Stress Shift in The Same Word

English is a language with variable stress. The words photograph, photographer and photographic are all stressed differently. However, stress can also vary in the same word.

The word afternoon is stressed on the final syllable. In the compound afternoon tea, many speakers put the main stress on the first syllable of afternoon. This avoids the occurrence of two syllables with strong stress. English tends to prefer a combination of stressed and unstressed syllables. This example also applies to a sentence such as This afternoon's weather is terrible.

The word thirteen has second-syllable stress. In the phrase thirteen students, however, the stress is often placed on the first syllable of thirteen. This results in the stress pattern Strong + Weak + Strong + Weak.

Another example is the word bamboo. It has second syllable stress, but in the compound bamboo mat many speakers stress the first syllable. The trisyllabic compound then has the stress pattern of Strong + Weak + Strong. Note that if bamboo were pronounced with second syllable stress, the compound would have two consecutive syllables with strong stress. By stressing the first syllable of bamboo, this is avoided.

In certain cases, however, many speakers do not shift the stress. For example, cosmetic has second-syllable stress. In the compound cosmetic surgeon, though, most speakers maintain second-syllable stress on cosmetic. Here stress shift isn't so common. The reason may be that in this compound there is no occurrence of two consecutive syllables with strong stress.

Many English words can be stressed in two different ways depending on the context in which they are used. English favours an alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables. As a result, many words undergo a shift in stress when they occur before another word.