 SHIFTS IN STRESS SHIFTS IN STRESS What is stress? In language, stress is the emphasis you put on certain parts of words. In English, we call those word parts syllables. Let's look at some examples. Did you get a refund? Did they refund your money? In this case, refund is a noun and refund is a verb. See how the function of the word changes along with the stress. In this video, we'll look at stress shifts or changes in various words when different endings are used. Here's the breakdown. Stress shifts without spelling changes. Stress shifts with word endings. Spelling and pronunciation changes and multiple endings. We'll deal with many, but not all of the stress and word changes. We'll mostly look at verbs, nouns, and adjectives. What are nouns, verbs, and adjectives? Well, generally speaking, verbs are action words. For example, Jared creates beautiful artwork. Creates is the verb in the sentence and it talks about the action that Jared is doing. Nouns are generally topic words. For example, Jared is a creator. His creativity is well known. Creator and creativity are both nouns. Adjectives are description words. For example, Jared is a very creative person. We're describing Jared in this case. Let's get down to the nitty-gritty. What do we do when we want to keep a word's general meaning but change the way it is used in a sentence? In English, we usually add word endings. For example, helpful. Help plus full equals helpful. Can you help me? That is really helpful. When word parts come together, they may affect each other's sound and spelling. For example, communicate. Plus, shun is communication. Note the stress or emphasis changes and sometimes so does the spelling when we add a word ending. Let's look at some examples. We'll start with the easy ones. Ready? OK. Nouns to verbs. Stress shifts without spelling changes. These are just a few examples. I'm going to read from top to bottom in the first two columns, the nouns and the verbs. Then I will read from left to right in columns 3 and 4 to show you the contrast. Nouns. Refund. Conduct. Survey. Import. Object. Record. Contrast. Increase. Desert. Present. Did you hear the stress patterns in those words? Now, let's listen to them in contrast in columns 3 and 4. Refund. Refund. Now, in addition to the words, we'll look at some examples. We'll look at some examples. We'll look at some examples. We'll look at some examples. We'll look at some examples. Now, in addition to the stress change, sometimes there is a sound change in the vowel sounds of these words. In this case, there is no sound change. Only the stress change. Listen to the next one. Conduct. Conduct. Did you hear that? There's a difference in the vowel in the first syllable. Con and con. Conduct. Conduct. Survey. Survey. No sound change. Only a stress shift. Import. Import. No sound change. Object. Object. Yes. In this case, there is a sound change in the first syllable. Object. Object. Record. Record. Is there a sound change? Yes. With the first one, there's a short E and the second one, there's a long E. Record. Record. Record. Contrast. Contrast. Is there a sound change? Yes. Did you hear it? Con and con. Increase. Increase. No sound change. Only a stress shift. Desert. Desert. Yes. There's a sound change from desert to desert. People also say desert. Present. Present. Did you hear the sound change? From a short E to a long E. Present. Present. Some people also say present. Now we're going to add endings to the words. Ready to participate? We'll need your participation. Verbs to nouns. A-T-E to A-T-I-O-N. This is the easiest place to start. Again, we'll look at the words in columns. The verbs from top to bottom in column one. Then the nouns from top to bottom in column two. Then we'll compare the two in columns three and four. Okay, here are the verbs. Communicate. Celebrate. Immigrate. Concentrate. Elevate. Fascinate. Procrastinate. Create. Relate. Migrate. Expect. Now the nouns. Communication. Celebration. Immigration. Concentration. Elevation. Fascination. Procrastination. Creation. creation, relation, migration, expectation. Did you hear the stress patterns here? Let's listen to them in contrast. Columns 3 and 4. Communicate, communication. Celebrate, celebration. Immigrate, immigration. Concentrate, concentration. Elevate, elevation. Procrastinate, procrastination. We'll stop here for a minute. Notice that in the last column, with the T-I-O-N, the stress comes right before the ending. So it's the second to the last syllable, communication. Now with the verb form, it comes in the third to the last syllable. So, for example, celebrate, immigrate, concentrate, elevate, and fascinate, they're all three