# Stress for Construct Nouns



## sawyeric1

I know that there are preferences for which syllable in a word you stress, but for construct nouns that are made up of two words, which word should be stressed - the first or the second?

So for example, is "בית ספר" "BET sefer", "bet SEFER", or either? 

Thanks


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## shalom00

I don't think the question makes sense. Each word is stressed equally. Of course, in a sentence, you may emphasize certain words depending on what meaning you want to convey. In "I go to school," emphasizing "I" conveys a different meaning than emphasizing "school".


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## sawyeric1

I don't see why you have to say that it doesn't make sense. In English we always stress the first word in a compound noun. Like, "peanut butter" is always pronounced "PEANUT butter" and never "peanut BUTTER". So it seems logical to me to think that Hebrew might also prefer stressing one word in nouns made up of two.


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## Drink

In the Bible, sometimes the words are connected with a maqaf (i.e. a hyphen) and only the last one has a primary stress, and sometimes they are not connected and both have their own primary stress. In Modern Hebrew I think the situation is similar but less explicit. Generally the last word is stressed, but sometimes if there are multiple preceding words in the construct or if the words are long, they will have a secondary stress or even their own primary stress. But it's not a hard rule.


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## aavichai

in a grammatical matter the main stress is with the second word
the first word have a secondary stress

as for the pronauciation
if we take for example two words
כלב הבית - the house dog
so you still pronounce the Kelev as kElev
the stress in that word is not disappear

like you say in English the example you brough
"peanut butter"
the butter is also pronounced as it is
bUtter


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## sawyeric1

Is תת-קרקעי "underground" most commonly pronounced as "TAT-karka'i" or "tat-karka'I"?


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## shalom00

"TAT-karka'i"


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## aavichai

the stress in the Karka'i shoud be at the end (in the /'i/


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## shalom00

Yes, but TAT is emphasized more than karka'i.


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## ystab

Grammatically speaking, the stress is always on the second word of the construct state (the Somekh). That's why the Niqqud on words that come first changes slightly.
For example:
מִגְ*דָּ*ל (a tower) and מִגְ*דַּ*ל קְלָפִים (a house of cards, lit. a tower of cards)
*בָּ*נִים (sons) and *בְּ*נֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל (sons of Israel).


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