Masaryk University in Brno

Faculty of Arts

Department of English and American Studies

English Language and Literature

Petra Nováková

Stress and Rhythm in English and Czech

B.A. Major Thesis

Supervisor: PhDr. Kateřina Tomková

2007
 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently,
using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

………………………………
 I would like to express many thanks to my supervisor PhDr. Kateřina Tomková
for her valuable advice and kind support throughout the process of writing this thesis.
Table of Contents:
1. Introduction................................................................................................................... 5
1.1. Position of English in Czech schools......................................................................... 5
1.2. Sources of intelligibility problems............................................................................. 6
1.3. Topic description ....................................................................................................... 7
2. Stress in general ............................................................................................................ 8
2.1. Definition of stress..................................................................................................... 8
2.2. The production of stress............................................................................................. 8
2.3. Degrees of stress and their notation........................................................................... 9
3. Stress in English.......................................................................................................... 11
3.1. Word stress patterns................................................................................................. 11
3.1.1. Stress in simple words .......................................................................................... 12
3.1.2. Stress in complex words ....................................................................................... 15
3.2. Secondary stress....................................................................................................... 17
3.3. Level stress .............................................................................................................. 18
3.4. Stress in compounds ................................................................................................ 19
3.5. Stressed and unstressed syllables............................................................................. 21
3.6. British and American Word-Stress Differences ...................................................... 22
3.7. Sentence stress ......................................................................................................... 23
3.8. Strong and weak forms ............................................................................................ 25
3.9. Functions of stress ................................................................................................... 27
3.9.1. Rhythm.................................................................................................................. 27
3.9.2. Semantic differentiation........................................................................................ 28
4. Stress in Czech............................................................................................................ 30
5. Survey for this study ................................................................................................... 32
5.1. Introduction.............................................................................................................. 32
5.2. Data collecting ......................................................................................................... 32
5.2.1. Design of the questionnaire .................................................................................. 33
5.2.2. Piloting of the questionnaire ................................................................................. 37
5.2.3. Distribution and return of questionnaires ............................................................. 37
5.3. Data analysis ............................................................................................................ 39
6. Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 47
Appendix 1...................................................................................................................... 50
Appendix 2...................................................................................................................... 51
Works Cited .................................................................................................................... 52
 1. Introduction

1.1. Position of English in Czech schools

Without any doubt, English is nowadays one of the most important languages in the
world. In many corners of the planet, one can make oneself understood by using English.
Therefore it is no wonder that English ranks as the first foreign language in Czech classes.
However, it was not always so.
In order to understand the current position of English in the Czech Republic, it is
important to consider it from the point of historical development. Before 1989, during the
communist era, English was taught only at a few basic schools, at grammar and language
schools. The quality of teaching, especially in the field of phonetics and phonology, was
not very high because there was an enormous lack of contact with native speakers. English
was taught mainly by Czech teachers who, of course, had hardly any direct experience of
an English speaking country because it was almost impossible to travel to such places at
that time. The native model of pronunciation was missing.
The situation started to change after the Velvet Revolution (1989) when the Czech
Republic opened to the world. Czech pupils were encouraged to study foreign languages,
with English in the lead. Russian was pushed aside and English has taken its place.
At the beginning of the process of English replacing Russian, there was a great lack of
qualified and experienced teachers as well as teaching materials. There was a high
proportion of teachers who just requalified from Russian to English when it was needed.
Their command of English was substantially insufficient and this was most evident in the
field of pronunciation. This had, quite obviously, a negative impact on the learners` ability
to pronounce well.
Nowadays, the situation seems to have improved. The concern for English language and
thus also for English teacher training is continually increasing. Present-day students of
English have considerably better knowledge of the subject than their colleagues a few
years ago. After finishing their studies they leave for basic and secondary schools to make
use of their qualifications in teaching practice.
Unfortunately, the sad truth remains that still a large number of English teachers lack
the full qualifications, theoretical knowledge and practical experience with the English
language, particularly in the field of pronunciation.
My personal experience as well as that of most of my colleagues confirms this sad fact.
Before entering university we had gained decent knowledge of English vocabulary and
grammar, but the level of pronunciation was far from satisfactory. Above all, the
suprasegmental features such as stress and rhytm were almost a virgin territory to us. That
is why I have decided to focus on stress and rhytm in my thesis, hoping that it will increase
the awareness of specific characteristics of English stress.

1.2. Sources of intelligibility problems

Quite a lot of people realize that an inaccurate production of a phoneme can lead to
misunderstanding. Kelly stresses this point in consideration of major factors inhibiting
successful communication. To illustrate the problem, he gives an example of such a
misunderstanding: “when a learner says soap in a situation such as a restaurant where they
should have said soup,” (Kelly 2002:11) it can cause a great confusion on the waiter`s side.
According to Kelly, a learner who consistently mispronounces a range of phonemes can be
extremely difficult to understand. (11)
The importance of correct word stress for a successful communication is, however,
often underestimated. It is generally thought that when one can pronounce the individual
sounds of a given language correctly, it is sufficient.
This view is contradicted by Kenworthy together with Dalton and Seidlhofer who claim
that correct word stress is as important as correct production of sounds, or even more so. If
a speaker does not make any difference between stressed and unstressed syllable or
stresses the wrong syllable, it may be very difficult for the listener to identify the word. It
is a matter of fact that the stress pattern of a word is an important part of its identity to a
native speaker. There is a great evidence that a native speaker relies primarily on the word
stress when they are listening. (Kenworthy 1990:18)
Kenworthy reports about experiments that have shown that when a native speaker
mishears a word, it is mostly because of the wrong stressing, not because the individual
sounds were mispronounced. She provides some examples:
- “the word written was pronounced with the stress on the second syllable instead of on
the first. The listener thought the speaker had said retain” (Kenworthy 1990:18).
- “comfortable was pronounced with stress on ‘com’ and ‘-ta-’. The listener heard this
as come for a table” (Kenworthy 1990:18).
To crown it, Dalton and Seidlhofer add an anecdote about misunderstanding caused by
misplaced word-stress:
 - “Host introducing a guest speaker: ‘Professor X is a very ['ımpǢtǩnt] man in the
field…’” (Dalton, Seidlhofer 1994:100).
What the speaker meant was, of course, im'portant with stress on the second syllable.
In all the above cases, the sounds used by the speaker were for the most part accurate.
Still, the listeners were confused by the incorrect stressing.
This clearly demonstrates the importance of word stress for intelligibility and emphasize
that a speaker should pay as much attention to stress pattern as to the individual sounds.

1.3. Topic description

As mentioned above, I had negative experience with learning or rather not learning
pronunciation at grammar school. Therefore, I have decided to investigate if my school
with its poor interest in English pronunciation was an exception among Czech schools or
if it is a persistent trend in the Czech Republic. As the field of pronunciation is very wide, I
have chosen just the issue of stress and rhytm for my research.
I am going to argue that misplacing the word stress in English is a greater source of
intelligibility problems than mispronouncing the individual sounds. Czech learners of
English in particular seem to be unaware of the significance of the stress within English
pronunciation. They do not realize how much native speakers rely on the stress pattern of a
word and that is why misunderstandings often arise.
It is quite natural that the mother tongue influences learning of a new language in a
significant way. Therefore, there are specific problems in language learning resulting from
the differences between English and Czech. This thesis sets out to trace the differences in
stress and rhytm in the above-mentioned languages.
As regards its structure, the thesis is divided into two main parts – theoretical and
practical. The theoretical part concentrates on the stress patterns in English, with a
comparison to the Czech system. The practical part is based on the research done at
grammar schools in Brno. It describes the process of collecting and analyzing the obtained
data. Finally, the results are evaluated and conclusions drawn.
I hope that the findings will inform Czech teachers of English about the current state of
teaching English pronunciation in Czech secondary schools. I also believe that the issue
will receive more attention and have impact on English language teaching.
 2. Stress in general

2.1. Definition of stress

Before looking more closely at the usage of stress in a language, it must be explicitly
stated that the term stress is used in two different ways. One use is as a conventional label
for the prominence of certain syllables over others. Used in this wider sense, stress does
not correlate merely with one feature such as loudness, but represents the combined effect
of several other factors besides. It is in this general sense that we can say that Czech words
are usually stressed on the first syllable, Polish words are stressed on the last but one, etc.
(Dalton; Seidlhofer 1994:32)
The second use of the term is concerned with the way in which speakers actually
achieve this impression of prominence, i.e. its physiological cause. “In this narrower sense,
stress refers to the muscular energy which goes into the production of a syllable” (Dalton;
Seidlhofer 1994:32).
Only few authors of books about pronunciation are clear in their distinction between
stress as ‘linguistic foregrounding function’ and stress as ‘muscular effort in production’,
even though the two clearly belong to different levels of analysis. The first definition is the
one most commonly used.
This thesis will just briefly mention how stress (muscular energy) contributes to stress
(prominence). After that it will be dealing exclusively with stress as prominence.

2.2. The production of stress

The perceptional point of view deals with the question what characteristics of sound
make a syllable seem to be stressed to a listener. The common assumption is that a stressed
syllable is simply said more loudly than other syllables in the word. Somehow, stressed
syllables seem to be louder than the rest. Loudness, however, is not the only device for
signalling the location of the stress in English. There are three other factors that work
together with loudness: pitch, length and quality. Especially pitch change and duration are
supposed to be the most reliable cues in the perception of stress. (Dalton; Seidlhofer
1994:34)
“Experiments with speakers of other languages have corroborated the importance of
pitch as a cue in the perception of stress, but they have also shown that the relative weight
of the factors involved is definitely language specific. In English, for instance, the duration
of syllables seems to be a more important cue than in other languages” (Dalton; Seidlhofer
1994:34).

