What is accent and its rules

Accent Rules

When a word has more than one syllable, one of the syllables is always a little louder than the others. The syllable with the louder stress is the accented syllable. It may seem that the placement of accents in words is often random or accidental, but these are some rules that usually work.

1. Accents are often on the first syllable. Examples: ba'/sic, pro'/gram.

2. In words that have suffixes or prefixes, the accent is usually on the main root word. Examples: box'/es, un/tie'.

3. If de-, re-, ex-, in-,po-, pro-, or a- is the first syllable in a word, it is usually not accented. Examples: de/lay', ex/plore'.

4. Two vowel letters together in the last syllable of a word often indicates an accented last syllable. Examples: com/plain', con/ceal'.

5. When there are two like consonant letters within a word, the syllable before the double consonants is usually accented. Examples: be/gin'/ner, let'/ter.

6. The accent is usually on the syllable before the suffixes -ion, ity, -ic, -ical, -ian, -ial, or -ious, and on the second syllable before the suffix -ate. Examples: af/fec/ta'/tion, dif/fer/en'/ti/ate.

7. In words of three or more syllables, one of the first two syllables is usually accented. Examples: ac'/ci/dent, de/ter'/mine.

What is syllable and its rules

Basic Syllable Rules

1. To find the number of syllables: 
---count the vowels in the word, 
---subtract any silent vowels, (like the silent "e" at the end of a word or the second vowel when two vowels a together in a syllable) ---subtract one vowel from every diphthong, (diphthongs only count as one vowel sound.) 
---the number of vowels sounds left is the same as the number of syllables. 
The number of syllables that you hear when you pronounce a word is the same as the number of vowels sounds heard. For example: 
The word "came" has 2 vowels, but the "e" is silent, leaving one vowel sound andone syllable. 
The word "outside" has 4 vowels, but the "e" is silent and the "ou" is a diphthong which counts as only one sound, so this word has only two vowels sounds and therefore, two syllables. 

2. Divide between two middle consonants. 
Split up words that have two middle consonants. For example: 
hap/pen, bas/ket, let/ter, sup/per, din/ner, and Den/nis. The only exceptions are the consonant digraphs. Never split up consonant digraphs as they really represent only one sound. The exceptions are "th", "sh", "ph", "th", "ch", and "wh". 

3. Usually divide before a single middle consonant. 
When there is only one syllable, you usually divide in front of it, as in: 
"o/pen", "i/tem", "e/vil", and "re/port". The only exceptions are those times when the first syllable has an obvious short sound, as in "cab/in". 

4. Divide before the consonant before an "-le" syllable. 
When you have a word that has the old-style spelling in which the "-le" sounds like "-el", divide before the consonant before the "-le". For example: "a/ble", "fum/ble", "rub/ble" "mum/ble" and "this/tle". The only exception to this are "ckle" words like "tick/le". 

5. Divide off any compound words, prefixes, suffixes and roots which have vowel sounds. 
Split off the parts of compound words like "sports/car" and "house/boat". Divide off prefixes such at "un/happy", "pre/paid", or "re/write". Also divide off suffixes as in the words "farm/er", "teach/er", "hope/less" and "care/ful". In the word "stop/ping", the suffix is actually "-ping" because this word follows the rule that when you add "-ing" to a word with one syllable, you double the last consonant and add the "-ing".

What is phonics and its rules

A phonics is a method of teaching people to read by correlating sounds with letters or groups of letters in an alphabetic writing system.

The vowels are "a,e,i,o, and u"; also sometimes "y" & "w". This also includes the diphthongs "oi,oy,ou,ow,au,aw, oo" and many others. 
The consonants are all the other letters which stop or limit the flow of air from the throat in speech. They are: "b,c,d,f,g,h,j,k,l,m,n,p,qu,r,s,t,v,w,x,y,z,ch,sh,th,ph,wh, ng, and gh". 

1. Sometimes the rules don't work. 
There are many exceptions in English because of the vastness of the language and the many languages from which it has borrowed. The rules do work however, in the majority of the words. 

2. Every syllable in every word must have a vowel. 
English is a "vocal" language; Every word must have a vowel. 

3. "C" followed by "e, i or y" usually has the soft sound of "s". Examples: "cyst", "central", and "city". 

4. "G" followed by "e, i or y" usually has the soft sound of "j". Example: "gem", "gym", and "gist". 

5. When 2 consonants are joined together and form one new sound, they are a consonant digraph. They count as one sound and one letter and are never separated. Examples: "ch,sh,th,ph and wh". 

6. When a syllable ends in a consonant and has only one vowel, that vowel is short. Examples: "fat, bed, fish, spot, luck". 

7. When a syllable ends in a silent "e", the silent "e" is a signal that the vowel in front of it is long. Examples: "make, gene, kite, rope, and use". 

