A note on word stress in multi-syllable words
- Two-syllable nouns and adjectives: usually stressed on the first syllable
- Two-syllable verbs: often stressed on the second syllable
- Some words change meaning with stress
In English, every word with more than one syllable has one syllable that is stressed more than the others. English doesn't use written accent marks, so you have to learn the stress pattern for each word.
Here are some general tendencies:
Two-syllable nouns and adjectives: usually stressed on the first syllable
'table, 'doctor, 'happy, 'water, 'money, 'picture
Two-syllable verbs: often stressed on the second syllable
de'cide, a'gree, be'gin, for'get, pre'tend, a'rrive
Some words change meaning with stress
'record (noun) vs. re'cord (verb)
'present (noun) vs. pre'sent (verb)
'object (noun) vs. ob'ject (verb)
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