2.3. Degrees of stress and their notation

We sometimes look at syllables just in terms of being either stressed or unstressed. But
within longer words syllables can have different degrees of stress. To be more theoretically
accurate, we should consider all syllables in terms of their level of stress, rather than its
presence or absence. (Kelly 2002:69)
Different phoneticians have outlined up to five different levels of stress in a single
word: Jones in his Outline of English Phonetics cites the word opportunity, which has five
levels of stress as seen below. ‘1’ indicates the greatest level of stress, and ‘5’ the least.
(qtd. in Kelly 2002:69)

Opportunity

[Ǣpǩ'tjuənıtı]

“Jones qualified this, however, by saying that he thought that this viewpoint needed
‘modification’, and that here stress was affected by ‘subtle degrees of vowel and consonant
length, and by intonation’. While Jones` example seems somewhat excessive for common
purposes, the existence of different levels of stress is well documented and evidenced”
(Kelly 2002:69).
Most books dealing with word stress settle on a three-level distinction between primary
stress, secondary stress and zero stress or unstress.
There is a great number of ways of marking stress, many of them are frequently used for
teaching purposes. Kelly suggests the following methods of indicating stress when it
comes to writing on the board or in a handout for the students (76):
- Circles can be written above or below the word: computer
- Sometimes boxes are used instead of circles: computer
- One can simply underline the stressed syllable: computer
- Or write it in capitals: comPUter
- The convention used in dictionaries is placing a high stroke before the relevant
syllable when indicating the primary stress [com'puter], and putting a low mark when
indicating the secondary stress [en,cyclo'pedia]. Unstressed syllables that are characteristic
by the absence of any feature of prominence are recognised by no sign in transcription.
Teachers tend to develop particular habits and inevitably find themselves using one
convention rather than others. (Kelly 2002:76) They are mostly influenced by the type of
marking used in the textbook which they are teaching from. There is a great inconsistency
in phonetic transcriptions used in current textbooks, particularly in those written by non-
native speakers and this fact often confuses the students as well as the teachers. If we look
at some Czech textbooks of English, we can find that English pronunciation is introduced
there with the help of Czech sounds. It often ignores the fact that many English sounds are
very different from their soi-disant counterparts in Czech. Nevertheless, this usually does
not affect the notation of stress.
No matter what way of marking the teacher chooses, it is important to abide by it and be
consistent every time a new word is introduced and the stress pattern indicated. Otherwise
it could lead to a great confusion on the students’ part. (Kelly 2002:76)
 3. Stress in English

3.1. Word stress patterns

In some languages the incidence of stress within the word is fixed, e.g in French all
words are usually stressed on their final syllable, in Polish on the penultimate syllable,
while in Czech or Finnish they are stressed on their initial syllable. In some other
languages, such as Spanish, Portuguese and Italian, rules can be given which cover the
stressing of the majority of words. In Spanish, moreover, all irregular stresses are marked
with an accent, which facilitates enormously the task of the foreign students who have to
study the language mainly from books. (Kingdon 1958:12)
The stress pattern of English words is free in this sense, that means that the main stress
is not tied to any particular situation in the chain of syllables constituting a word, as it is in
the above mentioned languages. However, English word stress is fixed in the sense that the
main stress regularly falls on a particular syllable of any given word. (Cruttenden
1997:201)
Thus, words such as husband, finish, answer are regularly stressed on the first syllable;
alone, behind, together on the second syllable, and possibility, circulation, unimportant on
the third syllable.
In other words, English word stress is variable – any syllable of a polysyllabic word can
carry the main stress.
As well as being variable, English word stress is also mobile. In the word ‘photograph’,
the stress falls on the first syllable ('photograph), but in ‘photographer’, it falls on the
second syllable (pho'tographer). “Having become familiar with the pronunciation of one
form of the word, learners will usually assume that the stress stays on the same syllable in
the other forms of the word. In other words, they will assume that the prefixes and sufixes
make no difference to the placement of the stress. But in English they do” (Kelly 2002:59).

The placement of word stress in English can hardly be reduced to a set of strict rules.
Although some rules do exist, they tell us what is true most of the time, not always. There
is a large number of exceptions to almost any rule, so the following sections should be
regarded as descriptions of tendencies rather than absolute rules.
One may wonder how it is possible that some languages use a regular and easy word
stress while a language like English has such an irregular and complicated system. The
answer lies in the etymological standpoint. The irregularity of English stress arose from the
fact that the vocabulary has been drawn from two principal sources. English is a blend of
Germanic elements (with the tendency towards early word stress) and Romanic elements
(where late stress prevails). (Fudge 1984:4) The interaction of these two opposing
tendencies has led to a somewhat confusing amalgam which now causes troubles to
thousands of English learners all over the world.

For an analysis of stress it is needful to categorise the word morphologically ( to say

whether it is a simple or complex word containing one or more prefixes and sufixes, or a
compound word consisting of two independent English words), according to the
grammatical category (noun, adjective, verb, adverb, etc.), number of syllables and
phonological structure. The last aspect implies the division of syllables between strong and
weak ones. Strong syllables have either a long vowel or diphtong, or a vowel followed by a
coda (that is one or more consonants after syllable peak). Weak syllables compared with
strong ones tend to have a shorter vowel of lower intensity, are different in quality, have a

short vowel without coda unless the syllable peak is the schwa vowel [ǩ] or less often [ı].
(Koštáková 2005:15) Only strong syllables can be stressed, weak syllables are always
unstressed.

3.1.1. Stress in simple words

If the word is monosyllabic, there is no choice of place for stress.
In disyllabic words it is obvious that either the first or the second syllable will be
stressed.
Somewhat different tendencies apply to nominal roots on one hand and verbal and
adjectival roots on the other. Adverbs are generally derived from adjectival stems with no
alteration to stress pattern. (Cruttenden 1997:204)
As for nouns, if the second syllable contains a short vowel, the stress will come on the
first syllable ('money, 'product), otherwise it will fall on the second syllable (ma'chine,
ba'lloon, i'dea). As for verbs, if the second syllable is a strong syllable, the stress falls on
that syllable, as in re'peat, a'rrive. If the final syllable is weak, the first syllable will be
stressed as in 'open. Two-syllable adjectives are stressed following the same rules as verbs,
e.g. a'live, a'lone, 'lovely. (Koštáková 2005:16)
 Certain words exhibit different stress patterns depending on whether they are nouns or
verbs. Such word oppositions are mostly disyllabic, of French origin, and they may or may
not involve phonemic changes of quality. (Cruttenden 1997:211)
A relatively small number of noun-verb pairs may differ only in the location of the
primary stress, this falling on the first syllable in the nouns and on the second in the verbs.
Noun Verb

Torment ['tǤəment] [tǤə'ment]

Transfer ['trǡənsfзə] [trǡəns'fзə] or [trǩns'fзə]

Transport ['trǡənspǤət] [trǡən'spǤət] or [trǩn'spǤət]

The change of stress is more frequently accompanied by a sound change as well. The

vowel in the first syllable of the verb is often reduced to a schwa sound or [ı].
Noun Verb

conduct ['kǢndȜkt] [kǩn'dȜkt]

contract ['kǢntrækt] [kǩn'trækt]

convict ['kǢnvıkt] [kǩn'vıkt]

export ['ekspǤət] [ık'spǤət]

permit ['pзəmıt] [pǩ'mıt]

produce ['prǢdjuəs] [prǩ'djuəs]

progress ['prǩȚgres] [prǩ'gres]

project ['prǢȴekt] [prǩ'ȴekt]

rebel ['rebǩl] [rı'bel]

record ['rekǤəd] [rı'kǤəd]

refuse ['refjuəs] [rı'fjuəz]

In a few cases there may be a reduction of the vowel in the second element of the noun:
Noun Verb

segment ['segmǩnt] [seg'ment]

subject ['sȜbȴıkt] [sǩb'ȴekt]

present ['preznt] [prı'zent]

 object ['obȴıkt] [ǩb'ȴekt]
Again, this rule cannot be accounted definite and without exceptions. Certain disyllables
do not conform to this noun/verb distinction or exhibit instability, e.g. comment

['kǢment] or report [rı'pǤət] retain the same stress-pattern for both the noun and the

verb; contact ['kǢntækt] for a noun and ['kǢntækt], [kǢn'tækt] or [kǩn'tækt] for a

verb; detail ['diəteıl] for a noun and ['diəteıl] or [diə'teıl] for a verb,etc. In most cases,
the noun form tends to supersede the verbal pattern. (Cruttenden 1997:212)
It should be at least mentioned that also some adjectives and verbs show a similar
relationship in their stress pattern.
Adjective Verb

abstract ['æbstrækt] [æb'strækt]

absent ['æbsǩnt] [æb'sent]

frequent ['frıəkwǩnt] [frıə'kwent]

Some words of three or more syllables also show distinctive stress patterns in their
noun/adjective and verb forms. Here, three possibilities appear:
- there is a shift of the primary stress and associated sound changes:
Noun/Adjective Verb

Alternate [,Ǥəl'tзənǩt] ['Ǥəltǩneıt]

Envelope ['envǩ,lǩȚp] [ın'velǩp]

Attribute ['ætrı,bjuət] [ǩ'trıbjuət]

- shift of the primary stress without any sound changes:

reprimand ['reprımǡənd] [reprı'mǡənd]

interchange ['ıntǩȷeinȴ] [ıntǩ'ȷeinȴ]

- constant primary stress, but with sound changes:

associate [ǩ'sǩȚȓıǩt] [ǩ'sǩȚȓı,eit]

compliment ['kǢmplımǩnt] ['kǢmplı,ment]

separate ['sepǩrǩt] ['sepǩ,reıt]

prophesy ['prǢfǩsı] ['prǢfı,saı]

 Rules for the placement of stress in polysyllabic words are otherwise quite complicated.
A.C.Gimson states following tendency for all grammatical classes: “Words of three
syllables or more with a long final vowel or short vowel plus two or more consonants may
have the primary accent on the antepenultimate rather than the final syllable,
e.g.'anecdote,'pedigree, a'cetylene” (Cruttenden 1997:204).
As stated at the beginning of this section, the statements above indicate tendencies
rather than absolute rules. There are truly many exceptions, some of which could be
explained by giving more detailed descriptions. For example, why do we pronounce

to'bacco rather than toba'cco? There is an additional rule that final [ǩu] is frequently
unaccented. (Cruttenden 1997:204) Some similar additional rules can be found, but at this
stage, we will not go into them.

