Say your ten
Read your ten words aloud, one at a time. Your partner claps on the stressed syllable — not on the one you meant, on the one they hear.
Mark every word where the clap and the mark disagree. Those are the lesson.
Eight travel words. Match each to which syllable carries the stress in English.
The same word, two languages
Read each pair aloud. The letters are nearly the same. The stress is not.
informação /ĩ-for-ma-SÃO/ → information /ˌɪn-fə-ˈmeɪ-ʃn/ — third of four.
universidade /u-ni-ver-si-DA-de/ → university /ˌjuː-nɪ-ˈvɜː-sə-ti/ — third of five.
economia /e-co-no-MI-a/ → economy /ɪ-ˈkɒ-nə-mi/ — second of four.
fotografia /fo-to-gra-FI-a/ → photography /fə-ˈtɒ-ɡrə-fi/ — second of four.
confortável /con-for-TÁ-vel/ → comfortable /ˈkʌmf-tə-bl/ — first of three.
necessário /ne-ce-SSÁ-rio/ → necessary /ˈne-sə-sə-ri/ — first of four.
Four questions about the six pairs.
1. In Portuguese, where does the stress fall in all six?
2. In the English -tion and -ity words, where does it fall?
3. Comfortable is written with four syllables and said with three. What happened?
4. Why does this matter more than a vowel sound?
Five rules
The suffix decides
| Ending | Stress falls | Examples |
|---|---|---|
-tion · -sion · -cian · -tial · -cious | On the syllable immediately before | informAtion · decISion · musICian · essENtial · delICious |
-ity · -ety | On the syllable immediately before | secUrity · availaBIlity · possiBIlity · varIety |
-ic · -ical | On the syllable immediately before | ecoNOMic · hisTORic · poLITical · phoToGRAPHic |
-logy · -graphy · -nomy · -cracy | Third syllable from the end | biOLogy · phoTOGraphy · ecONomy · deMOCracy |
-able · -ary · -ate (adj) | Usually at the front, and a syllable is swallowed | COMfortable · NECessary · SEParate (adj) |
And one that is not a suffix at all. Many two-syllable words are a noun with the stress at the front and a verb with the stress at the back.
a REcord / to reCORD · a PREsent / to preSENT · an INcrease / to inCREASE · an EXport / to exPORT · a PROtest / to proTEST · a PERmit / to perMIT · a REfund / to reFUND · a TRANSport / to transPORT
Noun at the front, verb at the back. It is the closest thing English has to a rule you can rely on, and the airport words are all in it.
Eight words. Match each to the rule that puts its stress where it goes.
One to three words per gap, all from the stress families. Say each aloud as you write it and mark the stressed syllable.
I rang about a because the flight had been cancelled and nobody had sent me any . The woman checked on three later flights and said there was none. I asked whether the from the airport to the city was included and she said that was a different . It was not an conversation.
Hearing your own
Eight words with the stress marked in the wrong place. Rewrite each with capitals on the correct syllable, and say which rule applies.
1. informaTION
2. securiTY
3. ecoNOmy — meaning the class on a plane
4. photoGRAphy
5. comFORtable
6. restauRANT
7. a reFUND — the noun
8. to INcrease — the verb
Six word families. Match each base word to where the stress moves when the suffix is added.
One word per gap. Build the right member of each family, and say it aloud with the stress in the right place.
She studies at university, which is not the same as taking photographs. My brother works in an job — a bank, something to do with markets. I asked about on the later train and they said none. The airline sent no about the at all, and I only found out at the gate.
The complaint call
Task card · Speaking · Pairs · 4 minutes each
One of you is a traveller whose flight was cancelled. The other works for the airline and is not going to be much help.
A four-minute call that uses at least eight words from the stress families.
- Traveller: ask about a refund, availability, accommodation, compensation and transport.
- Airline: explain the cancellation, the situation, the regulations, and give no information.
- Both: at least one had clause each — what had already happened before the call.
- Your partner taps the table any time a stress lands in the wrong place. Say the word again.
The tap is the point. Do not stop the conversation to explain. Tap, let them repeat the word once, and carry on. Interrupting for an explanation costs more than the error does.
What got tapped
Five words that get tapped most often. Rewrite each with the stress marked, and say it three times.
1. compenSAtion
2. accommoDAtion
3. reguLAtions
4. availaBIliTY
5. comFORtable
The suffix decides
Three questions.
1. Where does the stress fall in a word ending -tion?
2. A REfund and to reFUND —
3. Why does stress matter more than a vowel sound?
Before next lesson. Your travel story has to run five minutes. Find three more things for it: one more thing that had already gone wrong before you knew, one line somebody said, and one thing you would do differently.
Bring them written down, and mark the stress on any word over three syllables.