Word Stress of American English

American Accent: Creating Rhythm in Words

Sometimes people don't understand us if we make the seemingly innocent mistake of stressing the wrong syllable!  Or they may understand, but their comprehension may get slowed down or their attention may be unavoidably distracted by the change in sound.  Stressing the wrong syllable can totally change the sound of a word, to the point where it is unrecognizable.  In this course, you'll master rules and patterns for predicting word stress.  You'll even predict the stress of words you've never seen before without having to consult the dictionary.  Learn which syllables to stress and which syllables not to stress.  Learn how to use vowel length, pitch, volume and energy to stress a syllable.  Then learn how to relax on unstressed syllables.   Learn about primary stress vs. secondary stress and the rule of alternating stress.  Learn how part of speech affects word stress and how suffixes can shift the stress of a word.  Learn which suffixes hold stress, shift the stress or don't affect the stress of a word.  Also learn how to stress compound words with two and three parts.  You'll even learn how to stress phrasal verbs or idiomatic verbs.  Reinforce all the lessons with repetition audio for each section.  This will build your muscle memory and reinforce the right stress in your mind..  End the course with a  humor review.  Students who have completed at least 50% of the course may attend free monthly live office hour on Zoom to ask questions and receive live corrections