In pronouncing words of more than one syllable we always lay a little
greater stress upon one syllable of the word; that is, that syllable
receives the emphasis of the voice so as to make it more prominent than
the other syllables. This is called accent, and the syllable which
receives the special stress is called the accented syllable.
+Accent is the stress of the voice upon one syllable of the word.+
You will notice when you look up the pronunciation of words in your
dictionary that a little mark called the accent mark is placed after the
accented syllable, as for example: di-vide'.
Many words differ in meaning according to which syllable receives the
accent. Our spelling lesson for this week contains a number of these
words.
These words, when accented on the first syllable, are nouns; when
accented on the second syllable, they are verbs.
+Monday+
Con' tract Con tract'
Pro' test Pro test'
Rec' ord Re cord'
Im' port Im port'
De' tail De tail'
+Tuesday+
Con' vert Con vert'
Con' flict Con flict'
Prog' ress Pro gress'
Im' press Im press'
Ref' use Re fuse'
+Wednesday+
Con' test Con test'
Con' duct Con duct'
Proj' ect Pro ject'
Des' ert De sert'
Ex' tract Ex tract'
+Thursday+
Con' trast Con trast'
Con' sort Con sort'
Reb' el Re bel'
Con' script Con script'
Pres' ent Pre sent'
+Friday+
Com' pound Com pound'
Re' tail Re tail'
Com' press Com press'
Im' print Im print'
Com' bine Com bine'
+Saturday+
Con' fine Con fine'
Sus' pect Sus pect'
Com' mune Com mune'
Ex' port Ex port'
In' crease In crease'