8. When a syllable has 2 vowels together, the first vowel is usually long and the second is silent. Examples: "pain, eat, boat, res/cue, say, grow". NOTE: Diphthongs don't follow this rule; In a diphthong, the vowels blend together to create a single new sound. The diphthongs are: "oi,oy,ou,ow,au,aw, oo" and many others. 

9. When a syllable ends in any vowel and is the only vowel, that vowel is usually long. Examples: "pa/per, me, I, o/pen, u/nit, and my". 

10. When a vowel is followed by an "r" in the same syllable, that vowel is "r-controlled". It is not long nor short. "R-controlled "er,ir,and ur" often sound the same (like "er"). Examples: "term, sir, fir, fur, far, for, su/gar, or/der". 

http://steckvaughn.hmhco.com/HA/correlations/pdf/s/saxon_phonics_coding_chart.pdf

Alphabetic principle[edit]

English spelling is based on the alphabetic principle. In an alphabetic writing system, letters are used to represent speech sounds, orphonemes. For example, the word pat is spelled with three letters, p, a, and t, each representing a phoneme, respectively, /p/, /æ/, and/t/.^[5]

The spelling structures for some alphabetic languages, such as Spanish, are comparatively orthographically transparent, ororthographically shallow, because there is nearly a one-to-one correspondence between sounds and the letter patterns that represent them. English spelling is more complex, a deep orthography, partly because it attempts to represent the 40+ phonemes of the spoken language with an alphabet composed of only 26 letters (and no diacritics). As a result, two letters are often used together to represent distinct sounds, referred to as digraphs. For example t and h placed side by side to represent either /θ/ or /ð/.

English has absorbed many words from other languages throughout its history, usually without changing the spelling of those words. As a result, the written form of English includes the spelling patterns of many languages (Old English, Old Norse, Norman French,Classical Latin and Greek, as well as numerous modern languages) superimposed upon one another.^[6] These overlapping spelling patterns mean that in many cases the same sound can be spelled differently and the same spelling can represent different sounds. However, the spelling patterns usually follow certain conventions.^[7] In addition, the Great Vowel Shift, a historical linguistic process in which the quality of many vowels in English changed while the spelling remained as it was, greatly diminished the transparency of English spelling in relation to pronunciation.

The result is that English spelling patterns vary considerably in the degree to which they follow rules. For example, the letters eealmost always represent /iː/, but the sound can also be represented by the letters i and y. Similarly, the letter cluster ough represents /ʌf/ as in enough, /oʊ/ as in though, /uː/ as in through, /ɒf/ as in cough, /aʊ/ as in bough, /ɔː/ as in bought, and /ʌp/ as in hiccough, while in slough and lough, the pronunciation varies.

Although the patterns are inconsistent, when English spelling rules take into account syllable structure, phonetics, etymology and accents, there are dozens of rules that are 75% or more reliable.^[8]

A selection of phonics patterns is shown below.

Vowel phonics patterns[edit]

• Short vowels are the five single letter vowels, a, e, i, o, and u, when they produce the sounds /æ/ as in cat, /ɛ/ as in bet, /ɪ/ as insit, /ɒ/ or /ɑ/ as in hot, and /ʌ/ as in cup. The term "short vowel" is historical, and meant that at one time (in Middle English) these vowels were pronounced for a particularly short period of time; currently, it means just that they are not diphthongs like the long vowels.
• Long vowels have the same sound as the names of the vowels, such as /eɪ/ in baby, /iː/ in meter, /aɪ/ in tiny, /oʊ/ in broken, and/juː/ in humor. The way that educators use the term "long vowels" differs from the way in which linguists use this term. In classrooms, long vowel sounds are taught as having "the same sounds as the names of the letters". Teachers teach the children that a long vowel "says" its name.
• Schwa is the third sound that most of the single vowel spellings can represent. It is the indistinct sound of many a vowel in an unstressed syllable, and is represented by the linguistic symbol /ə/ or /ɨ/; it is the sound of the o in lesson, of the a in sofa. Although it is the most common vowel sound in spoken English, schwa is not always taught to elementary school students because some find it difficult to understand. However, some educators make the argument that schwa should be included in primary reading programs because of its vital importance in the correct enunciation of English words.
• Closed syllables are syllables in which a single vowel letter is followed by a consonant. In the word button, both syllables are closed syllables because they contain single vowels followed by consonants. Therefore, the letter u represents the short sound /ʌ/. (The o in the second syllable makes the /ə/ sound because it is an unstressed syllable.)
• Open syllables are syllables in which a vowel appears at the end of the syllable. The vowel will say its long sound. In the wordbasin, ba is an open syllable and therefore says /beɪ/.
• Diphthongs are linguistic elements that fuse two adjacent vowel sounds. English has four common diphthongs. The commonly recognized diphthongs are /aʊ/ as in cow and /ɔɪ/ as in boil. Three of the long vowels are also technically diphthongs, /aɪ/ (ah-EE or "I"), /oʊ/, and /juː/, which partly accounts for the reason they are considered "long".
• Vowel digraphs are those spelling patterns wherein two letters are used to represent a vowel sound. The ai in sail is a vowel digraph. Because the first letter in a vowel digraph sometimes says its long vowel sound, as in sail, some phonics programs once taught that "when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking." This convention has been almost universally discarded, owing to the many non-examples. The au spelling of the /ɔː/ sound and the oo spelling of the /uː/ and /ʊ/ sounds do not follow this pattern.
• Vowel-consonant-E spellings are those wherein a single vowel letter, followed by a consonant and the letter e makes the long vowel sound. The tendency is often referred to as the "Silent-e Rule", with examples such as bake, theme, hike, cone, and cute. (The ee spelling, as in meet is sometimes, but inconsistently, considered part of this pattern.)
• R-controlled syllables include those wherein a vowel followed by an r has a different sound from its regular pattern. For example, a word like car should have the pattern of a "closed syllable" because it has one vowel and ends in a consonant. However, the a incar does not have its regular "short" sound (/æ/ as in cat) because it is controlled by the r. The r changes the sound of the vowel that precedes it. Other examples include: park, horn, her, bird, and burn.
• The Consonant-le syllable is a final syllable, located at the end of the base/root word. It contains a consonant, followed by the letters le. The e is silent and is present because it was pronounced in earlier English and the spelling is historical.

