1. One word has only one stress. (One word cannot have two stresses. If you hear two stresses, you hear two words. Two stresses cannot be one word. It is true that there can be a "secondary" stress in some words. But a secondary stress is much smaller than the main [primary] stress, and is only used in long words.)

2. We can only stress vowels, not consonants.

Here are some more, rather complicated, rules that can help understand where to put the stress. But do not rely on them too much, because there are many exceptions. It is better to try to "feel" the music of the language and to add the stress naturally.

1 Stress on first syllable Most 2-syllable adjectives and Most 2-syllable nouns

2 Stress on last syllable Most 2-syllable verbs

There are many two-syllable words in English whose meaning and class change with a change in stress. The word present, for example is a two-syllable word. If we stress the first syllable, it is a noun (gift) or an adjective (opposite of absent). But if we stress the second syllable, it becomes a verb (to offer). More examples: the words export, import, contract and object can all be nouns or verbs depending on whether the stress is on the first or second syllable.

3 Stress on penultimate syllable (penultimate = second from end) Words ending in -ic Words ending in -sion and -tion

4 Stress on ante-penultimate syllable (ante-penultimate = third from end) Words ending in -cy, -ty, -phy and -gy Words ending in -al

5 Compound words (words with two parts) For compound nouns, the stress is on the first part For compound adjectives, the stress is on the second part For compound verbs, the stress is on the second part.

The falling and rising of tones can be sudden or gradual and, thus, may be grouped together in various combinations (rise-fall-rise, fall-rise-fall, etc.). It is common knowledge that speakers use pitch to send various messages.

After considering the system of English segmental phonemes, the syllabic structure and the accentual structure of English words we are to focus on the topic of particular theoretical and practical interest- intonation. Intonation is a language universal. Intonation functions in various languages in a different way.

Intonation refers to the rise and fall of the pitch contour within a given tone group as distinguished from paralinguistic vocal features which refer to aspects like placement of contour in the pitch range of an individual, pitch span, loudness/softness, and features of voice quality. Intonation and paralinguistic vocal features perform at least six functions in spoken language. A controversial function frequently attributed to intonation is that of the question function, which is discussed in relation to the rising tone. The effect of intonation on commands is discussed in an attempt to define the question function and it is proven that in spite of the intonation, paralinguistic and sentential changes, the utterance will still have the force of a command. The deduction is that it is the constitutive conditions which determine the function of the utterance in a command. Applying this to questions, it is true that intonation, together with other paralinguistic features, can modify the force of an utterance to some extent, but it is the paralinguistic features which perform the most effective modification. Rising intonation is taken out of its traditional association with questions and put into association with the category of turn-taking mechanisms to emphasize that intonation has no power to change speech function. 

Emphatic stress may be used in the sentence, usually to compare, correct, or clarify things. Emphatic stress singles out the word that the speaker considers the most important, and in this case even a function word may become stressed. If necessary, sentence stress singles out the most important word in the sentence by giving it emphatic stress.

The orthoepic norm of a language is the standard pronunciation adopted by native speakers as the right and proper way of speaking. It is the pronunciation used by the most educated part of the population, the pronunciation that is recorded in pronouncing dictionaries as the best. It comprises the variants of pronunciation of vocabulary units and prosodic patterns which reflect the main tendencies in pronunciation that exist in the language. The orthoepic norm of the English language is considered to be Received Pronunciation (RP). It is mainly based on the southern region type of pronunciation, but it has developed its own features which have given it a non-regional character.

Stylistic use of intonation:

1) Informational – in press reporting, educational descriptive texts. Loudness normal or increased; pauses arerather long; rhythm is stable, properly organized; falling tones on the semantic centers, falling-rising or rising in the initial intonation groups;

2) Academic (scientific) – style of lectures (conferences, seminars). Loudness increased; pauses are rather long; rhythm is properly organized; high proportion of compound terminal tones (high fall + low rise, fall-rise, rise-fall-rise), a great number of high categorical falls;

3) Publicistic (oratorical). Phonostylistic characteristics: Loudness enormously increased; pauses are definitely long between the passages; rhythm is properly organized; tones mostly emphatic, especially emotionally underlined semantic centers, in non-final intonational groups falling-rising tones are frequent;

4) Declamatory (artistic). This is a highly emotional and expressive intonational style. Attitudinal, volitional and intellectual functions of intonation are of primary importance here and serve to appeal to the mind, will and feelings of the listener. This style can be heard on the stage, on the screen, in a TV studio, thus we see that it is always a written form of the language read aloud or recited. Phonostylistic characteristics: Loudness varied according to the size of the audience and to the emotional setting; pauses are long especially between the passages, prolonged emphatic pauses are used to underline the emphasis; rhythm is properly organized; common use of categorical low and high falls in final and initial intonation groups and on semantic centers;

5) Conversational (familiar) – this kind of English is a means for everyday communication, heard in natural conversational interaction between speakers. This style occurs mainly in informal external and internal relationships in speech of relatives, friends. This is spontaneous, colloquial, informal, everyday speech.