3.1.2. Stress in complex words

Complex words are made from a basic word form called root and an affix (prefix
preceding the root or sufix coming after the stem).
When certain suffixes are attached to the root, they leave the stress-pattern unchanged.
Such suffixes are called stress-neutral. The primary stress in the complex word falls on
the same syllable as in the root, e.g. 'shy, 'shyness. Other suffixes regularly attract the
stress onto themselves and are therefore called stress-attracting or autostressed, e.g.
'million, millio'naire. Yet others have the effect of fixing the stress on a particular syllable
of the root. These suffixes are known as stress-fixing or pre-stressed. (Fudge 1984:40-41)
“Unfortunately, many suffixes are not entirely regular in the accentual pattern they
induce, belonging in one group of words to one category and in another group of words to
another category” (Cruttenden 1997:205).
Prefixes are generally regarded as stress-neutral, e.g. il- (il'logical), im- (im'possible),
in- (incor'rect), ir- (irres'ponsible), un- (un'certain), mal- (mal'function), re- (re'decorate)
and many others.

1. Stress-neutral suffixes
First of all, this category includes all inflexional suffixes; i.e. -s/es (plural), -`s
(possesive), -er (comparative), -est (superlative), -s/-es (third person singular), -ed (past
tense, past participle), -ing (present participle, gerund). (Cruttenden 1997:205)
 Some derivational suffixes also behave in this way; some being always stress-neutral,
while others being sometimes stress-neutral and sometimes not. These latter are referred to
as mixed suffixes. (Fudge, 1984:40) The following examples of derivational suffixes
introduce only those suffixes which behave as stress-neutral all the time: -cy ('celibate,
'celibacy), -dom ('wise, 'wisdom), -ful (suc'cess, suc'cessful), -hood ('brother,
'brotherhood), -iour ('save, 'saviour), -less ('hope, 'hopeless), -ly ('friend, 'friendly), -ness
('clever, 'cleverness), -some ('quarrel, 'quarrelsome), -ty ('difficult, 'difficulty), agentive -
er ('lead, 'leader) and female –ess ('lion, 'lioness).

2. Stress-attracting suffixes
Some common derivational suffixes in this category are: -ade (es'cape, esca'pade), -aire
('million, millio'naire), -eer ('auction, auctio'neer), -esque ('picture, pictu'resque), -ette
('usher, ushe'rette), and –ation ('civilize, civili'zation). (Cruttenden 1997:205)
A number of endings which are not strictly suffixes share the property of being
autostressed, e.g. –oon (ba'lloon, car'toon, mon'soon), -ique (an'tique, u'nique), -teen
(can'teen).

3. Stress-fixing suffixes
“By far the largest group is that in which such stress is assigned to a syllable a certain
number of syllables before the one containing the suffix” (Fudge 1984:41).
The following suffixes cause the stress to fall on the syllable immediately preceding the
one containing the suffix: -ic (aca'demic, eco'nomic), -ical ( eco'nomical, 'typical), -id
( in'sipid, 'valid), -ion (de'votion, o'ccasion), -ity (curi'osity, sin'cerity, va'lidity).
Quite a small number of suffixes push the stress two syllables before the syllable
containing the suffix, e.g. –fy ('gratify, 'modify, per'sonify, 'specify) and –tude ('attitude,
'gratitude).
There is also a group of suffixes in which the stress depends on whether the syllable
preceding the suffix is open or closed, i.e. whether it is followed by one or more
consonants. If it is open, the stress falls on the third syllable from the end; if closed, then
on the penultimate. Here belongs for example –ative ('operative,'qualitative X
repre'sentative, argu'mentative), -al ('admiral, agri'cultural X an'cestral, govern'mental),
-ant ( 'tolerant X a'bundant) or –ence ('evidence X re'sistance). (Cruttenden 1997:205)

4. Mixed suffixes
 Besides those suffixes above which have been introduced as preferring one pattern,
there are others which have two distinct modes of operation. In certain words they belong
to one of the categories, in others they belong to a different category.
Thus, for instance, verb-forming suffix –ate is autostressed in words of two syllables
such as ro'tate, while in words of three or more syllables the stress falls on the third
syllable from the end, e.g. 'operate, exco'mmunicate. (Fudge 1984:45)
Some other suffixes behaving in a similar way are for example: -ary, -ery, -ory, -ism, or
-ant ( a'ssist, a'ssistant X a'pply, 'applicant). (Friederich 1965:12)

It should be noted that the section above was not intended to give a full list of all
suffixes, but rather to outline the most important tendencies of putting the stress in
complex words. The mentioned suffixes are only examples of these tendencies. For more
detailed information, it is advisable to see the book English Word-Stress by Erik Fudge.

3.2. Secondary stress

“In longer words syllables before the one with main stress may be made more
prominent than their neighbours. The principle underlying this appears to be a rhytmic one;
some alteration of relatively stressed and relatively unstressed syllables is the most natural
situation for English” (Fudge 1984:31).
The rules for secondary stress can be summed up as follows (Fudge 1984:29):
- If there is only one syllable before the primary stress, no secondary stress is assigned
and the syllable is unaccented, e.g. A'merica, a'ccount, re'ply.
- If there are two syllables before the primary stress, the secondary stress falls on the
first one, e.g. ,pano'rama; ,repre'sent; ,maga'zine.
- Where there are more than two syllables before the primary stress, the secondary
stress falls two syllables back, when there is a strong syllable and three syllables back,
when there is a weak syllable, e.g. in,feri'ority X ,characte'ristically.
Interestingly enough, secondary stress sometimes falls on the syllable which has the
primary stress in the corresponding word form, e.g. 'million - ,millio'naire. Fudge claims,
however, that this is rather coincidental and the stress pattern may be completely changed,
especially if main stress falls on the final syllable, e.g. Ja'pan - ,Japa'nese, or ci'gar -
,ciga'rette. (41) “English shows a definite tendency not to have strong stresses on adjacent
syllables within a word” (Fudge 1984:41).
3.3. Level stress
 One of the interesting features of English stress is the phenomenon commonly called
level stress (sometimes also referred to as even or double stress). This applies to instances
when “two syllables which follow each other in a spoken utterance are characterized by an
equally strong stress” (Vachek 1973:86).
Level stress commonly appears in case of an adjective followed by a substantive noun
to which it serves as an attribute, such as 'good 'luck, 'hot 'water, 'gold 'ring, etc. Other
types of such word combinations are those of an adverb followed by an adjective, which is
determined by it, such as 'so 'far, 'so 'good, etc., or a verb with an adverb which is united
with it in the so-called phrasal verb, e.g. 'get 'up, 'lie 'down, 'take 'off. (Vachek 1973:86)
“Even more interesting is the fact that one can find instances which remind us of the
phenomenon of level stress also within one and the same word”(Vachek 1973:87). The
most frequent example of that are the numerals like thirteen, fourteen, etc. This fact may
be found rather surprising, but when one examines concrete instances in which a word like
thirteen occurs, one finds that only one of its alleged two stresses is actually realized,
according to the context in which the word is placed. Because of the strong tendency to
rhythm in an English sentence, the word often looses one of its two stresses. Thus, if the
word with level stress is preceded by a stressed syllable, only the final stress is realized
('just four'teen), if, on the contrary, the word is followed by a stressed syllable, only the
first syllable has the stress. ('fourteen books)
Some typical examples of the level stress are going to be noted below:
- the designation of buildings, places, squares, etc.: 'Hyde 'Park, 'School 'Lane, etc.
Exceptions to this rule are place names containing the noun street, 'Oxford Street,
'Downing Street. (Vachek 1973:88)
- the name of a person, if it consists of a first name followed by a family name: 'John
'Brown, 'John 'Osborne, etc. Similarly, also a title followed by a name are linked together
by level stress: 'King 'George, 'Queen 'Margaret. However, the ‘prefixes’ Mr and Mrs
before names are unstressed: Mr 'Hill, Mrs 'Smith, etc. (Vachek 1973:88)
- the negative prefixes dis-, in-, il-, non-, un- are also often marked by level stress,
especially when the following word begins with an unstressed syllable, as in ,disbe'lief;
,non-e'xistence; ,uncon'ventional; ,incon'venient, etc. However, when a stressed syllable
immediately follows, the stress on the prefix is dropped, e.g. un'certain, un'usual, etc.
(Vachek 1973:89)
- as mentioned above, phrasal verbs are stressed on both of their parts. It should be
reminded that these differ from combinations of verbs and prepositions in which the
preposition is not stressed, e.g. He 'looked at 'Mary. “Also the adverb included in the
phrasal verb will lose its stress in those cases when it is separated from the verb by a
stressed noun: He 'put his 'coat on, as opposed to He 'put it 'on” (Vachek 1973:89).
- another important exception to the use of the level stress is constituted by those
instances in which a word group characterized by the level stress is immediately followed
or preceded by another stressed word. In cases where three stressed syllables immediately
follow one another, the middle of the three may lose its stress altogether, e.g., 'Hyde 'Park,
but 'Hyde Park 'Corner. (Vachek 1973:89)

