1.3 Stress

Although most of us are aware of the concept stress, it is not easy to give an accurate definition. First, let’s consider the term syllable. At this point, all of us are surely familiar with this term. But just as stress, syllable is a concept difficult to define. We know words have at least one syllable, and we are usually able to divide a given word in our mother tongue into syllables even if we have never heard this word before.

Therefore, knowing what syllable is and knowing how to divide words into syllables appears to be a matter of a developed intuition when it comes to our mother tongue. However, we, as non-native speakers, may find it not that easy to divide English words into syllables. Still, as we have some experience using and maybe teaching the language, we are usually able to identify how many syllables English words have.

But, why is the concept of syllable so important regarding stress? Because the kind of stress we are talking about is always associated with either monosyllabic or polysyllabic words. In the latter, there is a syllable which is pronounced more loudly than the other or others, which is precisely the stressed syllable. Every language has its own rules about how to stress polysyllabic words. English is regarded by non-native speakers as a particularly difficult language because of the so many sound combinations and possibilities to stress words that it has.

Moreover, when we speak and put several words together, we stress or emphasize some words of our choice more than others. This selection usually forms patterns that give rhythm to our speech by contrasting the stressed and unstressed syllables. At the same time, these selection and rhythm affect the intended meaning of our utterances.