syllable words. So the third syllable from the end is actually the first syllable of these words. Now let's look at the next words. Communicate and procrastinate. These are four syllable words. So the third syllable from the end is actually the second syllable of these words. Let's look at the next two. Create, relate. These are two syllable words, and the stress in two syllable words usually falls on the second syllable. So create becomes creation. The stress remains on the second syllable because it's the second one from the end. Relate, relation. Now not all two syllable words do this. A special case would be the word migrate. Did you hear the stress here? The stress is on the first syllable with migrate. So it has to shift to the second syllable when we add the T-I-O-N, migration. Another special case is expect. Expect does not end with A-T-E. So in some words, when there's no A-T-E, sometimes we like to add that extra syllable in the middle before adding the T-I-O-N. Expect becomes expectation. There's an extra syllable in there. Not all words are like that. This is just one special case. Verbs to nouns. Not all T-I-O-N words fall into this category. Here are some related endings. I'll read the words across this time. Produce, produce, product, production. Notice the sound shifts. We have stress and also sound changes. Produce, produce, and product, which is an object. So produce has a long O, product has a short O. And then, of course, production. With this word, the stress is right before the T-I-O-N ending, the second from the last syllable. Let's look at some more examples. Convict, convict, conviction. Contract, contract, contraction. Construct, construct, construction. Permit, permit, permission. Notice the stress changes in the same way. But in this case, there's a change in spelling. The ending is not T-I-O-N, but S-I-O-N. And actually, the S is doubled here. Permission, rebel, rebel, rebellion. We have the same type of spelling changes, but it's a different letter this time. So instead of T-I-O-N, we have L-I-O-N. And the L is doubled before the I-O-N ending. Complex, complex. Now in this case, complex is not a verb, but it's an adjective. We put it here to show you that the pattern is still the same. Now, because we don't have a verb form of this, we have a different noun form, complexity. And we have a different ending here as well, complexion. Notice the X-I-O-N. Let's look at the next one. Connect, connectivity. See how the stress has shifted there. Connection, again, the stress is right before the T-I-O-N ending. Transmit, transmittal, and then transmission. Notice the spelling changes. This is like permission above, where there's an S-I-O-N and a double S before the I-O-N ending. The next one is a little bit different. Reflect, reflex. I'm not sure if these have the same root word, but the stress changes in the same way. And then reflection, where the stress comes right before the T-I-O-N ending. Now the last one has both stress and sound changes. Describe, description. Notice there are two sound changes here. The long I becomes a short I. Describe, description. And the B becomes a P-sound before the T. Describe, description. Let's move on to another activity. Adjectives and verbs to nouns. We're going to talk about the I-T-Y and E-T-Y endings. Here are some examples. I'm going to read these across. Adjective or verb. Able, ability. The stress shift is from the first to second syllable. And there's a spelling change from L-E to I-L before adding the I-T-Y. Able, ability. Stable, stability. Same pattern. First syllable to second syllable for the stress. L-E to I-L. Let's look at the next three. Flexible, flexibility. First syllable to third syllable. Again, L-E to I-L before I-T-Y. Probable, probability. Stress shift from the first to the third syllable. L-E to I-L. Responsible, responsibility. Again, the spelling change is L-E to I-L. Do you notice a pattern here? The syllable right before the I-T-Y ending is stressed. Ability, stability, flexibility, probability, responsibility. Let's look at the next one. Electric, electricity. This goes from the second to the third syllable, where the change in stress takes place. Now notice there is no spelling change, but there is a pronunciation change. When you add the I-T-Y, you don't have to change the spelling, but it goes from a hard C, electric, to a soft C, electricity, like from a K to an S sound. Let's look at the next one. Hilarious, hilarity. The stress goes from the second to the third syllable, I-O-U-S to I-T-Y. Or if you want to consider the I-T-Y as part of the ending, it would just be O-U-S to T-Y. Various, variety. The stress shifts from the