What is secondary stress?

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Multiple Choice

What is secondary stress?

Secondary stress is a syllable that has some prominence, more than an unstressed (often reduced to a schwa) vowel, but less than the primary stressed syllable. In longer words, you can have multiple stressed syllables: one carries the main emphasis (primary stress), and another carries a weaker but noticeable emphasis (secondary stress). This helps give the word its rhythm and keeps it intelligible in speech. For example, in information you can hear a lighter emphasis on the first syllable and a stronger emphasis on the third, with the middle and final vowels not emphasized as much. So secondary stress is the intermediate level of prominence—not the strongest, not unstressed.

Secondary stress is a syllable that has some prominence, more than an unstressed (often reduced to a schwa) vowel, but less than the primary stressed syllable. In longer words, you can have multiple stressed syllables: one carries the main emphasis (primary stress), and another carries a weaker but noticeable emphasis (secondary stress). This helps give the word its rhythm and keeps it intelligible in speech. For example, in information you can hear a lighter emphasis on the first syllable and a stronger emphasis on the third, with the middle and final vowels not emphasized as much. So secondary stress is the intermediate level of prominence—not the strongest, not unstressed.

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