American Accent for Speakers of Russian
3. Obvious Russian Sounds

3f. English word stress

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3f1. English stress (up not down)

Key tips:

1Unlike in Russian, English stressed syllables rise in pitch. In Russian stressed syllables fall in pitch

Exercises

Pronounce the material in these exercises out loud, slowly and accurately. Make sure to clearly enunciate the sound. When it becomes easier at the speed you’re at, increase the speed. Remember: don’t sacrifice accuracy for speed!

Word lists

2 syllable words

stress pattern: laLA • ⦿

a-: ago, around, along, arrive, anoint, approve, atone, alive, attract, announce, allow

be-: before, because, befall, belie, behind, benign, bereft, behold

co-: collide, contain, collect, correct, collude, confine, collage, corrode, command

de-: deny, denote, delay, design, decide, deploy, devour, deface, demote, deride, demand

ex-: exhaust, exact, exclude, expel, excite, explore, extent, expect, exist, exam

Three syllables - stress pattern: laLAla • ⦿ •

a-: arranging, annoying, aroma, arriving, attractive, allowance, approval

be-: beguiling, betrothal, belabor, belongings, besotted, bedazzling, beforehand

co-: collecting, correcting, connoting, computer, corruption, corrosive, commanding

de-: destructive, detractor, determine, description, demolish, descending, demanding, demeaning

ex-: exactly, examine, example, explorer, excitement, exhaustion, exciting

3f2. Reduced vowels (explain it)

Key tips

  1. As in Russian, English stressed syllables are longer in duration

  2. As in Russian, vowels in unstressed syllables are often reduced

  3. Unlike in Russian, English words can have more than one stress (Russian words can only have one stressed syllable)

/ɑ/ → /ə/ conflict (n) vs conflict (v)

/æ/ → /ə/ address (n) vs address (v/n)

/oʊ/ → /ə/ protest (n) vs protest (v)

/i/ → /ə, ɪ/ repeat (n) vs repeat (v)

/ɛ/ → /ə, ɪ/ predator vs predation

Word lists

/ɑ/ → /ə/

controversy, controversy (BrE), controversial

demonstrative, demonstrative, demonstration

innovative, innovative, innovative, innovation, innovate

conflict, conflict

origin original originally originator originality

computer, computing, computation

compete competition

progress, progress, progressing, progression

prosody, prosodic

/æ/ → /ə/

adult, adult, adulting, adulting

affirmation, affirm, affirmative

address, address, addressing

magic magical magician

accusation, accuse, accusatory, accusative

acrid, acridity, acridness

photograph, photography

geography, geographical

family, familial, familiar

/i/ → /ə, ɪ/

repeat, repeat, rejects, rejects

retire, retirement, retiree

regal, regalia

pretense, pretend, pretentious

/oʊ/ → /ə/

protest, protesting, protest, protesting, protestation

photo photography photographic, photographically, photographee

robot, robotic

pronoun, pronounce, pronunciation

proceed, proceed, proceeding, procession

/ɛ/ → /ə, ɪ/

preparation, prepare, preparatory, preparatory

predator, predation, predatory, predat(o)ry

repetition, repetitive

respiratory, respire, respirat(o)ry

prefer, preference, preferable, preferable

record, record, recording

resident, reside, residential

present, present, presented, presenting, presentation

preserve, preservation

precedent, precede, preceding

special, specific, specifically, specification, specificity

Sentences

Primary stresses are bolded while secondary stresses are underlined. Remember, stressed syllables (primary or secondary) have full vowels whereas unstressed syllables have reduced vowels

  1. The magical magician demonstrated his magicalness, not his *magicality.

  2. You are to repeat this repetition repetitively; I don’t want a repeat of last time

  3. *Hexagonalization is when you make things hexagonal, so they are hexagons

  4. The Pentagon’s architecture is pentagonal.

  5. The scene in the horror movie was horrifically horrifying. It was horrible

  6. No way! I was terrified of that scene. It was terrifically terrifying. Not terrible.

  7. I’m not a historian. I love history, but I’m bad at historical facts, as well as historiography.

  8. The orthography of English makes no orthographical sense

  9. I tried to imagine an imaginary image with my imagination, but it’s not as good as photorealistic imaging with my camera

  10. I kept a record of the recordings, which I recorded

  11. She proposed that he avoid any improper propositions.

  12. The proprietor of the property did not properly promote the promotion.

  13. The Pacific Ocean is not yet pacified

  14. The producers put the product into production, producing them productively.

  15. My post was postponed, but I’ll keep you posted about the postponement

  16. Adrian studies phonetics, so he is a phonetician (AKA a phoneticist) but he also studies phonology, because he loves phonological phenomena, so he is also a phonologist.