Consonant phonics patterns[edit]

• Consonant digraphs are those spellings wherein two letters are used to represent a single consonant phoneme. The most common consonant^{[dubious – discuss][where?]} digraphs are ch for /tʃ/, ng for /ŋ/, ph for /f/, sh for /ʃ/, th for /θ/ and /ð/. Letter combinations like wr for /r/ and kn for /n/ are technically also consonant digraphs, although they are so rare that they are sometimes considered patterns with "silent letters".
• Short vowel+consonant patterns involve the spelling of the sounds /k/ as in peek, /dʒ/ as in stage, and /tʃ/ as in speech. These sounds each have two possible spellings at the end of a word, ck and k for /k/, dge and ge for /dʒ/, and tch and ch for /tʃ/. The spelling is determined by the type of vowel that precedes the sound. If a short vowel precedes the sound, the former spelling is used, as in pick, judge, and match. If a short vowel does not precede the sound, the latter spelling is used, as in took, barge, andlaunch.

These patterns are just a few examples out of dozens that can be used to help children unpack the challenging English alphabetic code. While complex, English spelling does retain order and reason.

Phonetic symbols of English

Phonetic symbols for English

This is the standard set of phonemic symbols for English (RP and similar accents).

Consonants p pen, copy, happen b back, baby, job t tea, tight, button d day, ladder, odd k key, clock, school g get, giggle, ghost tʃ church, match, nature dʒ judge, age, soldier f fat, coffee, rough, photo v view, heavy, move θ thing, author, path ð this, other, smooth s soon, cease, sister z zero, music, roses, buzz ʃ ship, sure, national ʒ pleasure, vision h hot, whole, ahead m more, hammer, sum n nice, know, funny, sun ŋ ring, anger, thanks, sung l light, valley, feel r right, wrong, sorry, arrange j yet, use, beauty, few w wet, one, when, queen ʔ (glottal stop) department, football

Vowels ɪ kit, bid, hymn, minute e dress, bed, head, many æ trap, bad ɒ lot, odd, wash ʌ strut, mud, love, blood ʊ foot, good, put iː fleece, sea, machine eɪ face, day, break aɪ price, high, try ɔɪ choice, boy uː goose, two, blue, group əʊ goat, show, no aʊ mouth, now ɪə near, here, weary eə square. fair, various ɑː start, father ɔː thought, law, north, war ʊə poor, jury, cure ɜː nurse, stir, learn, refer ə about, common, standard i happy, radiate. glorious u thank you, influence, situation n̩ suddenly, cotton l̩ middle, metal ˈ (stress mark)

Strategies to improve spelling

Stick to either British or American English

5 Rules you should remember about spellings

1. Some spellings can be remembered by learning a rule, (e.g. “i” before
 “e” except after “c”, etc.)
2. Some spelling can be learned phonetically. If you pronounce the word
 correctly, you can often spell it correctly..
3. Some spelling can be learned by breaking the word into syllables or
 smaller sections.
4 Some words can be learned by using “tricks” that are appropriate to
your learning style.
5. Some spelling words must, unfortunately, be memorized.