Guidelines for Teaching English Stress
- Accent most two-syllable words on the first syllable (Monday, paper, dinner).
- Accent compound nouns on the first part (drugstore, sunshine, pancakes).
- Accent compound verbs on the second part (undertake, outlast, overcome).
- With words that can be either nouns or verbs, accent the noun on the first
syllable and the verb on the second syllable (object, suspect, record).
- In sentences, stress content words (nouns, most verbs, adjectives, adverbs),
demonstratives (this, that, these, those), interrogatives (who, what, where, when
and how) and words used for emphasis or special meaning.
- Do not stress function words (articles like the, prepositions like in,
conjunctions like or and most pronouns like he) or helping verbs (be, have, do,
will, would, should could, can, may, etc.).
English as a Second Language tutor training manual. (n.d.). Regina, Saskatchewan: Regina Public Library. Used with permission.
Handout 12.10