Are You Using Stress To Your Advantage? 

Word-stress that is. Adjusting loudness, length, and pitch of a syllable is what I am referring to when I speak of word-stress. So, where should you place stress within a word? There is no simple rule for determining stress but we do notice common features which affect stress in a word. 

There are 3 levels of stress in American English 

  • Primary: loudest and longest syllable in word, noticeable change in pitch on the vowel e.g Blue  
  • Secondary: syllables which are stressed but less than Primary stress, change in pitch on the vowel is not as noticeable .e.g disappear  
  • Unstressed: syllables that have no stress at all, shorten the vowel until it’s almost completely gone e.g. yoga

Every syllable contains a vowel. Keep in mind that American pronunciation of vowels requires a change in pitch. The level of the change in pitch varies with the syllable stress. Loudness, duration, and pitch creates the rhythm of English. You will be able to express yourself in a more powerful way once you get this down.