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Lesson Transcript

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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