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Welcome back. In the previous lesson, you learned to recognise British dictionary vowel symbols, including /ə/ in an unstressed syllable. Now you can use those symbols to answer two questions about a whole word: how many syllables does it have, and which syllable carries primary stress?
This matters for a contemporary RP accent because a word can contain the right individual sounds but still be difficult to recognise if its strongest syllable is in the wrong place. By the end of this lesson, you will be able to mark syllables in words you hear and read the primary-stress mark in a dictionary.
Hear syllables before you divide spelling · About 8 minutes
A syllable is a spoken unit built around a sound peak, usually a vowel. Say fast slowly: there is one vowel sound and one syllable. Say person: you can hear two units, per-son. In banana, you can hear three: ba-na-na.
The key is to count sounds, not vowel letters. Rain has two written vowel letters, but its /eɪ/ is one diphthong within one syllable. Face also has one syllable; the final e does not create another spoken unit. Your knowledge of vowel symbols helps here: /eɪ/ represents one moving vowel, not two syllables.
Syllables and Word Stress - English Pronunciation Lesson
Watch “Syllables and Word Stress” from Oxford Online English for heard examples of syllable counting and stress. Use the first viewing to listen, and the second to speak along.
Begin with counting syllables. Pause after person, beautiful, and information to say each word slowly and count its spoken units. Then watch hearing stress, noticing which syllable stands out in banana and the later examples. Finish with dictionary marks; you will use that mark below.
Some words make a syllable boundary less obvious than the number of syllables. Do not force a tidy split between written letters if it conflicts with what you hear. First establish the spoken units; then use an approximate written division such as ba-na-na to record them. In some words, such as bottle, a final consonant can carry a syllable even when a separate vowel is difficult to hear. Listening to the word remains more reliable than counting letters.
Find the syllable that stands out · About 8 minutes
English words of two or more syllables have a primary stressed syllable: the most prominent syllable in the word. In banana, it is the middle one: ba-NA-na. The first and last syllables are still present; they simply do not stand out in the same way.
Stress is not just “say one part loudly.” A stressed syllable often has a clearer vowel, takes somewhat more time, and may be spoken with a pitch change as well as greater force. These cues work together, and their exact balance changes with the speaker and sentence. Listen for the contrast between syllables rather than demanding that the stressed one always be the loudest sound you hear.
The British Council’s Word stress explains those physical cues and gives a compact way to draw the pattern:
Word stress | TeachingEnglish | British Council
Read the British Council’s explanation to connect the stress you heard in the video with a way to mark it on paper.
In “What word stress is,” read stress features. Focus on how the stressed and unstressed syllables differ, rather than trying to exaggerate every feature at once. Then, under “In the classroom,” find the subsection “Mark the stress.” Read circle notation, including the explanation of where dictionaries put the stress mark.
A large circle can represent the primary stressed syllable and a small circle an unstressed one. Thus, PER-son has the pattern O o, while ba-NA-na has o O o. The number of circles shows the number of syllables; the large circle shows which one is strongest. Capitals in ba-NA-na do the same job when you write an ordinary word.
Mark the pattern in words you hear · About 6 minutes
The image below shows that words with related spellings need not keep their strongest syllable in the same place. The raised part of each line indicates primary stress; it is a diagram of prominence, not a measurement of pitch or loudness.
Read the words aloud in pairs: PROD-uct and pro-DUC-tion; POL-i-tics and pol-i-TI-cian. Keep all the syllables audible, but give only the marked one the main prominence. Notice that adding material to a word can change its stress pattern. For now, observe the placement rather than trying to predict it from the ending; you will study stress-changing patterns later in the course.
When you make your own notes, either of these formats is enough:
| Word | Spoken division with primary stress | Circle pattern |
|---|---|---|
| person | PER-son | O o |
| banana | ba-NA-na | o O o |
| information | in-for-MA-tion | o o O o |
The hyphens here are learning marks for spoken units, not a rule about where a word must be split in writing.
Read the dictionary’s primary-stress mark · About 7 minutes
A British learner dictionary normally places /ˈ/ immediately before the stressed syllable. It does not put the mark above the written word, and it does not form part of the vowel symbol.
Compare these transcriptions:
- happy /ˈhæpi/: the mark comes before the first syllable, so HAP-py.
- about /əˈbaʊt/: the mark comes before the second syllable, so a-BOUT.
- computer /kəmˈpjuːtə/: the mark comes before /pjuː/, so com-PU-ter.
In computer, notice that /ˈ/ is before the consonant /p/, not immediately before the vowel /uː/. Read it as “the next syllable is stressed,” not “the next symbol is louder.” A useful way to show the spoken grouping in your own notes is /kəm.ˈpjuː.tə/: the dots separate syllables, and /ˈ/ identifies the strongest one. You do not need to add dots to a dictionary transcription to use it.
You may occasionally see a smaller secondary-stress mark, /ˌ/, in a longer word. For this lesson, locate /ˈ/: that is the primary stress you are learning to mark. If a transcription and your first guess from spelling disagree, favour the UK recording and transcription.
Listen, mark, and record · About 9 minutes
Stress depends on a contrast: the other syllables are usually less prominent, and their vowels may be shorter or less clear. You met /ə/ in the previous lesson; now you can hear why it often appears away from primary stress. This does not mean every unstressed vowel must become /ə/.
Return briefly to the same Oxford Online English video:
Syllables and Word Stress - English Pronunciation Lesson
Revisit “Syllables and Word Stress” from Oxford Online English to hear how the quieter syllables contribute to the overall word pattern.
Watch stress contrast. Listen particularly to banana, person, and information: identify the primary stressed syllable first, then notice how the other syllables compare. The presenter exaggerates contrast as a practice aid; your eventual speaking target is more natural.
Use those three recorded words for a short listen–record–compare routine. Listen to each word, say it once while looking at its marked pattern, and record yourself saying all three. On playback, attend only to two questions: Did I produce the right number of syllables? Can I hear the intended primary syllable stand out? Repeat the recording once, adjusting the pattern rather than trying to perfect every vowel today.
For a final check, write the patterns beside your recording: O o for person, o O o for banana, and o o O o for information. If a word feels uncertain, replay the model before deciding; spelling alone cannot settle what you heard.
You can now divide a word into spoken syllables, mark its primary stressed syllable with capitals or a large circle, and find that syllable from /ˈ/ in a British dictionary transcription. Keep sounds and spelling separate: count what is pronounced, then verify unfamiliar words with UK audio.
Next, you will use pairs of words to investigate another reason that audio and IPA matter: English spelling does not reliably tell you which sounds a word contains.