Hey guys this is Ceema and I am back with a lesson to help you understand ‘syllable
stress’. Now why is this syllable stress part – 2? Because this happens to be a continuation
of our syllable stress series to help you understand pronunciation in the best possible
way. Now for those who did not watch the first lesson on syllable stress, go back and watch
the first lesson by clicking on the link at the end of this video. But just to revise
let me first help you understand about syllables, what is a syllable? A syllable is a part of
a word. So a word could have one part two parts three parts or maybe ten parts so each
part is a syllable. So if I were to say guarantee, guarantee that word how many syllables would
it possibly have? Let's take a look now if I put my hand below my chin I would have to
say the word like gua-ran-tee, pay attention gua-ran-tee as you can see my chin has dropped
thrice and therefore this word has three syllables so that is the way you will determine how
many syllables a word has, okay? Great, now since we're talking about syllable stress
the problem is we don't know which syllable to stress. Well that's a common problem with
non-native speakers so if you want to now pronounce words properly pay close attention
and watch the entire video, you don't want to miss a thing, okay? All right then let's
look at words ending with these words so word endings are called ‘suffixes’. So they
are word endings so if the word ends with ‘a-b-l-e’ it is a suffix. So I have mentioned
I think around 16 word endings, okay? I'm talking about just this part of the board,
okay? So that's 16 suffixes or word endings, now if your word ends with these words or
if your word has these suffixes, all of these you are going to stress the syllable right
before the suffix. So pay attention we don't care how many syllables the word has which
means that as long as your word ends with a-b-l-e, i-a-l, i-a-n, e-r-y and so on, it
doesn't matter how many syllables your word has because you will only stress on the syllable
right before this suffix. Let's have a look and see how we can relate to what I just said,
okay? Now this word ends with the ‘a-b-l-e’, it apparently has just two syllables but we
don't care how many syllables it is. All we need to know is that we have to stress this
syllable before this suffix so this word has two syllables which is du-ra-ble, du-ra-ble,
du-ra-ble, durable, so I will stress on the first syllable and say durable not durable
a lot of people say durable, that's wrong it's durable, durable, durable, okay? Let's
move on to the next word which is financial, again this the suffix is the one ending with
the ‘i-a-l’ but I will stress on the syllable before it and say financial I won't say financial
I'll say financial, okay? We're stressing a syllable before i-a-l. The same goes for
this word which is musician, musician the s-i-c the sish his stressed, so I don't say
musician as a musician a lot of people say musician did you hear that musician, he's
not a musician, he's a musician because this word ends with the suffix which is i-a-n and
therefore I will stress on the syllable right before it, okay? Moving on to the next word
we have a word ending with the suffix e-r-y so you will stress on this on the syllable
before the e-r-y and you will say scenery, scenery not scenery but scenery, okay? Scenery,
okay? So it's three syllables but you stress on the s-C-e, okay? Scenery. Okay the next
one, the next word has the suffix i-b-l-e so we stress on the terrible we stress on
the syllable just before the i-b-l-e. Terrible, terrible there was a terrible accident. Okay
this is a big word and you've heard this word very, very often but don't get scared because
this word ends with the suffix i-c and therefore you will stress on the syllable before it
so you will say characteristic not characteristic, characteristic, characteristic you are stressing
the right before the suffix. Okay moving on we have classification, organization, division,
right? So what's ending with i-o-n you are going to stress on the syllable before the
i-o-n okay? What's ending with the i-a again you will stress on the syllable right before
this suffix and you will say bacteria, bacteria not bacteria, bacteria okay so this place
has a lot of bacteria not bacteria okay? All right then words ending with i-e-n-t you're
gonna you follow the same rule, you will stress on the syllable before the i-e-n-t and you
will say ingredient, ingredient we have another word which ends with i-o-u-s and therefore
you will stress in a syllable before it by saying mysterious, mysterious, mysterious.
