Putting the accent on a word when speaking

Question

To put the accent on a word when I am speaking, in Italian I would raise the tone on the accented vowel; raising the tone of accented vowels is normally done when reading an Italian word, but it is even more raised when putting the accent.

Sono nervóso. I am nervous.

As alternative, I could say the word syllable by syllable.

Sono ner vo so.

What is the way to put the accent on a word, in English?

I was reading a book about General American, and if I understood that, that is done making a vowel sound longer. Is that the normally way done in American English, or is that what I should do if I want to speak General American?

If that is the correct way, on what vowel should I put the accent? For acronyms, the rule seems to be on the last one, but are there rules for other words as well?

Answer 1

Some say word stress in English is variable, which means it does not always obey to rules. There are lots of rules about stressed syllables and lots of exceptions as well. You can learn the rules but until you are proficient enough you'd better check in a dictionary (most will give the IPA ) and on the internet you can listen to the word in most online dictionaries. You will find lots of online courses to learn about English pronunciation and they'll all have a section on word stress. Examples: Englishclub, Linguapress, American English Pronuncian, the list could be very long, don't forget to check youtube as well.

In English stressing a syllable is not a question of making the vowels sounds sound longer, because in English the difference between long and short vowel sounds is a criteria to make oneself understood. It is more a combination of pitch and loudness.
There can be several stressed syllables in one word, one being the "primary" stress (the syllable that will be said with more loudness, so to speak), the other(s) is/are called "secondary". In the IPA the primary stress symbol is /ˈ/ and the secondary stress symbol is /ˌ/, the symbol in both cases is placed before the stressed syllabe.

I hope you are aware that in English you don't only have word stress, but sentence stress as well. And combination of word stress and sentence stress is essential to make yourself understood in English.