How to Pronounce: Syllable Stress – General overview

Hello! I’m John Russell. If you are like me, then you really like breakfast – eating it and talking about it. But have you ever wondered why Americans say breakfast and NOT break... fast? After all, we say a car is fast, or we say we are fasting. But the f-a-s-t in breakfast has a different vowel sound. Fast Breakfast Why is that? The answer comes down to syllables and stress. Syllables are small parts of speech that has a vowel and a consonant sound or sounds. The flow of these syllables is part of what makes the special rhythm of American English. Syllables can be stressed or unstressed. In a stressed syllable, the vowel becomes louder, longer, or higher in pitch. In an unstressed syllable, the vowel becomes a short vowel called the “schwa” and is pronounced as / ə/ So, when you hear an American say the word fast – a one syllable word - they will likely use the full vowel sound / æ/ Fast But if you hear an American say the word breakfast – a word with more than one syllable – they will likely stress the first part of the word. The second part is unstressed and has the reduced vowel sound - the “schwa” Breakfast That’s all for today! Keep up the good work! Originally published at - https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a...