Saturday January 17th, 2009
English Pronunciation Podcast 19-
Syllable Stress in Words of 3 or More Syllables (Part III): This podcast teaches you another useful rule for finding the stress in words which have three or more syllables.

In this weeks podcast, we’re going to continue learn how to determine which syllable of a word is stressed. Often times, students aren’t sure which syllable to stress when they see a long word with three or more syllables.

As we started to discuss in last week’s podcast, if you have a long word of three or more syllables and you want to know where the stress is, you have to look at the suffix of the word. The suffix is the word ending. The suffix is a signal which will tell you which syllable to stress in the word.

In last week’s podcast, we learned about some suffixes for which the stress falls immediately before the suffix. This week were going to look at another group of suffixes. We’re going to look at words such as:
socialize

Socialize has three syllables. It ends in the suffix ize.

Rule: Whenever you see the suffix ize, count back two syllables and you’ll find the syllable stress.
Stress fall on <so> , which is two syllables before the suffix.

so     cial     ize

The focus of today’s lesson is:

• to learn and practice the suffixes for which the stress falls two syllables before the suffix :

Suffixes for which the stress falls two syllables before the suffix:

ize, ary and ate

Exercise: Listen and repeat the following words containing the suffix ize.
Pay careful attention to syllable stress; stress falls two syllables before the suffix.

suffix: ize         

recognize        rec ogn ize
fantasize          fan tas ize
socialize           so cial ize
reorganize       re or gan ize

Notice how it didn’t matter how many syllables were in the word. We’re not counting the number of syllables.
We’re looking at the suffix  which is the signal that tells us the stress falls two syllables before it.

Exercise: Listen and repeat the following words containing the suffix ary .
Pay careful attention to syllable stress;, stress falls two syllables before the suffix.

Suffix: ary

secretary             sec  ret  ary
legendary            le  gend  ary
contemporary       con  tem  por  ary.

Suffix: ate*

* ate as a verb is pronounced /eIt/. As an adjective or noun , it’s pronounced /It/. Today’s podcast we’re going to focus on using ate as a verb, pronounced /eIt/.

Exercise: Listen and repeat the following verbs containing the suffix ate .
Pay careful attention to syllable stress; stress falls two syllables before the suffix.

activate           ac  tiv  ate
operate           o  per  ate
exagerrate     e  xa  gger  ate
investigate     in    ves  tig  ate

It’s always a good idea to use new words and sounds in sentences.

Exercise: Listen and repeat the following sentences, paying careful attention to syllable stress.

I have to activate my credit card.

I didn’t recognize him at first.

That singer is legendary in his country.

In addition to using suffixes as signals for stress, you can also learn syllable stress just through memorization.

If you can memorize the stress of a word just by memorizing the rhythm, the feel of the word, like it’s music, that’s good too!

Exercise : Make a list of words which have the same suffix. For example: <ize>
Then repeat them over and over, getting into a rhythm, almost like your singing or rapping:
recognize… socialize… penalize…. synthesize… fantasize…
By repeating them, you begin to memorize the stress pattern for the suffix ize.

The Importance of Training

A big part of English pronunciation and accent reduction is repetition– repeating words and sounds over and over again until you commit then to memory.
Through repetition, you’ll begin to master the sounds of English. You’ll develop what’s known as muscle memory– the ability to do something automatically without thinking.

Think of dancers, athletes and musicians- how do they get so good at what they do?
They practice and repeat over and again!

It’s important to have good training tools to practice your pronunciation.
That’s why I recommend :  Best Accent Training mp3s!
Put it on your mp3 player and practice wherever you want to!

Any questions, comments or suggestions ? Contact us at:  contact@englishpronunciationpod.com

Thank you and see you next time!