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Pronounce English words correctly

Hello! I’m Emma from mmmEnglish and in this lesson we’re focusing on your pronunciation, specifically syllable stress, which is very important. It’s the difference between the noun, present and the verb, present. Hear the difference? These two words look exactly the same but they’re pronounced differently. And that’s all because of syllable stress. First thing! What’s a syllable? A syllable is a part of an English word and it’s created by a vowel sound.

Take the example from before. Present. It has two vowel sounds in it /e/ and /ə/ Present. Thus, there’s two syllables. The word book has only one syllable. The word date has only one syllable. It’s tricky because there are two vowel letters. But if you listen carefully you’ll hear there is only one vowel sound /eɪ/, date. The ‘e’ is silent and in the word my, there’s only one syllable. Even though there’s only consonants in this word there is still a vowel sound. The ‘y’ makes a vowel sound /aɪ/, my. How many syllables does the word apple have? Apple. Two.

How many syllables does the word banana have? Banana. Three. What about beautiful? Beautiful. Three. And economical? Economical. Five. Great! Notice that I’m saying ba-NA-na, not ba-na-na. Not all syllables are equal! If there is only one syllable in the word then of course, it will be the stressed syllable. If there is more than one syllable in the word, then there will be one syllable that is stronger, clearer and bolder than the others. The pronunciation of that syllable is clearer. Here are a few more examples: Perfect. Can you hear how the first syllable is clearer and stronger than the second? /pɜ:/ The second syllable is /fɪkt/ Perfect.

Perfect. So the first syllable is definitely stronger. It’s been a perfect day. See if you can guess which syllable in each of these words is the strongest? Beautiful. Beautiful. The first syllable is the strongest syllable. What a beautiful sunset. We use this stress to add emphasis to our sentences as well. Especially with adjectives. It’s a beautiful sunset. That’s a beautiful dress. Ridiculous. Ridiculous. Which syllable is stressed? Ridiculous. The second syllable is the stressed syllable. Ridi.. ridi.. culous. Ridiculous. I can’t wear that! I’ll that I’ll look ridiculous! Enthusiastic.

Enthusiastic. It’s the fourth syllable. En-thu-si-A-stic Enthusiastic. We were really enthusiastic about the idea, until we found out how much it would cost! So how do you know which syllable to stress? Unfortunately, there is no simple rule that you can follow but there is an easy way that you can find out this information! When you’re looking up a new word in the dictionary you’ll see the phonetic script next to that word. It will tell you what syllable to stress and it will be marked like this: Complicated. Economical. Intelligent. Of course you can also listen to the pronunciation if you’re using an online dictionary.

Some longer words will also have a secondary stress but the strongest stress - the main stress - is this symbol. So what do you need to remember? There is always one main syllable in a word that is stressed. It’s stronger than the others. Pronouncing it incorrectly can be confusing. Present. Present. Object. Object. Contract. Contract. Learning to push down on the strongest syllable will help you to add emphasis to your speech and your pronunciation.

It will help you to sound more sincere, more interesting and natural! I really like it. Your home is beautiful. What a perfect afternoon. Speaking English clearly and confidently is about more than just the pronunciation of sounds. Word stress and syllable stress are just as important. I hope that you enjoyed that lesson and you don’t have to stop now!