Homophones

Some examples of homophones:

son / sun /sʌn/
allowed / aloud /əlɑʊd/
minor / miner /mɑɪnə/

Exercise 20 Listen to the teacher and circle the word that you hear in its context.
1. whose / who‟s 6. right / write
2. there / their 7. hear / here
3. sale / sail 8. rain / reign
4. rode / road 9. bare / bear
5. steel / steal 10. by / buy

Silent letters
a) Some consonants are written but not pronounced. This is either because they were
once pronounced (knock) or come from a foreign language (psychology).

Initial position
cz – czar
kn – knock, knee, knight, knife
gn – gnat, gnaw, gnome
pn – pneumonia
ps – psychology, psychiatry, pseudo
pt – Ptolemy
wr – write, wrong, wring, wrist
wh – who, whom, whose, whole

End position
-mb – lamb, climb, thumb
-ng – king, thing, song, wing
-gm – paradigm, diaphragm
-gn – sign, reign, foreign, resign (but signature, resignation)
-mn – condemn, autumn, column
-pt – receipt (but reception)

Other positions
doubt muscle castle whistle isle viscount sword Norwich

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b) Sometimes vowels are written but not pronounced.
Some examples:

government family chocolate

garden reason evil

Exercise 21 Mark the silent letters in the following words.

1. answer 6. castle 11. subtle 16. island

2. Greenwich 7. design 12. vegetable 17. mustn‟t

3. interest 8. know 13. generous 18. Wednesday

4. restaurant 9. comfortable 14. psychosis 19. bomb

5. written 10. honest 15. cupboard 20. hoped

This poem illustrates the various English spelling complexities. Read it aloud.

Beware of heard, a dreadful word

That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead, it's said like bed, not bead-
for goodness' sake don't call it 'deed'!
Watch out for meat and great and threat
(they rhyme with suite and straight and debt).

A moth is not a moth in mother,

Nor both in bother, broth, or brother,
And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear,
And then there's doze and rose and lose-
Just look them up- and goose and choose,
And cork and work and card and ward
And font and front and word and sword,
And do and go and thwart and cart-
Come, I've hardly made a start!

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UNIT 3 STRESS PATTERNS IN WORDS

In Italian, a syllable-timed language, uniform stress is given to different syllables.

English, on the contrary, is a stress-timed language in which there exists a
distinction between strong (toniche) and weak (atone) syllables.

Syllable division
A syllable consists of a vowel sound or a vowel sound + consonant(s). The system for
syllable division is generally a phonetic one. Most words have the same number of
syllables in the written form as in the pronunciation. However, there are a few rules to
help divide words up into syllables.

a) Each syllable has only one vowel sound. When a consonant separates two vowels,
divide the word after the first vowel and before the consonant:
stu-dent re-sult ex-a-mine

b) When the vowel is at the end of a syllable, it has a long sound, called an open syllable:
may be-low an-ec-dote

c) When the vowel is not at the end of a syllable, it has a short sound, called a closed
syllable: mad sub-ject con-vent

d) Syllables are divided between doubled consonants, unless the doubled consonant is
part of a syllable that is a base word: din-ner swim-ming tell-er

e) Monosyllabic prefixes and suffixes are not divided:

il-le-gal un-com-mon
gov-ern-ment cou -ra-geous

f) Plurisyllabic prefixes and suffixes are divided:

an-ti-war un-der-take
vel-o-ci-ty hy-po-the-ti-cal

Exercise 22 Divide the following words into syllables.

1. mirror 5. calendar
2. sunshine 6. global
3. poem 7. fitness
4. wonderful 8. December
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9. computer 13. oversleep
10. lovely 14. dinner
11. fine 15. antidote
12. tongue

Stress patterns in words

The strong or primary stress on one syllable has the effect of weakening the
pronunciation of the secondary syllables. It is therefore important to be able to
determine the stress pattern of words.

Symbols used to indicate stress:

ˈ the following syllable has primary stress

ˌ the following syllable has secondary stress

Suffixes

Suffixes do not generally have primary stress.

Compare:

ˈage /eɪdʒ/ ˈcourage /kʌrɪdʒ /

to be ˈable /eɪbl/ ˈcapable /keɪpəbl/
ˈate /eɪt/ ˈgraduate (n)/grædʒʊət /
ˈfull /fʊl/ ˈbeautiful /bjuːtɪfl/
ˈless /les/ ˈhopeless /həʊpləs/

In only a few cases the main stress falls on the suffix, generally with suffixes of
foreign, especially French, origin.

Some examples are:

-oo kangarˈoo -elle gazˈelle

-ee employˈee -ette cigarˈette
-eer engineˈeer -ese Chinˈese

Some suffixes determine the position of the primary stress.

The following suffixes determine the primary stress on the syllable preceding the
suffix:
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Nouns

-ity, -ety capˈacity opporˈtunity

Note the shift in stress: ˈpublic pubˈlicity

ˈsocial socˈiety
to ˈvary varˈiety
-ion disˈcussion atˈtention

Note the shift in stress: to preˈpare preparˈation

to proˈnounce pronunciˈation
to ˈrealise realisˈation
-ian amˈphibian phyˈsician
Note the shift in stress: huˈmanity humaniˈtarian
ˈlibrary libˈrarian
ˈhistory hisˈtorian
-ics ˈphysics ˈethics matheˈmatics
Verbs

-ify, -ish to ˈmagnify to aˈbolish

Note the shift in stress: ˈperson to persˈonify

Exercise 23 Mark the primary stress in the following words.