3.4. Stress in compounds

When dealing with compounds, the question often arises whether they are one word or
two. The answer should be that they are both one word and two. (Fudge 1984:134)
Compounds are combinations of words that may occur independently elsewhere, so in such
case they are definitely two words, but at the same time, they are combined in such a way
that they form a single unit with a number of characteristics that indicate rather clearly that
they are one word. One of the characteristics is that they have many of the accentual and
rhythmic features of single words. (Fudge 1984:134) That means that compounds tend to
have a primary stress on the inital element of the combination, while phrase constructions,
in which the individual words have much more independence, tend to have the primary
stress on their final element.
Thus the noun phrase black bird (= any bird which is black) usually has main stress on
the second element - ,black 'bird. This does not hold true only in a situation when ‘bird’
has contrastive stress: the 'black ,bird, not the yellow one.
On the other hand, the compound noun blackbird (a type of bird) takes main stress on
the first element: 'black,bird.
One may wonder how we distinguish between these two different combinations. It can
be recognised by extending the words. The phrases are characterised in the ease with
which each of the two elements of the phrase can be independently extended: we can say
,very ,black 'bird (= bird which is very black), while it would be impossible to say very
blackbird. In general, no extensions can be added independently to either of the two
elements, but only to the compound as a whole, as in lovely blackbird. (Fudge, 1984:134)
Another issue which regularly causes problems is the great number of ways in which
compounds can be written. They can be written as one word, as in blackbird, or with a
hyphen as in clear-cut, or as two seperate words, e.g. training scheme. “There is no
systematic practice in the choice among these three ways, although there is a tendency for
compounds with primary accent on the first syllable to be written as one word or with a
hyphen, and for those with the primary accent on the final element to be written as two
words” (Cruttenden 1997:207).
Very frequently one and the same compound can be written in more than one fashion
and is accepted in all forms, e.g. icecream, ice-cream, or ice cream.

The discussion so far might be taken as implying that the distinction between phrases
and compounds in English is clear-cut, with phrases taking final stress and compounds
taking initial stress. “The situation, however, is greatly complicated by the existence of a
number of constructions which are syntactically very like compounds (often
indistinguishable from them) but which take phrasal stress-patterns” (Fudge 1984:136).
Thus, there is 'Christmas ,cake (with the compound stress pattern), alongside with
,Christmas 'pudding or ,Christmas 'pie (with the phrasal type of pattern). (Fudge
1984:136) Another example of this can be combinations with 'Street' which are stressed on
the initial element ('London ,Street), whereas combinations with 'Road', 'Avenue' and all
other words denoting thoroughfares take final stress (,London'Road; ,London 'Avenue;
,London 'Gardens). (Fudge 1984:136) There is certainly no syntactic reason for saying
that 'London ,Street is a compound while ,London 'Road is a noun phrase, and yet the
stress-patterns are totally distinct.
“English uses a large number of compounds, with a wide variety of constituent
elements” (Fudge 1984:136). By far the most frequent type of English compound is
noun+noun combination, which usually takes the initial stress, as in 'birthplace, 'child
abuse, 'lifestyle, 'mountain bike, 'shopping centre, etc.
There are, again, many exceptions to this general tendency, such as man-made items,
e.g. apple 'pie, brick 'wall, fruit 'salad or feather 'pillow; compounds where the first noun
is a name, e.g. Mexican 'wave, Yorkshire 'pudding or Irish 'coffee; conpounds where both
elements are equally referential, e.g. junk 'food, acid 'rain or infant 'prodigy and last but
not least, constructions where the first noun is a value, e.g. pound 'note, eighty p.'change.
(Cruttenden 1997:208)
Compounds functioning as nouns can also involve other elements than just nouns. They
form patterns like ‘adjective+noun’('redcoat), ‘noun+verb’('landfill), ‘verb+noun’
('pickpocket), ‘noun+verb in –ing form’('skateboarding), ‘verb in –ing
form+noun’('building society). A specific group is that of phrasal and prepositional verbs
used as nouns, e.g. 'set-up, 'showdown, 'burn-out. (Cruttenden 1997:208)
Compounds can also function as other parts of speech than nouns, mostly as adjectives
and verbs. Those functioning as adjectives can be divided into two subgroups, one having
initial stress ('waterproof, 'seasick, 'trustworthy), the other one having final stress (long-
'winded, easy-'going, user-'friendly). The number of compounds functioning as verbs
(excluding phrasal and prepositional verbs) is relatively small and they usually take initial
stress, e.g. 'babysit or 'headhunt. The sequence ‘preposition+verb’, however, generally
takes final accent, e.g. out'number, over'sleep or under'go. (Cruttenden 1997:209)

“Up to this point we have considered only those compounds in which free forms have
been combined, i.e. elements which occur as words in their own right as well as occurring
as parts of compounds. There are, however, many other words which are clearly formed by
the combination of two parts, but where one or both of the other parts never occurs on its
own as a separate word” (Fudge 1984:138).
For example, the word 'fishmonger is a combination of the free form ‘fish’ and the
bound form ‘-monger’. Even though monger never occurs as a separate word, it recurs with
a similar meaning in a number of other combinations such as 'ironmonger or
'gossipmonger. Such combinations are sometimes referred to as pseudo-compounds.
(Fudge 1984:138)

Finally, it should be pointed out that, as in everything concerned with word stress in
English, all of this section is to be taken as indicating tendencies rather than giving hard
and fast rules.

3.5. Stressed and unstressed syllables

As we have seen, English word stress is rather complicated and it is not easy to know
which syllable or syllables in a word is/are stressed. Moreover, it is usually not enough to
recognise the stressed syllable. One has to bear in mind that unstressed syllables are also
important in the sense that they should be adequately reduced. This tendency to reduce the
vowels of unstressed syllables is apparent in many languages, but English exploits it a
great deal by reducing both vowel duration and quality. (Dalton; Seidlhofer 1994:42)
 Unstressed syllables often contain the vowel [ǩ] instead of a full vowel, which has the
effect of making schwa the most frequent English sound. It is important to note that the
schwa sound only occurs in unstressed syllables, never in stressed ones (e.g. 'vicar,

'husband, 'measure, 'colour). On the other hand, it is not true that [ǩ] is the only vowel

which occurs in unstressed syllables. (O`Connor 1980:92) The sound [Ǻ] is frequently
found there, as in 'forest, 'target, 'village, 'donkey; and other vowels less frequently, e.g.
'hiccup, u'tility.

3.6. British and American Word-Stress Differences

There are a few variations in word stress between British RP and General American
pronunciation, but they do not constitute a very high proportion of the total vocabularies of
the two types of English. According to Lewis, the following points may be noted:
- There is a general tendency in American pronunciation to end-stress foreign
(especially French) words like ba'llet, ca'fé, or ga'rage. In British English the first syllable
is usually stressed. (55)
- Verbs of two syllables ending in –ate tend to be stressed on the root in American but
on the suffix in British, e.g. GA 'rotate, 'migrate, 'locate and RP ro'tate, mi'grate, lo'cate.
(55)
- There are also often differences between the accentuation of compounds in RP and
GA, e.g. RP 'season ,ticket; GA ,season 'ticket. (Cruttenden 1997:208)
As for sentence stress, “there is almost unanimous agreement between native speakers
of different types of English: R.P., American, Cockney, Scottish, Irish, Australian.”
(Tibbitts 1967:10)
 3.7. Sentence stress
“A significant difference beween word stress and sentence stress lies in the fact that
words with a single stress often lose it completely when used in a sentence, and those with
two stresses usually lose one of them” (Reszkiewicz 1981:111).
Some words in connected speech are made to stand out from their environment in the
same way as certain syllables of a polysyllabic word are more prominent than their
neighbours. The position of the stress is determined largely by the meaning which the
utterance is intended to convey. (Plavka 2003:38) In other words, sentence stress simply
indicates which words in the sentence are crucial and which are less significant.

The basic fact is that certain classes of words are normally stressed in a sentence, while
other classes are not stressed. To put it concisely, words that carry lexical meaning (the so-
called content words) are normally stressed, and carriers of grammatical meaning (the so-
called function words) are usually unstressed. (Reszkiewicz 1981:112)
The first group consists of: nouns, adjectives, numerals, adverbs, verbs (except
auxiliaries) in all forms, negative forms, interrogative pronouns and question words,
demonstrative pronouns, possesive pronouns, emphatic pronouns, indefinite pronouns
(with the exception of any, some), and interjections. Articles, personal pronouns, possesive
adjectives, auxiliary verbs, prepositions, conjuctions, relative and reflexive pronouns
belong to the latter group. (Reszkiewicz 1981:112)

The following deviations from this fundamental rule are to be noted:

A. Omission of stress (lexical words unstressed)

Friederich in his English Pronunciation states following tendencies:
1. Emphasis and contrast
If special attention has to be called to a particular word, the preceding and the following
words lose their stress. (28) Despite loss of stress, such words still preserve full
pronunciation.
I 'never 'told you 'that 'story. X I 'never told 'you that 'story.
2. Repetition
If a word in a sentence (or in a reply) is repeated, it is not stressed the second time. (28)
This is a 'pen. It is a 'red ,pen.
 3. Inversion
When the verb takes the position before the subject of the sentence, it is usually
unstressed. (29)
After a 'storm comes a 'calm.
4. ‘What’ and ‘Such’ in exclamations
In exclamations and emphatic assertions, it is not ‘what’ and ‘such’ which are stressed
but the word which follows them. (28)
What a 'beautiful 'picture!
Other tendencies can be found in Plavka`s Aspects of English Pronunciation:
5. Adverbs of degree, especially ‘about, so, enough, such’ often lose their stress.
It is about a 'mile from here. And so 'on and so 'forth. I have 'got enough 'money. I
have 'never 'heard such 'nonsense in 'all my 'life. (40)
6. Pronominal adverbs
Pronominal adverbs such as ‘there, then, so, yet’ are usually unstressed when they stand
at the end of the utterance:
'What did you 'see then? Do you 'think so? Is he 'up yet?

