Pronunciation

• Kevin -the lead of Roundtable & Stammtisch in Ermont- sent us, years ago, the address of a nice Web site with the same sentences said by various voices and accents.
  I thought it was a handy one so I just wrote to Kevin: here it's!
  -> The Speech Accent Archive
  (How To)
  (needs Apple Quicktime)
  
• a series of 17 links about "Accent tonique dans la phrase en anglais"
  
• a series of 8 links about "Phrases difficiles à prononcer"
  
• 17 links about "Phrasal or Sentence Stress"
  
• "About.com - English Pronunciation Practice"
  
• "About.com - Changing Meaning through Word Stress"
  
• "EnglishClub.com - Pronunciation"
  
• "YourDictionary.com - 100 Most Often Mispronounced Words and Phrases in English"
  
• "Pronunciation Web Resources"
  
• "American English Pronunciation - Word and sentence stress"
  
• "American English Pronunciation"
  
• "American English Stress"

American English Pronunciation - Word and sentence stress

Word stress
Word stress - the accent on one syllable in a word.
Word stress - general rules
• There is only one stress in one word.
• Only vowels are stressed, not consonants.

Word stress - specific rules (there are many exceptions to these rules)

The parts of the words in bold print are stressed.

Stress on the first syllable
• most 2-syllable nouns – china, table, export, pencil
• most 2-syllable adjectives – slender, clever, happy
Stress on the last syllable
• most 2-syllable verbs – to export, to decide, to begin
Stress on the second syllable from the end (penultimate syllable)
• words ending in “ic” – graphic, geographic, geologic, photographic
• words ending in “sion” and “tion” – television, revelation, information
Stress on the third syllable from the end (ante-penultimate syllable)
• words ending in “cy”, “ty”, “phy” and “gy” – democracy, dependability, photography, geology, society
• words ending in “al” – critical, geological
Compound words (words with two parts)
• compound nouns, the stress is on the first part – blackbird, greenhouse, bluebird, blackboard, notebook, bookstore, toothbrush, keyboard
• compound adjectives, the stress is on the second part – bad-tempered, old-fashioned
• compound verbs, the stress is on the second part – to understand, to overflow
• nouns + compound nouns (two word compound nouns), the stress is on the first word - air conditioner, computer programmer, nail polish, french fry

Sentence stress
Sentence stress - where word stress is the accent on one syllable in a word, sentence stress is accent on certain words within a sentence. Often considered to be the "rhythm" of English.
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American English Stress

Stress

Stress is one of the three aspects of rhythm in English pronunciation. Stress, linking, and intonation work together to create the rhythm of a fluent speaker. Being able to pronounce sounds correctly is a building block of rhythm, but students should not wait until sounds are mastered before learning about and practicing stress, linking, and intonation.

Stress is divided into two categories (syllable and sentence), each explained below. Syllable stress lessons or drills (at left) can be practiced in any order; the goal is to eventually become familiar with all the patterns. Sentence stress lessons (at left) should be practiced in order because lessons build on previous lessons.

Syllable Stress

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Sentence Stress

...

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it’s written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.
Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation’s OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Fe0ffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.
Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.
Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.
Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.
Pronunciation (think of Psyche!)
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won’t it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It’s a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.
Finally, which rhymes with enough,
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!