, -que and -alre take stress on the last syllable.

b) Words that end in -Ion, -Ial, -Ic and -Ious/eous take stress on the penultimate syllable (i.e., second syllable from the end).

c) Words that end in -leal, -lan, -ity, -lze, -logy and -graphy take stress on the ante penultimate syllable i.e., the third syllable from the end.

Rule 5: Stress Shift

a) One very important feature of word-stress is the stress shift. That is, the stress shifts when some suffixes are added to a word.
Examples:
e’eonomy
eco’nomic
econo’metrics
‘photograph
photographer
photo’graphic
Note: In the above examples, you have seen that the addition of suffix results in stress shift. But there are some suffixes which do not affect the stress. Some of them are

b) There are, again, some (disyllabic) words which can be used as nouns or adjectives and also as verbs. In such cases, the stress falls on the first syllable if the words are used as nouns or adjectives. The stress shifts to the second syllable If they are used as verbs.
Examples;

Exercises

The following exercises are meant to make the concept clear to you. As you know, practice makes one perfect!

Examples in word-stress:

1. In the following disyllabic words the stress falls on the first syllable. Read them aloud

2. In the following disyllabic words, on the other hand, the stress falls on the second syllable. Read them aloud:

I. Mark the stress on the following words.

Answer:

II. You have read the stress rules on suffixes. Follow the rules and mark stress on the following words

Answer:

III. The following words have weak prefixes. Put a stress mark the on the words and refer dictionary.

Answer:

IV. The following words with two syllables have noun/ adjective and verb forms. Put a stress mark on the syllables based on their grammatical functions.

Answer:

V. Place a stress mark on the following compound words. Look up the dictionary and correct your answers.

Answer:

VI. Mark stress on the right syllable.

Answer:

VII. Mark the stress for the following words. [Revision Test – V]
i) common
ii) adopt
iii) humility
iv) footprint
v) understand
Answer:
i) ‘common
ii) a’dopt
iii) hu’mility
iv) ‘footprint
v) understand

VIII. Mark the stress for the following words. [ModelQuestion Paper]
i) delay
ii) biography
iii) carry
iv) economic
v) sixty
vi) nature
vii) hotel
viii) victory
ix) application
x) jellyfish
Answer:
i) de’lay
ii) bi’ography
iii) ‘carry
iv) eco’nomic
v) Sixty
vi) ‘nature
vii) hotel
viii) ‘victory
ix) appli’cation
x) ‘jellyfish