B. Insertion of stress (grammatical words stressed)

“Such classes of function words as prepositions and relative pronouns, normally
unstressed, may receive stress under favourable conditions, i.e. when preceded or followed
only by unstressed words” (Reszkiewicz 1981:133).
This can be seen on prepositions from the following examples:
We 'live round the 'corner. We were 'round the 'corner.
It`s 'on the 'desk. 'Put the 'book on the 'desk.
She`s 'with her 'sister. She`s 'working with her 'sister.
According to Reszkiewicz, polysyllabic prepositions are stressed even more often. (133)
He 'left the 'room with'out a 'word. He a'ppeared from be'hind the 'wall.
Plavka describes mainly auxiliary and modal verbs stressed for specific purposes, e.g. in
imperative sentences ('Don`t 'do it!), when followed by n`t ( It 'wasn`t 'very ex'pensive.),
when the lexical verb is suppressed ('Yes, I 'have.), when in final position in a sentence ( I
'asked him how he 'was.) or for the sake of emphasis ( I 'do believe you.) (41)
For more details, consult Aspects of English pronunciation by Rudolf Plavka.
 3.8. Strong and weak forms
It is characteristic of the English language that, unlike in Czech, certain words may
occur in the so-called ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ forms. This depends on the degree of stress
which they bear, their position in a sentence, and some other factors.
People often think that when they use these weak forms, they are being rather careless
in their speech and believe that it would be more correct always to use the strong forms.
This is not true for English. “The inappropriate use of too many strong forms by the Czech
speaker is an obstacle to fluency and distorts natural rhythm, which often results in a loss
of intelligibility for the native listener” (Plavka 2003:45). In other words, the use of weak
forms is an essential part of English speech and we need to be aware of it.
It is commonly the monosyllabic function words which have two different forms of
pronunciation: a full, unreduced version which is found in a dictionary (=strong form) and
a modified, reduced version used in an unstressed position, which is referred to as a weak
form. (Reszkiewicz 1981:138)

Some typical changes of pronunciation to a weak form are discussed here (according to
Reszkiewicz):
- In function words beginning with the [h] sound, e.g. he, his, him, has, etc., [h] is
dropped when the word is unstressed and used within an utterance. When the word is
stressed or comes at the beginning of an utterance, [h] is pronounced. (139)

Give him his coat. ['gıv ım ız 'kǩȚt]

He is not very clever but he thinks that he is. [hiə 'ıznt 'verı 'klevǩ bǩt iə 'θınks

ðǩt iə 'ız]

- In function words with a short vowel, e.g. than, does, from, etc.which by themselves

would be pronounced [ðæn, dȜz, frǢm], the vowel is replaced by schwa sound [ǩ].
(139)

We need more than that. [wiə 'niəd 'moə ðǩn 'ðæt]

What does this mean? ['wǢt dǩz ðıs 'miən]

He comes from London. [hiə 'kȜmz frǩm 'lȜndǩn]

 - In function words with a long [Ǥə] or a long [ǡə] as in for, are, the vowel is again

reduced to [ǩ]. (140)

I did it for fun. [aı 'dıd ıt fǩ 'fȜn]

When are they coming? ['wen ǩ ðeı 'kȜmiŋ]

- In function words with a long [iə] or a long [uə], e.g. me, be; who, you, the vowel is
often replaced by its short counterpart. This change is optional, but becomes a rule in more
rapid speech. (140)

Let me see. ['let mi(ə)'siə]

The man who did it. [ðǩ 'mæn hu(ə) 'did it]

There is sometimes more than one reduction in process. For example, there can be an
elision of the initial consonant [h] or [w] with a simultaneous reduction, or even
dissapearance, of the following vowel, as in the case of have, has, had, will, would, which
may be pronounced as [v],[z],[d],[l],[d] respectively. (141)

I have done it. [aıv 'dȜn ıt]

The fire has gone out. [ðǩ 'faıǩz gǢn 'ǡȚt]

We had better go. [wiə d 'betǩ 'gǩȚ]

That will do. ['ðætl 'duə]

I would like to tell him. [aıd 'laık tǩ 'tel im]

The usage of weak forms is, hovewer, not always so easy as it may seem from the
above-mentioned rules. Difficulties with the correct application of strong and weak forms
are caused by several factors.
Firstly, not all function words have weak forms. Among personal pronouns, for
instance, you, he, she, us, them have weak forms, while I, they, it do not. The same applies
to prepositions of, at, from, for, which have weak forms and in and on which do not.
(Reszkiewicz 1981:142)
 Secondly, one and the same function word may have several weak forms, e.g. the verb

have with its strong form [hæv] and weak forms [hǩv, ǩv, v]. (Reszkiewicz 1981:142)
Thirdly, “some function words have weak forms in any unstressed position, while with
others the use of a weak form depends on the position of the word in the utterance”
(Reskiewicz 1981:142).
As a rule of thumb, hovewer, all of them are more frequently pronounced in their weak
forms, strong forms are used only under specific circumstances, e.g. contrasting two ideas
like in The present is 'from him, not 'for him.

3.9. Functions of stress

3.9.1. Rhythm
Stress is instrumental in the maintenance of rhythm in connected speech, i.e. the main
feature of English stress is its rhythmic quality. It lies in the fact that within any unbroken
utterance (word, phrase, sentence) the stressed syllables occur at as regular intervals as
possible, while unstressed syllables, occuring irregularly, squezee in between the stressed
syllables which come at a measured rate. (Giegerich 1992:181)
This can be demonstrated in the following example. We start with a simple sentence; we
add syllables to it on each line, but the time it takes to say the utterance remains the same.

They 'live in an 'old 'house

They 'live in a 'nice 'old 'house
They 'live in a 'lovely 'old 'house
They`ve been 'living in a de'lightful 'old 'house
They`ve been 'living in a de'lightful 'old 'cottage
They`ve been 'living in a de'lightful vic'torian 'cottage
(Kelly, 2002:70)

It has been shown that the stresses occur rhythmically so that it is possible to tap
rhythmic beats coinciding with stressed syllables. It is important to note that this
“isochrony (equality in time) holds regardless of the number of unstressed syllables in an
utterance” (Giegerich 1992:181). The rhythm is ruled by regular stresses, with unstressed
syllables squashed in between them, being shorter and losing some purity of the vowel
sound. We should also notice the acceleration in speech which results from adding
unstressed syllables to an utterance. (Kelly 2002:70) From slow pace in the first sentence,
one moves step by step to far more rapid speech in the last line.
The rhythm is seen as one of the most important characteristics of the English language.
English, together with a number of other languages including German, Swedish, Russian
and Persian, is therefore often called a stress-timed language, and is said to have
isochronous stress. (Giegerich 1992:258)
This is, however, in strong contrast to the rhythmic principle in languages like French,
Italian, Finnish,Vietnamese and Czech, in which the syllable is the most important timing
unit of connected speech. For this reason they are called syllable-timed languages.
(Giegerich 1992:259) Speakers of such languages often experience particular difficulty in
mastering the rhythm of stress-timed languages. Moreover, the imposition of syllable-
timed rhythm on English is probably far more detrimental to intelligibility than any
distortion of vowel or consonant pronunciation, and thus the effort to master the English
rhythmic principle is well worth making. (Fudge 1984:3)
Kenworthy illustrates the significance of English rhythm by the following simile:
“If the speaker does not use the characteristic English rhythm, then the listener will be
placed in the position of someone who walks out onto the dance floor with a partner,
expecting to waltz, but finds that the partner starts some strange set of syncopated steps
which are thoroughly unpredictable and impossible to follow, or marches up and down in a
perfectly steady beat, which does not seem like dancing at all to the waltz-lover!” (19)
However, it would be an oversimplification to say that all English sentences conform to
this rhythmic ideal. Regularity of speech rhytm varies widely according to context, because
the words and syllables we choose to stress in a sentence are in fact dictated very much by
the meaning we wish to communicate when speaking.
Stress timing and regular rhythm are much more noticeable in highly stylized language,
such as poetry or nursery rhymes. (Kelly 2002:71)

3.9.2. Semantic differentiation

As discussed on page 11, in some languages stress has been stabilized and regularly
falls on a certain syllable within a word. Thus in Czech it affects the first syllable, in
French the last, in Polish the last but one, etc. “In these languages, stress cannot be used for
the semantic differentiation of words, but still is of some phonological significance,
because it signals word limits” (Vachek, 1973:80).
 Conversely, in other languages stress is variable and can affect various syllables in
different words. More interestingly, one and the same word can be stressed on different
syllables, which results in two separate forms of the word, each of them meaning
something else. Thus, stress in this type of languages may function “as a phonological
factor differentiating the meanings of words, e.g. Russian ['plaču] = 'I weep' – [pla'ču] =
'I pay'” (Vachek 1973:81).
In this division, English stands somewhere in the middle. We can hardly speak of any
stable or regular stress in English, so in this sense it might be ranked as a language of the
second accentual type. Word stress definitely plays a very important role in English
phonology, not only because of its rhythmic nature, but also because it can sometimes
differentiate the meanings of words which otherwise are identical in form.
“However, there is an important limitation to this ranking: not only are the word-pairs
belonging here relatively few in number but in addition to this, all such word-pairs belong
to virtually one single grammatical type; the difference in the place of stress signals, as a
rule, only the grammatical difference between a noun (or an adjective) and a corresponding
verb” (Vachek 1973:83).
There are only few instances of word-pairs which are analogous to the above-quoted
Russian example. In such cases, the difference in stress distinguishes the meanings of two
words which are semantically independent of each other and one can evaluate them as two

separate lexical units, e.g. gallant ['gælǩnt] = ‘brave’ and gallant [gǩ'lænt] =
‘chivalrous’. (Vachek 1973:85) Nevertheless, such instances are very rare in English
vocabulary, and besides, in all of them differences in stress are accompanied by differences
in the vowel quality, which means the stress is not the only distinguishing factor.
 4. Stress in Czech

