How To Change Meaning By Stress

Word stress is very important if one wants to master spoken English. Native speakers of English use word stress naturally. Word stress is so natural for native English speakers that they do not even know they use it. On the other hand, non-native speakers who speak English to native speakers without using word stress, 1._ two problems: they find it difficult to understand native speakers, especially those speaking fast and the native speakers may find it difficult to understand them. English is a stress-timed language, which means that words of more than one syllable have one syllable which is more 2._ than the other(s) e.g. travel, or account.

In most two-syllable words this stress 3._ does not change, even if the word is used as a different part of speech (verb-noun). Thus in the well-known phrase travel 4._ the mind, travel is an uncountable noun. Compare with I have to travel a lot, where travel is a verb. In both sentences travel is stressed on the first syllable i.e.; travel.

Similarly, in the sentence My account is 5._, account is a countable noun, while it is a verb in the sentence She had to account 6._ the loss of 50.000 euros. In both cases, account is stressed account.

However, there is a group of common two-syllable words in which the stress of the word changes, or moves, depending on whether it is a noun or a verb. In 7._, the noun is stressed on the first syllable, the verb on the second, e.g.; import. In the sentence Croatia imports cars from Germany, import is a verb, stressed import, whereas in the phrase Imports of natural gas have been disrupted, imports is a countable noun, stressed imports. Another example is increase. Compare There has been an increase in sales, with The cost of living has been increasing rapidly. In the first example increase is a countable noun, stressed increase, while in the second it is a verb, stressed increase. Other common two-syllable words that follow this pattern are: contract, decrease, export, present, record, transfer, produce, project, transport etc. As a noun project has the meaning we are very 8._ with: a piece of planned work that is intended to achieve a particular 9.____.

This pattern of moving stress is also to be seen between phrasal verbs and phrasal nouns. For example, in the sentence Marital 10._ are increasing, break-ups is a phrasal noun, stressed break-ups. On the other hand, in Talks between the government and medical staff 11._ up without any agreement, broke up is a phrasal verb, stressed broke up. Another example would be fall out e.g., in the sentence I 12._ out with my partner yesterday over the new contract, where fell out is a phrasal verb, stressed fell out. Compare this to The 13._ from the present crisis will last for several years, fall-out being a phrasal noun, stressed fall-out. Other examples include take up, mess up, break down, black out, send off, set up, turn up, rip off, etc.