How to Pronounce: Word Stress – Numbers and Abbreviations

Hello! I’m John Russell. What do MBA’s and PhD’s have in common? Or what about the USA and the UAE? Or 3:15 and 5:45? Many ideas might come to your mind. But one that I would like to explore today has a connection with stress – saying something louder or in a higher pitch. MBA, PhD, USA, and UAE are all abbreviations – short forms of many words. What do abbreviations have to do with pronunciation, you ask? In general, Americans stress the ends of abbreviations. So, for example, college degrees such as MBA or PhD have stress at the end. MBA PhD The same idea holds true for country names. The end of the abbreviation gets stressed. USA UAE American airports almost always have three-letter abbreviations. So, you will often hear about LAX or JFK Remember I asked you about times at the beginning of this video? [flash back to this part] Or 3:15 and 5:45? Americans also often stress the ends of times. So, that is why the fifteen in three fifteen and the forty five in five forty five sound louder. 3:15 5:45 That’s all for today! Keep up the good work! Originally published at - https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a...