Primary stress (strongest stress):
- in·tel·li·gence
- con·tri·bu·tion
- re·pre·sen·ta·tive
Secondary stress (medium stress):
- in·tel·li·gence (secondary stress on "tel")
- con·tri·bu·tion (secondary stress on "tri")
- re·pre·sen·ta·tive (secondary stress on "sen")
Tertiary stress (weakest stress):
- in·tel·li·gence (tertiary stress on "gence")
- con·tri·bu·tion (tertiary stress on "tion")
- re·pre·sen·ta·tive (tertiary stress on "tive")
Important points:
* Not all words have tertiary stress. Many words only have primary and secondary stress.
* Tertiary stress is often subtle. It might be difficult to hear or feel, especially in rapid speech.
* The position of tertiary stress can vary. It might fall on the last syllable, the penultimate syllable, or even earlier depending on the word's structure.
Examples of words with a clear tertiary stress pattern:
* re·com·men·da·tion
* in·ter·pre·ta·tion
* de·ter·mi·na·tion
Finding words with tertiary stress:
While dictionaries don't typically mark tertiary stress explicitly, you can often deduce its presence by analyzing the word's structure and comparing it to similar words. For example, if a word ends in "-tion" or "-ation," it's likely to have tertiary stress on the "tion" or "ation" syllable.