Practical English Phonetics
Spring Semester at Yu-Da Institute of Business Technology
Accent Rules
Where the Stress Falls
1. never breakfast Monday
The great majority of two-syllable words are accented on the first
syllable.
2. Compound expressions:
a. drawbridge drugstore weatherman
Compound nouns ordinarily have a primary accent on the first
component and a secondary accent on the second.
b. understand overlook outrun
In compound verbs the reverse is true: there is usually a
secondary accent on the first component and primary on the
second.
c. myself yourself herself
In the reflexive pronouns the stronger accent also falls on the last
syllable.
3. concert conduct conflict desert incline
present project record survey suspect
A large group of words, which may be used either as nouns or
verbs without change in their spelling, the noun has primary
accent on the first syllable, the verb on the last.
4. excuse predict deduct
abandonment reasonable boxes
In words that have prefixes or suffixes, the accent is usually
on the main root word.
5. photography biological mathematical
zoological education communication
Words ending –tion, -sion, -ic, -ical, -ity, and –graphy almost
have primary stress on the syllable preceding the ending.