What Are Stressed Syllables? The Secret!

When we speak, our syllables are either stressed (stronger emphasis) or unstressed (weaker emphasis). Inside of a word, there is a syllable that is said louder, longer and higher than the other syllables in the word. That is the stressed syllable, specifically:

• Where is the pitch/voice higher as you say the word.
• Which part of the word takes the longest to say.

For example, the word “remark” consists of two syllables. Stressed syllables are pronounced slightly louder, for a slightly longer duration, and at a slightly higher pitch than unstressed syllables.

Just to make sure it sticks in your head, let’s go back to “remark“:

• ‘Re‘ is the unstressed syllable, with a weaker emphasis.
• ‘Mark‘ is stressed, with a stronger emphasis because of the way that we say ‘mark’ louder to say the word correctly.

Say “remark” out loud a couple times:

• re-MARK
• re-MARK

Do you notice that is how you pronounce the word? The ‘mark‘ part of the word is where it rises in volume and creates a stronger emphasis on how it is said. This is a stressed syllable. The weaker part that isn’t pronounced as loud and doesn’t fluctuate at all in the word “remark” is considered the unstressed syllable since it is not stressed or stressful to say at all.

Let’s try it with a few more examples:

• “Anecdote” is pronounced A-nec-dote. ‘A’ is pronounced higher, so ‘A’ is the stressed syllable.
• “Detergent” is pronounced de-TER-gent. ‘TER’ is pronounced higher, so ‘TER’ is the stressed syllable.
• “Probably” is pronounced PROB-a-bly. ‘PROB’ is pronounced higher, so ‘PROB’ is the stressed syllable.
• “Seriously” is pronounced SER-i-ous-ly. ‘SER’ is pronounced higher, so ‘SER’ is the stressed syllable.
• “University” is pronounced u-ni-VER-si-ty. ‘VER’ is pronounced higher, so ‘VER’ is the stressed syllable.

The words “discus” and “discuss” are also good for illustrating the difference between stressed and unstressed syllables. This is because where the emphasis is put determines the meaning of the word:

• Dis-CUS is a Frisbee like object that is thrown in track & field events.
• DIS-cuss is when you have a conversation.