Ten English Accent Rules
Most teachers are unfamiliar with the role that pronunciation plays in orthography (the study of spelling rules). Key to proper pronunciation is the accent. The accent is the stress placed in varying degrees upon the vowel sounds in syllables. The primary accent refers to the vowel sound with the greatest “punch” or “stress.” A good way to teach accents is to have students clap on the accented syllable and snap on the unaccented syllables. Teachers may choose to add on secondary accents; however, these have minimal influences on pronunciation and spelling. Check out How to Teach Syllabication after you skim through this helpful list of accent rules. The Ten English Accent Rules are important to understand and apply to be able to correctly pronounce and spell English words.
Accent Rule #1: Each word with two or more syllables has one syllable whose vowel is accented. For example, for-gét. Accents are very important to spelling rules. Accented means that the sound of that vowel is stressed, or louder, than those in other syllables.
Accent Rule #2: A long word may have more than one accent. The vowel that is stressed more or most is called the primary accent. The primary accent is key to many of the spelling rules. A second accented vowel is called the secondary accent. For example, cón-ver-sá-tion. Very long words can have even more stressed vowel sounds, but only one primary accent.
Accent Rule #3: The primary accent is usually on the root before a double consonant. For example, for-gét-ting.
Accent Rule #4: Unaccented vowel sounds frequently have the soft /uh/ schwa sound, especially when there is only one letter in the syllable. All vowels can have the schwa sound. For example, the a in a-boút.
Accent Rule #5: The primary accent is usually on the first syllable in two-syllable words. For example, páy-ment.
Accent Rule #6: The primary accent is usually on the second syllable of two-syllable words that have a prefix in the first syllable and a root in the second syllable. For example, dis-tráct.
Accent Rule #7: For two-syllable words that act as both nouns and verbs, the primary accent is usually on the prefix (first syllable) of the noun and on the root (second syllable) of the verb. For example, pró-duce as a noun; pro-dúce as a verb.
Accent Rule #8: The primary accent is usually on the first syllable in three-syllable words, if that syllable is a root. For example, chár-ac-ter.
Accent Rule #9: The primary accent is usually on the second syllable in three-syllable words that are formed by a prefix-root-suffix. For example, in-vést-ment.
Accent Rule #10: The primary accent is usually on the second syllable in four-syllable words. For example, in-tél-li-gent.
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Great work in summing up these rules !
I would like to know if there are more rules in regard the Rule #7, I mean, what would happen if we have verbs – nouns with more than two syllables ?
Thanks a lots before hand.
Anselmo
Excellent. But of course there are exceptions. An annoying one for Rule #7:
re-port’–pronounced identically in the verb meaning, “to inform or narrate” and in the noun meaning, “a sudden loud sound, as a gunshot or thunderclap.”
Yes, or as Stephen Colbert used to pronounce it as “rah-pour.”
Hello, I was hoping you could tell me if single syllable words have accents or not and if yes, than when and when do they not? I cannot for the life of me find a simple answer to this question. But I am referring to words such as: I, A, We, It, No, Yes, Hold, Past, Year, To, The… I’m sure you understand what I’m asking but, Does it have to do with long and or short vowel sounds in one syllable words? Say if the word ” The ” is it the TH sound first and then the soft E with the /uh/ sound, or is it the TH and then the E with the E sound? And to accompany that, is there a rule that follows, like, “The” and “This” “That” Than” “Then” at any rate do we rely on the short vowel sounds or the long vowel sounds?
Actually an excellent question. All single syllable words are accented. This is important to know to apply spelling rules. For example, stop is accented on the vowel and ends in a vowel then consonant. If the suffix begins with a vowel, the finally consonant “p” is doubled to form stopping.
The sound of the vowel is irrelevant.
If all one syllable words are accented, how does this work in poetry? For example, I see many iambic pentameter poems with I, we, or, and etc and they are usually the first syllable of the foot so not accented. Actually as a beginning poet I’m having troubles finding one syllable words that aren’t accented. Any advice?
Brian,
Poetic meter (stressed and unstressed syllable patterns) is different than syllabication. The latter deals with pronunciation, syntactical forms, and spelling rules. Good question. Saying that one syllable words are accented is simply utilitarian for these purposes. The word, “that” really isn’t accented.
Are there any rules for words with three, four, five or more syllables.
Also how about longer words that become the root of another word? For instance syllable, syllabification. In the first, syl is accented. I hear the second word with the primary accent on the second syllable lab and ca is also accented.
I either have internal rules that are incorrect, since I hear some people putting accents on longer words in different places than I would. Please help
No hard and fast rules for syllabication, I’m afraid.