The basic characteristics of Czech word stress is its stability. There is no argument
about the location of stress in Czech – it always falls on the first syllable of a word or a
word group. It is normal to have a full long vowel in an unstressed position in Czech,
which is quite unthinkable in other languages, such as English or Russian. (Hajkr 2000)
Chlumský claims that foreigners learning Czech are often confused by this, since they
usually associate stress with duration. (155) In other words, they tend to place stress on the
long syllable. If foreigners hear a Czech sentence like Nemáme psa (We have not got a
dog.), they tend to think that the second syllable of the first word is stressed. (155)
Another important feature of Czech stress is the lack of reduction. (Skaličková 1961:16)
All syllables (no difference whether stressed or unstressed) are pronounced distinctly and
with full vowel quality. This is probably the reason why Czech learners of English have
such problems with reducing unstressed vowels. Even when they know which syllable of a
word is stressed, they have great difficulty making the syllable stand out, because they do
not realize how important it is to reduce the other syllables. Czech learners are used to
pronouncing all syllables very clearly and such reduction seems like carelessness to their
ears. However, one should bear in mind that in English the difference between stressed and
unstressed is significant and reduction is the best way to achieve it. In order for one
syllable to be perceived as stressed, the syllables around it need to be unstressed and
reduced.
Czech word stress differs from that of English language also by its strength, it is much
weaker. (Chlumský 1928:212) This does not concern only the greater intensity of stressed
syllables, but also and by far more importantly the bigger difference between the stressed
and unstressed syllables, as has already been mentioned above.
Phonologically, Czech word stress is important only for indicating the beginning of a
word. (Vachek 1973:80) If we divided a Czech sentences into smaller units according to
the word stress, the segments would be predominantly single words. (Hajkr 2000)
Conversely, English word stress is crucial for the rhytm of the language, which is
completely different from its Czech counterpart, nonetheless essential for intelligibility.
Apart from that, English word stress can also differentiate between word classes ( see
noun-verb pairs) or distinguish a compound from a noun phrase. (Skaličková 1961:66)
As regards sentence stress, it does not play a very important role in Czech. When a
word needs to be emphasized in Czech, it is usually done via word order. In contrast to
that, English word order is relatively firm and cannot serve this purpose. (Hajkr, 2000)
Therefore, English uses sentence stress to make particular ideas more prominent than the
others.
 5. Survey for this study

5.1. Introduction
In my opinion, pronunciation tends to suffer from neglect in Czech schools. The
majority of pronunciation teaching tends to be done as correction to classroom errors rather
than a proactive attempt to understand the nuances of speech. When it comes to planning a
lesson and practising individual features of a language, Czech teachers tend to make
grammar their first concern. This thesis discusses the importance of pronunciation teaching
in English classes, it claims that pronunciation should be seen as an integral part of
language, not just an after thought. When teaching various language structures or
vocabulary, the features of pronunciation are essential in giving students the full picture
and thus a better chance of successful communication.
As the range of pronunciation problems of Czech learners is very wide, I have decided
to take a narrower look at it and investigate one particular area – English stress and
rhythm. From my experience and from that of my colleagues I know that Czech students of
English often get misunderstood by native speakers because of their poor command of
English stress. Little attention is paid to teaching English stress in Czech schools and
therefore the awareness of Czech learners of English stress is inadequate. This assumption
is also the main hypothesis of this work and should be explored in depth by conducting a
survey.

5.2. Data collecting

The data for this thesis was obtained by questionnaires directed at Czech students of
English at three grammar schools in Brno. There were several reasons for choosing this
way of collecting information: Firstly, a relatively high number of respondents can be
addressed by means of questionnaires, unlike in interviews or observations. Secondly, as
my research was to be carried out at grammar schools and the authorities’ approval was
needed, I had to come up with a method which would not take up too much time.
The headmasters who agreed to the survey being conducted in their schools were all
consulted in person. One of them enabled me to give the questionanires to students
personally so that I could introduce myself and explain the purpose of my study. The other
two preferred distributing the questionnaires to the students via their teachers. Thus a
number of copies were made and delivered to the schools. After two weeks I collected
them. The completed questionnaires were collated and carefully analysed.
 5.2.1. Design of the questionnaire
Regarding the structure of the questionnaire, I was careful about wording individual
questions. Judith Bell`s book Doing Your Research Project: a Guide for First-time
Researchers in Education and Social Science was a great help to me at that stage. She
warned against mistakes which can be caused by inaccurate wording, including examples
of double, leading, presuming and hypothetical questions.
The questionnaire was written in Czech, because it was assumed that the students would
find it difficult to concentrate on the questions in English. If they did not understand
anything, they might decide to abandon the entire questionnaire.
For the purpose of this thesis the questionnaire was translated into English, so that
passages can be cited here in English.
When compiling the questionnaire, I had to be continously aware of what exactly I
wanted to find out (what the objectives of my study were) and to stick strictly to it. I also
had to bear in mind that the questionnaire had to be short and simple in order to ensure that
the students understood what was asked of them.

The questionnaire begins with the crucial question of the research:

1. Choose the correct statement from the following sentences:

a) In English, as well as in Czech, the stress is usually placed on the first syllable of a
word
b) In English, as well as in Czech, the stress is usually placed on the last syllable of a
word
c) Unlike in Czech, English word stress is variable
d) Neither English nor Czech word stress is stable

The first question is designed to provide the answer to one of the main research
questions: Are Czech students aware of the difference between Czech and English word
stress?
Although it is quite a difficult question for the beginning, I regard it suitable because it
nicely introduces the issue of stress to students. Firstly, they are given several alternative
answers from which they can choose and do not have to think up the answer themselves.
Secondly, it establishes the context between Czech and English word stress, which may
help students feel more familiar with the topic. On the other hand, it can also have the
effect of confusing them.

2. Where did you learn about English word stress?

a) nowhere, I have no idea about it
b) at primary school
c) at grammar school
d) at language school
e) abroad
f) somewhere else (please specify): ……………………

The second question was intended to find out where Czech students learn about the
English word stress. It was supposed that not many learners are told about it by the
teachers at primary schools, although it is so important to start building students’
awareness of distinct English pronunciation features from the very beginning. Word stress
is definitely one of the main issues. It is a well known fact that younger learners tend to
acquire new patterns of pronunciation more easily. Consequently, teachers are
recommended to start training pronunciation, including the correct stress, as early as
possible. When starting at an early age, the learners stand a better chance of gaining a
good language base. Otherwise there is a danger that they will acquire bad pronunciation
habits, which will be very hard to eliminate.
The assumption that only a limited number of students might have learned about
English word stress at primary schools made me think that quite a lot of them will opt for
answer a) or c). As far as the wording of the answer a) is concerned, I chose the phrase ‘I
have no idea’ (‘Nemám potuchy’ in Czech original), although it is a colloquial expression
and might not seem appropriate for a questionnaire of this format. It was used as a means
of easing the atmosphere, since it was supposed that students might feel more relaxed if the
language was not stiff and reserved.
In answer f) the students were given the opportunity to express their opinions in their
own words if they lacked the right answer among the offered ones. Without this possibility
they might feel that the given answers are pressed on them and that they have no other
option than to tick one of them although they do not fully agree with it.
 3. How often do you practise pronunciation, including the correct word stress, in your
English classes?
a) regularly
b) rarely
c) never
d) …………

Although a lot of effort was put into the design of the individual questions, it was only
after analysing the questionnaires that I realized question number three was not very well
composed. Firstly, the offered answers were too vague, they should be more concrete to
bring some satisfying results (e.g. every lesson, once a week, once a month,…). Secondly,
too few answers were supplied and so the students were more inclined to choose answer d),
which subsequently slowed down the process of analysing the data a bit. Nevertheless,
since they were given the opportunity to add the answer which was missing in the offer, no
harm was done to the relevance of the question and their answers.
The lesson which I have learned from this is that one should be as concrete as possible.
Moreover, it is also very important to realize that words which have a certain meaning to
one person may mean something different to other people, thus when designing a
questionnaire one needs to consider all the possibilities and preferably include them all to
ensure that most respondents will be able to choose from them.

4. Do you think that misplacing word stress in English can influence the intelligibility of
your speech?
a) yes, very much so
b) yes, partly
c) maybe a little
d) not at all
e) ………

The fourth question was designed to find out what the students themselves think about
the importance of word stress in English. Do they think it is a problem when they use a
different stress pattern? Are they aware of the fact that an English listener may have great
difficulty in understanding the word pronounced with the wrong stress pattern? Or do they
think that correct pronunciation of individual sounds is enough for perfect intelligibility?
 5. Mark the main stress in the following words (e.g. e'vent):
never
alone
hotel
yesterday
understand
impossible
uncertain
photograph
photographer
possibility

The last question was conceived as a practical excercise, in contrast to the preceding
questions which were rather information oriented. No theoretical knowledge can guarantee
that the learners are able to use correct word stress in concrete words. That was why they
were asked to mark word stress in the given 10 words. The words were carefully chosen to
make the sample as representative as possible. All kinds of factors were taken into
consideration. One of the conditions was that the students should be familiar with the
meaning of the words. If they did not know what the words meant they could feel
discouraged and leave the questionnaire incomplete.
The list starts with three disyllabic words, one of them having the word stress on the
first syllable ('never), the other two on the second syllable (a'lone, ho'tel). The word
‘hotel’ was included also for another reason – it is said to be one of the most frequently
mispronounced words by Czech speakers. This may seem quite disconcerting when we
realize it is one of the first words that students learn and it is used in many kinds of
conversations (in personal as well as business conversations).
The other seven words are polysyllabic, most of them having three syllables (exceptions
to this are ‘photographer’ with four syllables and ‘possibility’ with five syllables). In
polysyllabic words it is usually prefixes and suffixes which govern the position of the main
stress. As mentioned on page 15, prefixes tend to be stress-neutral, i.e. they do not carry
the stress ( under'stand, im'possible, un'certain). As far as suffixes are concerned, they can
function in several ways. For example, in the case of the word ‘possibility’, we can see the
stress-fixing suffix –ity, which causes the stress to fall on the syllable immediately
preceding the one containing the suffix (possi'bility).
The words ‘photograph’ and ‘photographer’ were included in the questionnaire because
they nicely demonstrate the mobility of English word stress. As has been pointed out on
page 11, the pronunciation of one form of the word does not ensure that the stress stays on
the same syllable in the other forms of the word. Thus, the stress falls on the first syllable
in the word 'photograph and on the second syllable in the word pho'tographer.
To show how the main stress is marked in words, an example was supplied (e'vent).