1. village 6. passion
2. society 7. anxiety
3. talkative 8. universal
4. suffragette 9. career
5. classify 10. economics

Adjectives
-ic, -ible, -igible hisˈtoric inˈvisible ˈeligible

Note the shift in stress: eˈconomy ecoˈnomic

to neˈglect ˈnegligible

-ious, -eous, -uous ˈglorious arˈboreous conˈtinuous

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-ial, -ual ˈsocial ˈusual

Other suffixes do not alter the stress pattern of the word.

-able ˈcomfort ˈcomfortable

-cy ˈvacant ˈvacancy
-dom ˈking ˈkingdom
-er/-or ˈvisit ˈvisitor
-ful ˈwonder ˈwonderful
-ish (adj.) ˈbaby ˈbabyish
-ism to ˈcriticise ˈcriticism
-ize/-ise (v.) eˈconomy to eˈconomize
-less ˈcare ˈcareless
-ly (adv.) ˈrapid ˈrapidly
-man (n.) poˈlice poˈliceman
-ment to ˈgovern ˈgovernment
-ship ˈowner ˈownership
-ty ˈunit ˈunity
-y to inˈquire inˈquiry

Exercise 24 Mark the shift in stress in the following pairs of words.

1. economy economics
2. experiment experimental
3. history historian
4. nation nationality
5. philosophy philosophical
6. psychiatry psychiatric
7. science scientific
8. examine examination
9. idiot idiotic
10. demonstrate demonstration

Prefixes
Two-syllable words with no prefix usually have the primary stress on the first
syllable: ˈfollow ˈcarry ˈgovern ˈcancel

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Two-syllable words with a separable prefix (often written with a hyphen) have equal
stress on the prefix and the main word:

ˈex-ˈwife ˈpre-ˈbook ˈre-ˈwrite ˈself-ˈhelp

Two-syllable VERBS with an inseparable prefix generally have the primary stress on
the second syllable: to exˈplain to preˈsent to deˈny to proˈduce

Two-syllable NOUNS with an inseparable prefix generally have the primary stress on
the first syllable: ˈexpert ˈpresent ˈdeluge ˈproverb

Some exceptions to this are: adˈvice deˈfence exˈcuse reˈlief

The stress in three-syllable words can vary from word to word. Compare:

ˈtelegraph reˈmoval ˈvegetable deˈcision

If the prefix - separable or inseparable - is bisyllabic, there is secondary stress on

the first syllable of the prefix and primary stress on the third syllable:

ˌunderˈstand ˌinterˈvene ˌsuperˈsede ˌoverˈride

Exercise 25 Mark the primary stress in the following pairs of nouns and verbs.

1. to conduct conduct
2. to desert desert
3. to present present
4. to subject subject
5. to conflict conflict
6. to decrease decrease
7. to object object
8. to produce produce
9. to suspect suspect
10. to rebel rebel

Exercise 26 Find the word in each group that the primary stress located on the different
syllable from the other three.
1. a) con-fi-dent b) del-i-cate c) po-et-ic d) sen-si-tive

2. a) ad-mi-ra-ble b) app-ro-priate c) com-pli-cated d)nec-es-sar-y

3. a) or-i-gin b) oc-cur c) lim-it d) of-fer

4. a) in-stru-ment b) cal-en-dar c) at-mos-phere d) ad-vise

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5. a) ca-nal b) de-moc-ra-cy c) char-ac-ter d) suc-cess

6. a) mu-si-cian b) ne-ces-si-ty c) au-thor-i-ty d) pho-to-graph

7. a) man-age b) con-nect c) o-blige d) re-veal

8. a) a-tom-ic b) dif-fer-ent c) se-ri-ous d) vi-ol-ent

9. a) ac-ci-dent b) ma-chin-e-ry c) res-tau-rant d) tel-e-phone

10. a) mar-riage b) mys-ter-y c) ben-e-fit d) ex-ist-ence

Compound nouns
Most compound nouns have the primary stress on the first element. Compare this to
the equal stress of adjective and noun:
ˈdining-room ˈtextbook ˈblackbird
ˈdark ˈroom ˈlibrary ˈbook ˈblack ˈbird

Compound adjectives
The stress generally falls on the second element with the –ed participle and -ing
participle: bad-ˈtempered old-ˈfashioned good-ˈlooking

However, if one of the elements of the compound adjective is a noun, stress will fall on
the noun, even if it is the first element: ˈlaw-abiding ˈrecord-breaking

Compound verbs
The stress generally falls on the second element: outˈrun overˈrate underˈline

Exercise 27 Mark the stress on the following words.

1. blackboard 6. train-spotting
2. mobile phone 7. football
3. well-dressed 8. bus stop
4. highlight 9. out-dated
5. swimming pool 10. over-ripe

Exercise 28 Rewrite the sentences forming compound adjectives and mark the primary
stress.
1. The letter was written by hand The letter was ................................
2. We grew the vegetables at home. The vegetables are .......................
3. We went on holiday at the last minute. It was a .............................holiday.
4. Jane works very hard. Jane is .........................................
5. Tom looks really good. Tom is ........................................

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