first syllable to the second syllable. Now this one is different because we can't add another I before the T-Y ending. So in this case, we don't have a double I, but we have an E-T-Y ending, which is basically the same idea here, variety. The same thing holds true for the next example. Social, society. Stress goes from the first to the second syllable. There is no double I here. Instead, the I-T-Y ending is E-T-Y to avoid that double I because there is an extra syllable there. The last one is celebrate, which is actually a verb, not an adjective. But it follows the same pattern, celebrity, again from the first to second syllable, A-T-E to I-T-Y. This is from a verb to a noun. This is not very common. Next, it's official, and it's terrific. Nouns to adjectives, C-E to I-A-L, and I-C endings. Let's look at some examples. We'll do these in two parts. Noun, office, official. The stress changes from first to second syllable. Notice the ending changes in spelling from C-E to C-I-A-L. Office, official. Now, the word official can be an adjective. It can also be a noun. Let's look at the next one. Influence, influential. Spelling change from C-E to T-I-A-L. The syllable stress goes from the first to the third syllable. Influential. Look at the next ones. They follow the same patterns. Residence, residential. First syllable to third syllable. C-E to T-I-A-L. Confidence, confidential. First syllable to third syllable. Stress shift. Preference, preferential. Stress shift, first to third syllable. C-E to T-I-A-L. Now, if you hear correctly, the T-I-A-L and C-I-A-L, influential, official, residential, all sound the same. And the spelling has just been changed from C-E to T-I-A-L in the last few examples. With the first one, it remains C-I-A-L. Let's look at the next section, which is talking about ick endings. Look at the first one. Romance, romantic. Notice that this ends in a C-E. And this is similar to the words above where the C-E is changed to T before adding the ending, romantic. So it goes from the first syllable to the second syllable in stress. C-E to T-I-C. Romance, romantic. Now, the next word, in fact, all of these words with ick endings are different. So there's no real pattern here. So the next one we'll look at is syllable. This is actually a noun, not an adjective, like some of the other words with A-B-L-E endings. And the adjective form is syllabic. Notice the stress shift from first syllable to second syllable. We have L-E to I-C ending plus the sound change. Syllable to syllabic. Did you hear the difference in vowel sound? Syllabic, short A in the second syllable. The next one is optimist. Optimistic. Again, we go from the first syllable to the third syllable. This is a stress change only. We just added the I-C. We didn't change the spelling at all. The next two are very different. We have general and generic. Now, both general and generic are adjectives, in this case. And the stress shifts from the first to the second syllable. A-L to I-C. This is from an adjective to another adjective. And the last one is actually a verb. Terrify to terrific. I put these together because they all have the I-C ending in the adjective form. The stress goes from the first to the second syllable. I-F-Y is a verb ending to I-C. So we go from verb to adjective to form the I-C ending on the adjective. Wait, there's more. All kinds of word endings. These become a little bit more complicated. We'll call these miscellaneous because there are various endings that we're dealing with here. I'll read them across so you can see the differences here. The first column is noun. And we're talking about science or an activity or a field. Sometimes a hobby. The second one is a noun. And we're talking about a person here. The third one is the adjective form. And the fourth column is other related words. They can be just about anything, mostly nouns here. OK, let's look at the first row. Photography, photographer, photographic, photograph. Photograph is an object, like a picture. Geography, geographer, geographic, gymnastics, gymnast, gymnastic, gymnasium. That's a place where you perform these exercises. Economics, economist, economic, or economical. There are two adjective forms here. Economical means not expensive. Economy, mathematics, mathematician, mathematical, mathematics, this is the subject, music, musician, musical, musicology, this is the study of music. Biology, biologist, biological, psychology, psychologist, psychological, journalism, journalist, journalistic, science, scientist, scientific. Notice that right before the ik ending, the sound is changed to f scientific. I'll read these from top to bottom so you can see the patterns. They