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 - learningenglis...

[@huonghoangthi8556]

Thank you.

[@pangkammarak160]

Thank you sir❤️❤️

[@nhungha7972]

Love!

[@ghanshyamshori6931]

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[@juandavidgarciavergara4303]

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[@aliabdalghafour4752]

Thanks so much

[@carrizov.josenivaldo184]

Good video. You did not mention, however, that vowel reduction does not occur in all words. For example, the second syllable of "shadow" is not reduced, despite the fact that the syllable is unstressed.

[@voalearningenglish]

Hi there, I believe John was suggesting that some words do not follow this pattern when he said "likely." But thanks for pointing it out to other viewers!

[@jjnW-nf1bq]

Thank you very much !