Proper Stress with Adjectives

Mastering the American Accent » Proper Stress with Adjectives

Proper Stress with Adjectives

When an adjective is followed by a noun, the noun is stressed.
nice day, big house, small room, long time, blue eyes, good job, old man, first grade

When two adjectives precede a noun, stress the first adjective and the noun. The noun gets the most stress.
big blue bus, really nice day, short black hair, nice old man, cute little girl, big brown eyes

Practice Sentences

He’s got big blue eyes and short black hair.
The nice young man helped the little old lady.
The big blue bus passed the little white car.
The rich young man bought that big old house.

Word Pairs for Practice

Practice saying the word pairs while stressing the words in bold letters.

	Compound Noun	Adjective + Noun
1.	swimming pool	deep pool
2.	drug store	large store
3.	newspaper	new paper
4.	credit card	plastic card
5.	sunglasses	nice glasses
6.	postman	tall man
7.	bus driver	fast driver
8.	textbook	good book
9.	palm tree	tall tree
10.	fingernails	long nails
11.	girlfriend	great friend

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