[Including exercises] Rules for stress emphasis in the National High School Graduation Exam

This article will not delve deeply into stress practice when speaking, but will focus on EASY TO REMEMBER & EASY TO LEARN rules to help you score in the exam.

1. Basic stress emphasis rules

Rule #1: Two-syllable Nouns & Adjectives

Two-syllable nouns & adjectives ⟶ stress typically falls on the first syllable

Example:

• children (CHIL-dren)
• habit (HA-bit)
• labour (LA-bour)
• handsome (HAND-some)
• silly (SIL-ly)

Exception: There are always 'irregular' factors, including stress, which is not exempt from this. The only way is to practice extensively to memorize them.

• machine (ma-CHINE)
• mistake (mis-TAKE)
• alone (a-LONE)
• amazed (a-MAZED)
• hotel (ho-TEL)
• extreme (ex-TREME)
• …

Rule #2: Two-syllable Verbs & Prepositions

• begin (be-GIN)
• forget (for-GET)
• enjoy (en-JOY)
• aside (a-SIDE)
• between (bet-WEEN)

Exception:

• answer (AN-swer)
• enter (EN-ter)
• happen (HA-ppen)
• offer (O-ffer)

Rule #3: Words that can be both nouns and verbs

Some words in English can be both nouns and verbs.

In those cases, the pronunciation and stress emphasis of the word will be different (even though the spelling remains the same)

• project (PRO-ject /ˈprɒdʒekt/) vs. project (pro-JECT /prəˈdʒekt/)
• export (EX-port /ˈekspɔːt/) vs. export (ex-PORT /ɪkˈspɔːt/)
• present (PRE-sent /ˈprezənt/) vs. present (pre-SENT /prɪˈzent/)

Rule #4: Words with 3 syllables ending in -er and -ly

Words with 3 syllables ending in '-er' or '-ly' ⟶ stress typically falls on the first syllable

Example:

• orderly (OR-der-ly)
• manager (MA-na-ger)

Rule #5. Words ending in -ic, -sion, -tion, -ance, -ence, -ious, -eous, -iar, -eous

When a word ends in -ic, -sion, -tion, -ance, -ence, -idle, -ious, -e,ous -iar, -ience, ⟶ stress typically lies on the syllable immediately preceding

Example:

• creation (cre-A-tion)
• commission (com-MIS-sion)
• academic (a-ca-DE-mic)
• photographic (pho-to-GRA-phic)
• importance (im-POR-tance)
• delicious (de-LI-cious)
• spontaneous (spon-TA-neous)
• reference (re-FE-rence)
• familiar (fa-MI-liar)

Rule #6 Words ending in -cy, -ty, -phy, -gy and -al

When a word ends in 'cy', 'ty', 'phy', 'gy', or 'al' ⟶ stress typically falls on the third syllable from the end

Example:

• democracy (de-MO-cra-cy)
• photography (pho-TO-gra-phy)
• magical (MA-gi-cal)
• commodity (com-MO-di-ty)
• psychology (psy-CHO-lo-gy)

Rule #7: Words ending in -ee, -eer, -ese, -ique, -esque

Words ending in -ee, -eer, -ese, -ique, -esque ⟶ stress typically falls on that syllable

• agree (a-GREE)
• volunteer (vo-lun-TEER)
• vietnamese (viet-nam-MESE)
• unique (u -NIQUE)
• picturesque (pic-ture-SQUE)

Exception:

• employee (em-ploy-YEE)
• committee (com-mit-TEE)
• coffee (COF-fee)

Rule #8: Compound Nouns

In most compound nouns (a noun formed from two or more existing words) ⟶ stress falls on the first noun.

Example:

• football (FOOT-ball)
• keyboard (KEY-board)
• gateway (GATE-way)

Rule #9: Compound Adjectives

Với tính từ ghép mà bắt đầu bằng tính từ hoặc trạng từ hoặc có đuôi -ED ⟶ trọng âm sẽ rơi vào từ thứ hai.

• short-sighted (short – SIGHTED)
• bad-tempered (bad-TEM-pered)
• well-done (well-DONE)
• old-fashioned (old-FA-shioned)

Các tính từ ghép bắt đầu bằng danh từ ⟶ trọng âm sẽ rơi vào từ đầu tiên.

• home-sick (HOME-sick)
• water-proof (WA-ter-proof)

Quy tắc số 10: Quy tắc nhấn trọng âm cho các số

Với các số kết thúc bằng -teen ⟶ trọng âm sẽ rơi vào âm tiết chính của số đó.

• fifteen (fif-TEEN)
• seventeen (se-ven-TEEN)

Với các số kết thúc bằng -ty ⟶ trọng âm sẽ rơi vào từ trước đó.

• twenty (TWEN-ty)
• seventy (SE-ven-ty)

2. Đào sâu vào bài tập trọng âm cho kỳ thi THPT Quốc gia

Chọn từ có vị trí đánh trọng âm khác với những từ còn lại: