Stress In Words

[Jesse20]

I couldnt understand ( stress ) in words and I tried to hear it by native speakers to know and understand it but I didnt feel it. In fact i never use it when I talk .
- What is stress?
- Is it wrong not to use is ?
- Does not using it make your English bad ?

[Tdol]

Stress is putting emphasis on a syllable or a word. If you don't use it, then many words will be difficult to understand in many cases. Also, stressing words can change the meaning:
JOHN did not do it.
John did NOT do it.
In the first, the speaker is implyng that someone other than John did it. In the second, the emphasis is on the negative, not the person.

[Jesse20]

dear tdol
what do you mean emphasis? do you mean to say word loudly with more force...etc that is ok to me I know that
but I actually have a problem using stress in syllable
I mean should I pronounce that letter or syllable with more force and How come !!!

thank you any way I really apreciate your reply

[Tdol]

Yes.
Take 'photographer'- we say 'phoTOgrapher', making that syllable bigger than the others. Words with more than one syllable have a syllable that is said with more force than the others. How come? Simply because we all do it- some languages use stress and some don't. Are you an Arabic speaker? If so, don't you have sylabic stress? Strees gives us the rhythm that we feel the language neeeds.

[Jesse20]

thank you very much tdol
that was a good explaination
I mean its all about saying particular syllables with more force its easy but Do they pronounce word that has stress with stress every time they say it or just at certain cases?
because if you open any dictionary and look at the phonetic alphabet system you will find this symbol (') which it is for stress, in every word
and that made me think it has another purpose not just for the reason I know and you mentioned

By the way tdol You are really a GOOD teacher I wish if you taught engineering subjects I would graduate with A+ laaaaal

[Tdol]

The symbol does mark the stressed syllable. However, with grammar words, we often don't stress them as they are less important than words that carry meaning, though even when we don't stress them much, the stressed syllable will always cary a little more weight.

[rewboss]

Yes, words that just help with the grammar are not usually stressed.

Stress is a feature of most European languages. In words of more than one syllable, one syllable is usually pronounced slightly louder and a very tiny bit slower than the others. Also, the vowel in the stressed syllable is pronounced more carefully; vowels in unstressed syllables are usually less distinct.

A useful rule for English stress -- which works about 80% of the time -- is this:

In words of two syllables, put the stress on the first syllable: OTHer, LONdon, MIRror.

In words of more than two syllables, put the stress not on the last syllable, not on the syllable before last, but on the syllable before that: SYLLable, PHOtograph, phoTOgrapher, photoGRAPHical.

There are lots of exceptions (for example, photoGRAPHic, beFORE), so this rule doesn't always work.

There are a few words whose meaning changes depending on where you put the stress. For example:

reFUSE: to decline, not to accept
REFuse: garbage, rubbish, trash

...but that is very rare.

[Jesse20]

THANK YOU VERY MUCH