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PRACTICE

Important Points to Remember:

Nouns and adjectives with two syllables usually have stress on the first syllable.

Example nouns:

• meeting
• promise

Example adjectives:

• busy
• helpful
• extra

Verbs and prepositions with two syllables usually have stress on the second syllable.

Example verbs:

• observe
• complain
• become

Example prepositions:

• about
• above
• without

Words that end in “ate” or “ize,” “ive” & “ical” have stress on the third syllable from the end. It doesn’t matter how many syllables the words have, and it doesn’t matter if they are verbs, nouns or adjectives.

• mer-chan-dise
• pub-li-cize
• a-ppre-ci-ate
• tech-no-log-i-cal

Words that end in “shun” and “ic” are stressed on the syllable second from the end. It doesn’t matter how many syllables the words have, and it doesn’t matter if they are verbs, nouns or adjectives.

• sit-u-a-tion
• im-pres-sion
• com-mis-sion
• ques-tion

Remember, we don’t follow these rules all of the time, but it’s good to practice them because they are very common patterns.