PEARTREE LIFE: Experiencing Languages

Syllable stress got a bit less stressful at this week’s English for lunch...

Have you ever thought that English has a lot of stress? Well, it does - syllable stress. This week we looked at syllables and why they’re one reason why English words can be hard to pronounce and hard to understand. We found out how to figure out the number of syllables in a word and that words with more than one syllable always have one stressed syllable, which means it’s louder, longer and stronger than the other syllables in the word.



Then, we looked at some ways to predict which syllable in a word will be stressed (for example, the first syllable is normally stressed in two-syllable nouns) and how difficult it can be for people to understand the words you’re saying if you stress the wrong syllable.


Finally, we found out what happens to vowel sounds in unstressed syllables (the /ə/ sound can make them sound like they’ve disappeared!) and practised pronouncing some typical everyday words with ‘real’ syllable stress - everyone sounded a lot more British!

Thursday 07 November is Progress Test day so there’ll be no Language for lunch, but join us
at 12.30 on Thursday 14 November for more advice and ideas on understanding the mysterious world of English pronunciation...


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About Peartree Languages

Peartree Languages is a language school located in Cardiff.

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