ii. Syllable and syllabic structure • Consonant clusters • Syllable • Word stress: nouns, verbs, and adjectives

ii. Syllable and syllabic structure
• Consonant clusters
• Syllable
• Word stress: nouns, verbs, and adjectives

Syllable and Syllabic Structure:

• A syllable is a unit of sound in a word, typically consisting of a vowel sound with or without surrounding consonants. For example, "cat" has one syllable, while "elephant" has three syllables (el-e-phant).
• Syllabic structure refers to the arrangement of consonants and vowels in a syllable. The most common structure is CVC (Consonant-Vowel-Consonant), as seen in "cat" or "dog."

Consonant Clusters:

• Consonant clusters are groups of two or more consonants that appear together in a word without a vowel separating them. For example, the word "strong" has the consonant cluster "str" at the beginning.
• Clusters can occur at the beginning (e.g., "black"), middle (e.g., "astray"), or end (e.g., "task") of words.

Syllable:

• A syllable is the basic unit of a word's pronunciation, containing a vowel sound. It may or may not have consonants around the vowel, as in "eye" (V) or "trap" (CVC).
• The number of syllables affects how a word is stressed and pronounced.

Word Stress:

• Nouns and adjectives in English usually stress the first syllable (e.g., "TIGer," "HAPpy").
• Verbs often stress the second syllable (e.g., "to beGIN," "to enJOY").
• Stress patterns can change based on the word’s part of speech or context in a sentence, especially with words that serve as both nouns and verbs (e.g., "REcord" vs. "reCORD").