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Question

Difficulty: MediumWord and Syllable Stress

Match each four-syllable English word on the left with its correct primary stress placement pattern on the right.

  • efficacyFirst syllable stressed (O - o - o - o)
  • participateSecond syllable stressed (o - O - o - o)
  • scientificThird syllable stressed (o - o - O - o)
  • misunderstandFourth syllable stressed (o - o - o - O)

Answer

efficacy matches First syllable stressed (EF-fi-ca-cy); participate matches Second syllable stressed (par-TIC-i-pate); scientific matches Third syllable stressed (sci-en-TIF-ic); misunderstand matches Fourth syllable stressed (mis-un-der-STAND).
Each word is correctly matched to its primary stressed syllable: 'efficacy' has primary stress on the first syllable (EF-fi-ca-cy), 'participate' on the second syllable (par-TIC-i-pate), 'scientific' on the third syllable due to the '-ic' suffix rule (sci-en-TIF-ic), and 'misunderstand' on the fourth syllable (mis-un-der-STAND).

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Determine the syllabification and primary stress placement of each word.
efficacy = EF-fi-ca-cy (1st syllable); participate = par-TIC-i-pate (2nd syllable); scientific = sci-en-TIF-ic (3rd syllable); misunderstand = mis-un-der-STAND (4th syllable).
English stress rules govern placement based on word origin, prefixes, and suffix stress assignment rules (e.g., the '-ic' suffix places stress on the preceding syllable).
2
Match each word to its corresponding stress pattern schema.
efficacy -> First syllable stressed; participate -> Second syllable stressed; scientific -> Third syllable stressed; misunderstand -> Fourth syllable stressed.
Aligning the capitalized primary stressed syllable with the numerical position yields the correct pair for each word.

Key Concept

Polysyllabic Word Stress Placement Rules
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Topics

Word and Syllable Stress

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