Learn to speak in US native English : 1

To learn how to pronounce English clearly and naturally, it is important to master the stress patterns of spoken English as well as the pronunciation of English sounds. Before mastering the stress patterns of English, it is necessary to learn about syllables.

Syllables are the beat or rhythm of a word1. For example, the word “computer” has three syllables: com-pu-ter1. Similarly, the word “chocolate” has two syllables, “house” has one syllable, and “engineer” has three syllables1.Once you can hear the syllables in a word, you should begin to identify that some syllables are longer or stressed more than other syllables. This is because English is a stress-timed language1. 

Some syllables are longer or stressed, and some syllables are shorter or unstressed. For example, the word “hotel” is pronounced with stress on the second syllable: ho-TEL2. Similarly, the word “university” is pronounced with stress on the second syllable: u-ni-VER-si-ty2.It can take some time to get used to hearing the different rhythm that comes from a syllable that is longer, louder, and higher in pitch, especially if you’ve been speaking your native language for decades and you’re used to hearing each syllable be more or less the same length. However, it is well worth the effort2. 

When syllables are unstressed, the vowel sound is still clear, but you really don’t hear them as much. Lastly, there are reduced syllables, which are pronounced with a schwa sound2