VOA慢速英语2021--Verbs, Nouns, and Pronunciation

 

Consider the words building, window, and garden. What do all of them have in common?

Now consider the words produce, succeed, and employ. These, too, have something in common.

You will learn the answers to these questions in today's report.

In this Everyday Grammar, we will explore the link between grammar and pronunciation. You will learn about how Americans pronounce nouns² and verbs that have two syllables⁴.

Let's start with a few important ideas and terms.

Verbs, nouns, syllables

A noun¹ is the name of something - a person, place, thing, or idea. Building, window, and garden are three examples.

A verb is a word that expresses an action or state of being. Common verbs include like, want, be, or think. You heard three other verbs at the beginning of the report: produce, succeed, and employ.

The final terms you should know about are syllable³ and stress.

A syllable is any one of the parts into which a word is divided when it is spoken. A syllable generally has a vowel⁵ or a vowel and one or more consonant⁶ sounds.

Stress means saying something louder or in a higher pitch.

Let's consider some examples that include these ideas.

Consider the noun ball. It has one syllable.

Consider the noun computer. It has three syllables.

/kəmˈpjuːtɚ/

In longer words, Americans generally stress one syllable more than other syllables. This is part of what makes American English sound like it does. In our example about the word computer, the stress is on the middle part of the word – pu.

/kəmˈpjuːtɚ/

Now, you might be asking yourself about the connection between syllables, verbs, and nouns.

The answer is this: Americans generally stress two-syllable verbs and nouns in regular ways. Syllable stress is important for showing the difference in meaning.

For the purposes of today's report, we will explore nouns and verbs with two syllables. Longer words are a bit more complicated⁷.

Consider these two words: produce and produce.

The first word, produce, is a noun. It means food, such as fruits or vegetables. So, a person might say:

I love that store! It has such lovely produce.

Note that in the noun produce, the stress is on the first syllable of the word.

Now let's consider produce, the verb. It means to make something.

A person might say:

That company produces 1,000 cars every year.

Note that in the verb produce, the stress is on the second syllable of the word.

Exploring stress in verbs and nouns

The general idea is that in words with two syllables, nouns have stress on the first syllable and verbs have stress on the second syllable.

We started this report with a question:

Consider the words building, window, and garden. What do all of them have in common?

The answer is that these words are all nouns that have two syllables. They also have stress on the first syllable.

Now consider the words produce, succeed, and employ. These are all verbs with two syllables. They all have stress on the second syllable.

Closing thoughts

In today's report, we explored one of the points of connection between grammar and pronunciation. The next time you want to pronounce an unusual English word, ask yourself if it is a noun or verb. If you can tell if the word is a noun or verb, then you have a better chance at guessing the correct syllable stress.

Words in This Story

pronunciation – n. the act of making the sound of (a word or letter) with your voice

syllable – n. any one of the parts into which a word is naturally divided when it is pronounced

1 noun   

n.名词

参考例句：

• What kind of noun is this?这是哪类名词？
• This word is a collective noun.这个词是个集体名词。

2 nouns   

n.名词；名词( noun的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns. 法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Nouns join to form compounds. 名词和名词结合构成复合词。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 syllable   

n.音节；vt.分音节

参考例句：

• You put too much emphasis on the last syllable.你把最后一个音节读得太重。
• The stress on the last syllable is light.最后一个音节是轻音节。

4 syllables   

n.音节( syllable的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a word with two syllables 双音节单词
• 'No. But I'll swear it was a name of two syllables.' “想不起。不过我可以发誓，它有两个音节。” 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

5 vowel   

n.元音；元音字母

参考例句：

• A long vowel is a long sound as in the word"shoe ".长元音即如“shoe” 一词中的长音。
• The vowel in words like 'my' and 'thigh' is not very difficult.单词my和thigh中的元音并不难发。

6 consonant   

n.辅音；adj.[音]符合的

参考例句：

• The quality of this suit isn't quite consonant with its price.这套衣服的质量和价钱不相称。
• These are common consonant clusters at the beginning of words.这些单词的开头有相同辅音组合。

7 complicated   

adj.错综复杂的，麻烦的，结构复杂的

参考例句：

• The poem is so complicated that I cannot make out its meaning.这首诗太复杂，我理解不了它的意思。
• This is the most complicated case I have ever handled.这是我所处理过的最为复杂的案子。