One or more syllables of a polysyllabic word may have greater prominence than the others.Such syllables are said to be stressed.
In English there are three degrees of word stress: stressed syllables (primary stress), half-stressed syllables (secondary stress) and weak or unstressed syllables.
A large group of polysyllabic words have both the primary and the secondary stressֽconver'sation.
There are several large groups of words in English with two equally strong stresses. These words consist of two morphemes.
English is a very rhythmic language because of this tendency to accent only certain words.
Often repeating spoken English without looking at the written sentence can also help you learn this 'music' of the language.English words have certain patterns of stress. The best way to learn English stress is to listen to audio materials and to repeat them after the speaker.
GENERAL GUIDELINES ON WORD STRESS
Generally, common English nouns, adjectives and adverbs are more often stressed on thefirst syllable than on any other syllable.
Verbs with prefixes are usually stressed on the second syllable.
English words can’t have two unstressed syllables at the beginning of the word;
one of these syllables will be stressed.
If a word has four or more syllables, there are usually two stresses in it: a primary stress (strong stress) and a secondary stress (weak stress).
Also, the secondary stress may be present in shorter words where the vowel remains long and strong.
Prefixes are often stressed in nouns and less often in verbs.
Suffixes are rarely stressed.
Endings are not stressed.