Okay moving on what's ending with i-s-h same rule selfish not selfish, selfish you are
a selfish person. Okay we have another word ending with the o-s-i-s again you stress on
the syllable before this suffix which is somewhere here so it actually got three syllables in
its hyp-no-sis so I don't stress on ‘hyp’, I don't stress on ‘sis’ I stress on the
syllable before the s-i-s and I say hypnosis, hypnosis, osmosis, hypnosis. Okay our next
word ends with the s-i-o-n and we again stressed the syllable before the suffix a lot of people
pronounce this incorrectly but you will say it as television, television I love to watch
television. What are you gonna watch on the television tonight? Okay words ending with
a t-i-o-n you will stress syllable right before it and you won't say nutrition, nutrition,
nutrition, nutrition. Okay then so what have we learned until now? We have learned that
if your words have all of these syllables which are the last syllables or the suffixes,
don't stress the suffix but stress the syllable before the suffix, okay? So let's say that
quickly yeah durable, financial, musician, scenery, terrible, characteristic, classification,
bacteria, ingredient, mysterious, selfish, hypnosis, television, nutrition. Okay then
we have some more rules to learn okay, so let's pay attention don't go just yet. Okay
now if your words end with these syllables then, you won't follow this rule no, no, no
you are now going to stress on the suffix itself okay so what did we learn here? If
your words end with these syllables you are stressing on the syllable before the suffix
or the word ending but if your word ends with these syllables you are going to stress on
the suffix itself, let's see how, this is a famous drink that everyone wants to have
in summer, so you will say can you give me some lemonade? Not a lemonade, lemonade, can
I have lemonade? You are stressing on the syllable a-d-e itself. I agree, I don't agree
with you, I agree with you. That man is a puppeteer. That man is a puppeteer, not a
puppeteer, he's a puppeteer. My student was Japanese, not Japanese, a lot of people say
my student is Japanese, he can't be Japanese, he's from Japan but he is Japanese, okay you're
stressing on the e-s-e which is this suffix itself. Okay in the olden days in the 90s
or perhaps the 80s we never had CDs or you know records like we do right now at that
time when you had a cassette not a cassette a lot of people say Cassette. You stress on
the, the suffix itself and you say we used to play cassettes in the late 90s or in the
early 90s. Okay words ending with the q-u-e again you're gonna stress the, the suffix
itself and say physique, physique not physique, physique. Okay and what are those funny things
you watch on TV there are cartoons, they're not cartoons, they're cartoons, okay? So as
you can see when you have words ending with these suffixes pay attention to them you were
only going to stress the suffix itself and that's how you will know how to pronounce
these words properly. Okay moving on we are going to look at the last rule which tells
us that if your word now ends with these suffixes which are c-y, p-h-y, g-y, a-l, and t-y you
will stress on the third last syllable okay and now you're getting a little confused here?
Don't worry. So what is the third last syllable? Suppose your word has four syllables okay
so that's one syllable, two syllable, three syllable, four syllables, right? This is the
last syllable, this is the second last syllable, which means this would be the third last syllable.
If your word has just three syllables this is the last syllable, this is the second last
syllable, this is the third last syllable, easy? Okay then so let's understand how to
apply this rule, okay so if our word has these suffixes or these word endings you are going
to stress on the third last syllable it does not matter how long your, your word is, you
could have ten syllables or five of them we don't care. Okay this word this is one syllable,
de-mo-cra-cy okay four syllables what did we just learn if you have this as your suffix
you will stress on the third last syllable this is my last syllable, this is my second
last syllable and therefore this has to be the third last, so I will say democracy a
lot of people say democracy, democracy I don't know but the actual way of saying it is democracy.
We believe in democracy. Okay moving on words ending with the p-h-y, you will say geography
third last syllable again this is the last syllable, this is the second last syllable
but you will stress on the third last syllable and say geography is my favorite subject.
Okay this word only has three syllables so this happens to be third last and I'll say
allergy a lot of people say allergy, allergy they stress on the second syllable but you
are supposed to stress on this one and say allergy, I have an allergy. Okay nautical,
nautical and the last word is clarity where again you are stressing on the third last
syllable because it ends with the t-y. Okay so let's say these words again democracy,
geography, allergy, nautical, clarity. Okay then I would suggest that all of you keep
practicing now if you're wondering how am I going to remember all of that, let me tell
you, you don't have to remember you just have to follow the rules and keep practicing because
the more you practice the better your pronunciation will become, so keep practicing and you will
see that you will eventually sound just like a native speaker. So I'll see you with some
more lessons until then this is me saying bye