7 Word Stress: Compound Words and Adjective + Noun Combinations

What is word stress?

Example: Portland Oregon

PORTland ORegon

Oo Ooo   <– The capital O means stressed syllables. The small o means unstressed syllables.

not: portLAND oREgon

Stress is:

1. Longer
2. Louder
3. Higher (in pitch, like music)
4. Clearer (the vowel is easy to hear and full; it is NOT a schwa /ə/, usually)
5. Bigger (easy to see!)

Practice by listening, repeating, and checking with a tutor or teacher:

Compound Nouns

The stress usually is on the first word or part:

1. classmate
2. homework
3. football
4. bathroom
5. website
6. keyboard
7. writing teacher
8. English class
9. reading test
10. due date

Normal Adjectives + Nouns

The stress will usually fall on the noun. The adjective may have some stress, but it will have less than the noun — usually!

If you change the stress patterns, you may be changing the meaning or the feeling of what you’re saying.

Can you practice these common phrases with stress on the nouns?

1. a long walk
2. a good grade
3. a short speech
4. a clear voice
5. a hard quiz
6. some organized notes
7. a confident speaker
8. an interesting person

Extra: Stress on numbers!

Numbers also almost always receive stress:

1. example 1
2. speech number 2
3. exercise 3
4. My group had 4 classmates
5. I’m in level 5
6. But I’m getting ready for communication 6

Listen and Repeat

One good resource for teachers or tutors: British Council Teaching English – Word Stress