Learn about stress in the Arabic language
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| Hi everyone. |
| Welcome to The Ultimate Arabic Pronunciation Guide. |
| In this lesson, you'll learn about Arabic stress. |
| But what exactly *is* stress? |
| Stress, refers to the prominence or relative emphasis placed on certain syllables in a word. |
| When you say the word "unbelievable" for example, do you notice how the "lie" is accentuated? |
| That's because it's pronounced longer and louder than any other syllable in the word, and this is what we refer to as stress. |
| Stress is essential for proper pronunciation and communication because it affects the meaning of a word or sentence. |
| Consider some examples in English. |
| If you were to say DEsert (noun) when you meant deSERT (verb), |
| or PROject (noun) when you meant proJECT (verb), |
| or how about PREsent (noun) when you *actually* meant preSENT (verb), |
| do you see how confusing it could be? |
| Stress is just as important in Arabic as it is in English. Unlike English however, there are much clearer stress rules in Arabic. |
| Learning the stress rules in Arabic is very simple. There are only two main principles that you have to follow: |
| Principle number 1: Stress the long syllable that is closest to the end of the word. |
| Principle number 2: If there are no long syllables, stress the third syllable from the end. |
| A long syllable is a syllable that contains a long vowel or two consecutive vowels, *or* if it has a vowel and ends with a consonant. |
| OK. Now let's take a look at the first principle in action in a few Arabic words. Repeat them after (host name). |
| کتاب |
| کتاب |
| سلام |
| سلام |
| حُدود |
| حدود |
| مراكز |
| مراكز |
| مَفاتيح |
| مَفاتيح |
| مَسئولين |
| مَسئولين |
| See how the long syllable that is closest to the end of each word was stressed? That's the first principle in action! |
| OK. Now let's take a look at the second principle: If there are no long syllables, stress the third to last syllable. Repeat after (host name). |
| كَتَبَ |
| كَتَبَ |
| مَدرسة |
| مدرسة |
| بيت |
| بيت |
| منزل |
| منزل |
| اِستَنبَط |
| اِستَنبَط |
| اقتَرَب |
| اقتَرَب |
| The third to last syllable for words that are three syllables or less, is also the first syllable. But notice how the stress never goes *past* the third to last syllable in words that have four or more syllables. |
| Now you know the secret to speaking Arabic with the correct stress. |
| In the next lesson, we'll learn about Emphasis Spreading. |
| Which principle was easier for you to learn? Share it in the comments. |
| See you in the next Ultimate Arabic Pronunciation Guide lesson! |
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