don't all fit, but there are some general patterns here. Column 1, noun, science, activity, field, hobby. Photography, geography, gymnastics, economics, mathematics, music, biology, psychology, journalism, science. Column 2, the person, photographer, geographer, gymnast, economist, mathematician, musician, biologist, psychologist, journalist, scientist. Column 3, adjective, photographic, geographic, gymnastic, economic, or economical, mathematical, musical. Now, musical can be an adjective, and sometimes it's used as a noun, like a program. Biological, psychological, journalistic, scientific. Other related words, column 4, photograph, gymnasium, economy, mathematics, musicology. What about more than one ending? That's also possible. It's also a possibility. Here are some words with multiple endings. We'll start with what I'll call the base word. Then we'll talk about the noun, person, adjective, and then the verb and related words, which could possibly be a noun or something else. OK, I'm going to read them first across from left to right. Colony, colonist, colonial, colonize, colonization, memory, memorized. This is not a common word. Memorial, memorize, memorization, capital, capitalist, capitalistic, capitalize, capitalization, character, character. These two words have different meaning. The first one is talking about, for example, a personality trait. The other one is talking about like an actor. Characteristic, characterize, characterization, sympathy, sympathetic, sympathize, synthesis, synthetic, synthesize, motive, motivator, motivational, motivate, motivation, invent. This is a verb for the base word. The other ones above were nouns, inventor, inventive, invention, create. Again, this one is also a verb. Creator, creative, creation, act. We have a one syllable word here, which is also a verb. Actor, active, action, activate, activation. I'm going to read the columns from top to bottom so you can see the patterns. The base word could be a noun or a verb. The first few are nouns. The last three are verbs. Colony, memory, capital, character, sympathy, synthesis, motive. Notice how in most of these words, the first syllable is stressed. With the next three, invent, create, act. These are verbs. And the first or second syllable is stressed. Let's look at the next column. Noun, person, colonist, memorized, capitalist, character, motivator. Notice how it changes with the next one. Inventor, creator, actor. Column three, adjective. Colonial, memorial, capitalistic, characteristic. Characteristic can be a noun or an adjective. Sympathetic, synthetic, motivational, inventive, creative, active. And the last ones, verbs plus related words. In this case, most of them are nouns. Colonize, colonization. Memorize, memorization. Capitalize, capitalization. Characterize, characterization. Sympathize, synthesize. Motivate, motivation. Invention, creation. Action, activate, activation. Practice time. See if you can say the following words with the correct stress patterns. Test yourself. Ready to start? Let's begin. This is a stress test. Say the words stressing the correct syllables. Go ahead. Please feel free to stop the video if you like more time for this. OK, I'm going to read these for pronunciation. I'm going to read the first two rows across. And then I'll read them all going down vertically, because they're just randomly organized after that. OK, first two rows. Noun, subject, noun, person, noun, thing, verb, and adjective. Production, producer, product, produce, productive, motivation, motivator, motive, motivate, motivational. Now I'll read each of the columns going down. These words are not arranged in any particular way. Production, motivation, description, responsibility, colonization, mathematics, photography, economics, journalism, productivity. Column two, producer, motivator, character, celebrity, capitalist, biologist, geographer, politician, scientist, magician, third column, product, motive, survey, object, economy, permit, confidence, photograph, gymnasium, preference. Column four, produce, motivate, memorize, conduct, migrate, record, sympathize, cultivate, captivate, synthesize. Last column, productive, motivational, influential, creative, electric, flexible, scientific, various, mathematical, pessimistic. If you'd like more explanation and practice, check out our other video on word endings in English. Click on the link in the description below this video. Hope that was helpful. Remember to subscribe to our channel for more videos like these. And please give us a thumbs up in the comment section below. Thanks for watching. If you have an idea for our next video, please let us know at the link below.