Common English Word Stress Rules to Help Reduce Your Accent

Stress is extremely important in English. Stressing the wrong syllable or pronouncing all syllables with equal stress are a common problem for non-native speakers. So how can I tell which syllable to stress?

Although the rules for stress are very complicated and have many exceptions, there are a few common patterns that are easy to remember.

WORD STRESS
Every word has one stressed syllable which is pronounced louder, longer and higher.

Stress on 1st syllable:
Two-syllable nouns	label, format, table, coffee, breakfast
Two-syllable adjectives	lucky, grateful, handsome, boring, silly
Two-syllable adverbs	often, sometimes, mostly, rarely, never
Compound nouns	toothpaste, bookshelf, sunshine, headset
Stress on 2nd syllable:
Two-syllable verbs	invent, reply, decide, persuade, divide
Phrasal verbs	pass out, give up, turn off, give in

USING GRAMMAR TO PREDICT STRESS
Sometimes, the same word can be either a noun or a verb. In general, nouns stress the first syllable, verbs, the second.

Nouns	Verbs		Nouns	Verbs
CONvict	conVICT		REcall	reCALL
CONduct	conDUCT		CHECKout	check OUT
INsult	inSULT		PROduce	proDUCE
RUNdown	run DOWN		SUSpect	susPECT
MAKE up	Make UP		BREAK up	Break UP

Notice the stress in the following noun/verb pairs.

1. When someone insults me, I don’t take the insult very well.
2. Someone should conduct an investigation into his conduct.
3. I suspect the suspect will want to call a lawyer.
4. I don’t recall the beef recall of the 1990’s.
5. The final project will help us project a better image.