8 must-know reading techniques as an ESL, "teacher", or amateur.

April 21, 2019

Some ways of improving your reading skills in just 8 basic steps.

It's not piece of cake stressing words in English. Consequently, I have reposted this very important information lesson that is going to change your perpectives in your listening and reading proficiency.

When a noun (a word referring to a person, thing, place or abstract quality) or an adjective (a word that gives information about a noun) has two syllables, the stress is usually on the first syllable.

Examples:

table /TA-ble/

scissors /SCI-ssors/

pretty /PRE-tty/,

clever /CLE-ver/

Unfortunately, there are exceptions to this rule. It could be that a word was borrowed from another language or it could be totally random. You just have to learn these “outsiders” by heart. Here are three words you can start with:

hotel /ho-TEL/

extreme /ex-TREME/

concise /con-CISE/

When a verb (a word referring to an action, event or state of being) or a preposition (a word that comes before a noun, pronoun or the “-ing” form of a verb, and shows its relation to another word or part of the sentence) has two syllables, the stress is usually on the second syllable.

present /pre-SENT/

export /ex-PORT/

aside /a-SIDE/

between /be-TWEEN/

Some words in English can be both a noun and a verb. In those cases, the noun has its word stress on the first syllable, and with the verb, the stress falls on the second syllable.

If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll see that this rule is a derivation from the prior two sections and notice some of the same words. However, this is a separate section since those pairs of words are relatively common in English and they’re likely to cause misunderstanding due to the same spelling.

present /PRE-sent/ (a gift) vs. present /pre-SENT/ (give something formally)

export /EX-port/ (the practice or business of selling goods to another country or an article that is exported) vs.export /ex-PORT/ (to sell goods to another country)

suspect /SU-spect/ (someone who the police believe may have committed a crime) vs suspect /su-SPECT/ (to believe that something is true, especially something bad)

There are, however, exceptions to this rule. For example, the word “respect” has a stress on the second syllable both when it’s a verb and a noun.

Words that have three syllables and end in “-er” or “-ly” often have a stress on the first syllable.

orderly /OR-der-ly/

quietly /QUI-et-ly/

manager /MA-na-ger/

teacher /TE'-cher/

When a word ends in “ic,” “sion” or “tion,” the stress is usually on the second-to-last syllable. You count syllables backwards and put a stress on the second one from the end.

information /in-for-MA-tion/

commission /com-MI-ssion/

photographic /pho-to-GRA-phic/

When a word ends in “cy,” “ty,” “phy,” “gy” and “al,” the stress is often on the third to last syllable. Similarly, you count syllables backwards and put a stress on the third one from the end.

democracy /de-MO-cra-cy/

photography /pho-TO-gra-phy/

logical /LO-gi-cal/

commodity /com-MO-di-ty/

psychology /psy-CHO-lo-gy/

In most compound nouns (a noun made up of two or more existing words), the word stress is on the first noun.

football /FOOT-ball/

keyboard /KEY-board/

In most compound adjectives (a single adjective made of more than one word and often linked with a hyphen) and compound verbs (a multi-word verb that functions as a single verb), the stress is on the second word.

old-fashioned /old-FA-shioned/

understand /un-der–STAND/

I hope you have enjoyed today's lesson with no stress--LOL.

Thanks a bunch and good luck!

Warmest regards,
PBC- Department of Scientific English Language
CEO (Chief Executive Officer):
Pedro Benny C.

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PBC—The Department of Scientific English Language

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