5.2.2. Piloting of the questionnaire

As Bell claims, questionnaires should always be piloted “to test how long it takes
recipients to complete them, to check that all questions and instructions are clear and to
enable you to remove any items which do not yield usable data”( Bell 1999:128). Ideally, it
should be tried out on a group similar to the one which is going to be tested, but if that is
not possible (e.g. for lack of time), anyone will do. Bell nicely puts it: “however pressed
for time you are, do your best to give the questionnaire a trial run, even if you have to
press-gang members of your family or friends”(Bell 1999:128). I followed this advice and
gave the questionnaire to a few friends who were kind enough to fill it in and tell me how
long it took them, whether the instructions were clear, and if all the questions were
relevant. On the basis of their responses, I slightly altered question 5, crossing out a
couple of words which seemed far too complicated. This recommendation was very
valuable because I realized that correct stressing of those words would most probably be
beyond the students’ knowledge.

5.2.3. Distribution and return of questionnaires

As mentioned above, the questionnaires were distributed to three grammar schools in
Brno. These were Biskupské gymnázium, Barvičova 85 (later referred to as grammar
school A); Sportovní gymnázium L.Daňka, Botanická 70 (referred to as B) and
Gymnázium Matyáše Lercha, Žižkova 55 (referred to as C).
In all three grammar schools, mostly students of third and fourth classes were tested
because it was assumed students at this level should know at least something about English
word stress. They are already preparing for the final examination and should have decent
knowledge of the language. As pronunciation is an inherent part of a language, it should
not be inferior to other features.
 In total, 238 completed questionnaires were received, 63% coming from grammar
school A, 24% from grammar school B and the rest from grammar school C.
The data was processed as soon as the completed questionnaires were received.
 5.3. Data analysis
The answers to the questionnaire are going to be presented and commented upon in this
section:

1. Choose the correct statement from the following sentences:

a) In English, as well as in Czech, the stress is usually placed on the first syllable of a
word
b) In English, as well as in Czech, the stress is usually placed on the last syllable of a
word
c) Unlike in Czech, English word stress is variable
d) Neither English nor Czech word stress is stable

Question 1

80 73,5%

60
%

40
16,8%
20 8,4%
1,3%
0
a b c d

According to the bar chart, the largest number of students know that English word stress
is variable, while Czech stress is stable. The second largest group thinks that both English
and Czech word stress are variable. Although it is an incorrect answer, because Czech
word stress is stable, it indicates their awareness of the fact that English word stress can be
found on any syllable of the word. It might seem alarming that Czech students are not
informed about word stress in their mother tongue, but the relative weakness of Czech
word stress can serve as an excuse for them. Considering the importance of word stress in
English and Czech pronunciation, one comes to the conclusion that it is more acceptable to
think that both languages have variable stress (=ignoring the fact that Czech word stress is
stable) than to claim that the stress is put on the first syllable in English as well as in
Czech. Unfortunately, the number of students who chose this answer was not insignificant.
On the other hand, only a small proportion thinks that both English and Czech place the
stress on the last syllable of a word. Those who chose this answer showed complete
unawareness of word stress in both languages.

2. Where did you learn about English word stress?

a) nowhere, I have no idea about it
b) at primary school
c) at grammar school
d) at language school
e) abroad
f) elsewhere (please specify): ……………………

Question 2

50 41,2%
40 31,5%
30
%

20 13,0%
8,0%
10 2,9% 3,4%
0
a b c d e f

It was assumed that a great number of students would choose answer a) to question
number 2. However, this assumption proved quite incorrect. Surprisingly, the most
frequent answer was that they were told about word stress at primary school, which is most
desirable. Many others responded that they learned about it at secondary school. In total,
73% of Czech students become aware of English word stress at school, either at primary or
secondary stage.
It should not be left unnoticed that 13% of respondents claim they have never heard
about it. Although the situation of pronunciation teaching is apparently improving, the
situation is still far from ideal.
Some students allege they have learned about word stress abroad or at language school.
These are probably students who are really interested in English and try to improve their
knowledge as much as possible. It can be supposed they want to study languages or want
to acquire thorough knowledge of English for other purposes.
 Moreover, 8% of respondents chose answer f), in which they were asked to specify
where exactly they learned about English word stress. Television and radio were assessed
as the most important sources in this group. Nowadays there is a great access to spoken
English (music, films, etc.) and it is very praiseworthy that students use this opportunity. A
few other students replied that they were told about English word stress by their parents,
some of them also added the information that their parents were teachers of English.
Finally, there was also a group of respondents who claimed they found out about the
existence of English word stress themselves.

3. How often do you practise pronunciation, including the correct word stress, in your
English classes?
a) regularly
b) rarely
c) never
d) …………

Question 3

80
57,6%
60
%

40
20,2%
20 14,3%
8,0%
0
a b c d

As was supposed, not enough attention is paid to pronunciation practice in regular

English classes. More than half of the respondents agree that they rarely do any
pronunciation exercises, including those concerning word stress. Only 20% of students
claim that pronunciation practice is done on a regular basis. On one hand, this proportion
may seem disturbing because it shows the subordinate position of pronunciation in
language teaching. On the other hand, one has to bear in mind that the questionnaire was
directed at students of secondary schools. These may have done a lot of pronunciation
practice at primary stage, but now they concentrate more on other features of the language.
I realized it would be more appropriate to divide this question into two parts, asking the
students how often they practised pronunciation at primary school and how often they do
so now. Then the results would be more precise.
As suggested on page 35, question 3 suffered a bit from unfortunate phrasing. This
included not only the confusion about primary and secondary schools, but also a limited
number of offered answers. Fortunately, the students were given the opportunity to add any
answer they wanted in d). 14% of respondents used this opportunity. Most of them missed
‘sometimes’ in the options. Others claimed that the pronunciation practice in their class lies
in correction of misplaced stress. They were told about it earlier and now the practice is
done only in response to their mistakes.

4. Do you think that misplacing word stress in English can influence the intelligibility of
your speech?
a) yes, very much so
b) yes, partly
c) maybe a little
d) not at all
e) ………

Question 4

60 50,8%
50
40 31,5%
%

30
20 14,3%
10 2,1% 1,3%
0
a b c d e

The finding from this question is very positive and pleasant. A vast majority of students
think that misplacing word stress in English influences the intelligibility of their speech.
Some of them claim the importance of English word stress is very high, others assign
lesser importance to it. Nevertheless, the number of those who realize they should not
ignore English word stress is considerably high.
 Less than a quarter of students believe that word stress does not play a significant role
in English pronunciation. They may be influenced by the inferior position of word stress in
Czech. As suggested on page 30, in Czech the word stress is much weaker than in English
and this is a cause of confusion to many learners. It is hard for them to realize that certain
features may be vital in one language, while in others they are almost of no importance.

5. Mark the main stress in the following words (e.g. e'vent):

never
alone
hotel
yesterday
understand
impossible
uncertain
photograph
photographer
possibility

This was the key question of the questionnaire. One can have very good theoretical
knowledge of word stress, but unless he/she is able to use it well, it does not serve its
purpose.
That is why the conclusions about the ability of Czech learners to use English word
stress are going to be based mainly on the findings from the last question.

