Accent Reduction – Finally- the Keys to Suffixes and Syllable Accent Stress (Germanic vs French-Latin suffix rules)

Have you ever wondered why when you add a suffix onto a root word, sometimes the syllable accent stress stays on the same syllable as the root word and sometimes it moves to the syllable next to the suffix ending?

For example:

• WON-der and WON-der-ful
• PER-son-al and per-son-AL-ity

The answer lies in which language the suffix comes from.  Recall that English is heavily built from Germanic, French, and Latin languages.

Put simply:

• The German language keeps the syllable accent stress on the same syllable as the original root word.

• But French and Latin endings often pull the syllable accent stress closer to the suffix.

Today’s blog will give examples with the Germanic suffixes –y,  –ly, –ful, -ness, less, 

Next week, we will do examples with French and Latin derived suffix endings.

Remember, for Germanic suffixes, keep the syllable accent stress on the same syllable as the original or root word.

CHEER.

CHEER-y

CHEER-i-ly

WON- der

WON-der- ful.

PUR-pose

PUR-pose-ful

CON-scious

CON-scious-ness

com-PET-i-tive

com-PET-i-tive-ness

POW-er

POW-er-less

PUR-pose

PUR-pose-less

BOTH-er

BOTH-er-some

CUM-ber

CUM-ber-some

Be sure to watch our English Speech Tips videos and Accent Reduction Tip videos  for more English pronunciation and accent reduction exercise.

Check out our new advanced weekly speech tip program, our new subscription called ClearTalk Weekly, www.subscription.cleartalkmastery.com

Rerun from April 27, 2016