Question 5

90 81,5%
80 69,7% 69,7% 65,1%
70 56,7% 52,1%
60 49,2% 44,1%
50 38,2%
%

40
30
20 12,2%
10
0
r

r
h

nd
in
e

l
y
le

ve

he
te
p
on

ilit
rta
ib

ra

ta

ho
rd
ne

p
ib
ss

al

ra
rs
og
ce

ss
st
po

de

og
un

ot

ye

po
im

ph

un

ot
ph
 This bar chart shows how many percent of students knew the correct stress patterns of the
given words. The word ‘impossible’ was regarded as the easiest one, more than three quarters
of students marked the stress on the second syllable. It could be supposed that if one knows
the correct stress pattern of ‘impossible’, he/she would not hesitate about the word
‘uncertain’, which has exactly the same stress pattern because of the non-stressed prefix. This
assumption has proved false, with ‘uncertain’ on the fourth place in the difficulty scale.
However, it is understandable because ‘impossible’ is certainly much more frequent a word
than ‘uncertain’. The two disyllabic words ‘never’ and ‘alone’ share the second and third
place in the scale, both being correctly stressed by nearly 70% of respondents. The fifth
easiest word in the scale is ‘photograph’. Conversely, the related word ‘photographer’ ranks
last in the scale. This word pair is an illustrative example of the mobility of English word
stress (see page 11). It might seem that the students were not aware of this typical
characteristics of English stress and that they used the same stress pattern for both of the
words. Interestingly enough, it was not so. The students showed a great effort to use two
distinct stress patterns, but unfortunately, they usually stressed the third syllable in
‘photographer’, instead of the second one.
The finding that only about half of the students marked the stress in the word
‘understand’ correctly, was surprising and rather dissapointing. ‘Understand’ is one of the
first words one learns in English. Every beginner should be able to say: ‘Sorry, I do not
understand’, and why not do so with the correct pronunciation? On the other hand, when
the wrong syllable is stressed, a native speaker decoding the message has an even stronger
impression that he is talking to a foreigner who really does not speak English well.
Consequently, he may slow down and speak more clearly.
The high number of respondents who did not know the correct stress pattern of the word
‘yesterday’ was similarly distressing. It also belongs to the most frequent words of a
language. Nearly every day, we are asked by someone what we did yesterday. Moreover, it
is a very usual opening question in a foreign language class. However, the misplacement of
the stress in this word can be partly justified or excused by the similarity to the word
‘today’ which bears the stress on the second syllable, i.e. on ‘day’.
As suggested on page 36, the word ‘hotel’ belongs to the most frequently
mispronounced words by Czech speakers. Sadly, this study can only confirm it. A majority
of students placed the stress on the fist syllable instead of the second one. It may be due to
the fact that Czech has the same word in its word-stock and the stress remains on the first
syllable, as in other Czech words. Having become familiar with one stress pattern of a
 word in one’s mother tongue, it is very hard to get used to another stressing for the very
same word.
According to the author`s prediction, the word ‘possibility’ was regarded as one of the
most difficult words by the students. Most likely, not many of them use this word actively
in their speech. As far as the last word – ‘photographer’- is concerned, it is no wonder that
it was considered the most difficult word in the exercise.

The above-mentioned figures demonstrate general awareness of Czech students at

secondary stage of English word stress patterns. However, it should be reminded that there
are always certain differences between individual students, classes and schools. On one
hand, there were students whose knowledge of word stress was very poor, but on the other
hand, some other students marked the correct stress in most of the words. The average
number of correct answers to question number 5 was 5,37. Thus, the students knew
approximately half of the stress patterns.
The different results of individual classes and schools are shown in the following table:

Grammar school A Grammar school B Grammar school C

2.A 4,78 4.A 4,13 3.C 4,66
2.B 5,00 3.A 4,30 Average 4,66
Septima
B 5,17 Kvinta1 4,48
4.C 5,33 Sexta 5,35
Oktáva
B 5,35 Average 4,57
4.B 5,67
Septima
A 6,05
Oktáva
A 6,27
4.A 6,43
3.B 6,80
Average 5,69

Regarding the average number of correct stress patterns, grammar school A is

apparently in the lead. We should realize that since the majority of questionnaires was
1
Traditionally, Kvinta is an equivalent to the first year of secondary school, Sexta to the second, Septima to the
third and Oktáva to the fourth. Grammar school B, however, has a special six-year-programme and thus Kvinta
and Sexta correspond to the third and fourth class respectively. Consequently, all these students involved in the
research were of similar age, i.e. from 17 to 19 years old.
completed by the students from grammar school A, the overall average number (i.e. 5,37)
is higher than it would be otherwise. In other words, the results from grammar school A
enhances the average considerably, while the other two grammar schools make it lower.
 6. Conclusion

The thesis was aimed at presenting the pronunciation problems which Czech learners of
English face, due to their poor awareness of English stress.
It starts with a thorough theoretical background to the topic, dealing with the main
characteristics of English and Czech word stress. The most significant difference between
the two language systems lies in the fact that English word stress is variable, i.e. any
syllable of a word can bear the stress, while in Czech the stress always remains on the first
syllable of a word. Lack of knowledge of this can lead to bad pronunciation habits that
become difficult to redress.
In my opinion, pronunciation cannot be overlooked. Students must realize that
unintelligible speech resulting from neglect of English word stress will make their attempts
to talk frustrating for all concerned. It is difficult for students to do this without any
stimulation, therefore they need teachers’ help. This thesis asks teachers of English to
concentrate on distinct pronunciation features in their classes in order to help students to
develop good pronunciation, including the correct stress patterns.

A lot of attention is paid to introducing the main tendencies in stressing words in

English. Professor Daniel Jones writes in his Outline of English Phonetics: “English word-
stress cannot be learnt by means of rules. In most cases there is no rule as to the incidence
of stress… It is therefore necessary for the foreign student to learn the stress of every word
individually” (qtd. in Friederich 1965: ix). It is, indeed, impossible for the average student
to learn all the rules concerning word stress and to apply them to every word they
encounter. On the other hand, a learner should be told about certain tendencies, because
they are in some cases “easy to grasp and to comprehend and they can therefore be a great
help to the learner” (Friederich 1965: ix). Students are advised to learn the stress pattern of
every new word but also to be aware of the main tendencies of word stress as these can
throw light on what has been learnt in practice and “strengthen this knowledge through the
associations it provides” (Friederich 1965: ix).
To put it other way, once learners are aware that English words have distinct stress
patterns, they will know what to pay attention to and can build upon this. For this purpose,
the thesis offers a detailed view of English word stress as well as sentence stress. It
describes the general tendencies in stressing English words, but also states many
exceptions and deviations from the main rules. All tendencies are supported by well-
chosen examples.

The practical part investigates the awareness of Czech learners of word stress in
English. It is based on information from the research which was carried out at three
grammar schools in Brno. The research was conducted by means of a short questionnaire
which was directed at students of third and fourth classes at secondary stage, i.e. students
from 17 to 19 years old.
As regards the main hypothesis (i.e. the assumption that Czech learners are mostly
unaware of the distinct English word stress), it may be said that the current state is more
satisfactory than it was expected, although still far from ideal.
The answers provided by the students imply that they have certain knowledge of the
English word stress, but they still lack the ability to stress the correct syllables in most of
the words. This can be supported by the finding that 73% of respondents knew that
English word stress is variable, in contrast to Czech word stress. However, when they were
asked to mark the correct stress in individual words, they succeded only in about half of
them. Interestingly enough, some students who chose an incorrect answer in question 1
(e.g. that English word stress is fixed and falls always on the first syllable) had better
results in the practical exercise where they were supposed to mark the correct stress in the
given words. It may be due to the fact that they were unconsciously aware of English word
stress, but did not realize it in the theoretical question.
According to the results of the survey it is obvious that though there are still many
things in teaching English pronunciation to improve and work on in the future, learners
realize great importance of English pronunciation, including the correct stressing. It was
the most positive finding of the survey that a vast majority of students are aware of the
significance of word stress in English. To put it in figures, more than 80% of students think
correct word stress is necessary for successful communication and thus should not be
neglected.
Moreover, the results from the survey speaks against the hypothesis that very little
attention is paid to English word stress at Czech schools. It was expected that higher
number of students would claim they never heard of it at school. Thus it was good to find
out that nearly three quarters were told about the distinct English stressing at school.
However, mere hearing about it is not sufficient. Learners always need a lot of practice to
acquire a new skill. Unless they have opportunity to practise stressing in class, they will
not be able to use it in their normal speech.

Fortunately, there is an increasing concern for English pronunciation and as a result of

this English language teaching is given more and more attention. This trend will gain
momentum in the future and therefore a change for the better may be expected in the field
of pronunciation.
Appendix 1: (questionnaire in Czech)

Gymnázium: ……………….
Třída: ……........
Jak dlouho se učím anglicky? ………

Slovní přízvuk v angličtině a v češtině

1. Z následujících vět vyberte a zakroužkujte pravdivé tvrzení.

a) V angličtině, stejně jako v češtině, klademe důraz většinou na první slabiku slova.
b) V angličtině, stejně jako v češtině, klademe důraz většinou na poslední slabiku slova.
c) Na rozdíl od češtiny má angličtina proměnlivý slovní přízvuk
d) Ani v angličtině, ani v češtině není přízvuk stálý

2. O používání slovního přízvuku v angličtině jsem se dozvěděl:

a) nikde, o slovním přízvuku nemám potuchy
b) na základní škole
c) na gymnáziu
d) v jazykové škole
e) v zahraničí
f) jinde (upřesněte kde): ………………..

3. V hodinách angličtiny se procvičování výslovnosti, včetně správného přízvuku, věnujeme:

a) pravidelně
b) málokdy
c) nikdy jsme nic takového nedělali
d) ………………

4. Myslíte, že používání špatného přízvuku v angličtině může ovlivnit srozumitelnost vašeho

ústního projevu?
a) ano, značně
b) ano, částečně
c) možná minimálně
 d) vůbec ne
e) …………

5. V následujících slovech vyznačte hlavní slovní přízvuk: (jako např. e’vent)

never
alone
hotel
yesterday
understand
impossible
uncertain
photograph
photographer
possibility

Děkuji za vaši ochotu při vyplňování dotazníku.

Appendix 2:

Grammar school:………
Class:……..
How long have you learned English?………..

Stress and rhytm in English and Czech

1. Choose the correct statement from the following sentences:

a) In English, as well as in Czech, the stress is usually placed on the first syllable of a
word
b) In English, as well as in Czech, the stress is usually placed on the last syllable of a
word
c) Unlike in Czech, English word stress is variable
d) Neither English nor Czech word stress is stable

2. Where did you learn about English word stress?

a) nowhere, I have no idea about it
b) at primary school
c) at grammar school
d) at language school
e) abroad
f) elsewhere (please specify)

3. How often do you practise pronunciation, including the correct word stress, in your English
classes?
a) regularly
b) rarely
c) never
d) …………..

4. Do you think that misplacing word stress in English can influence the intelligibility of your
speech?
a) yes, very much so
 b) yes, partly
c) maybe a little
d) not at all
e) ……….

5. Mark the main stress in the following words (e.g. e´vent):

never
alone
hotel
yesterday
understand
impossible
uncertain
photograph
photographer
possibility
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