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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.
Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example: AH0 TH IY1 N AH0 = a-THEE-na (Athena)
The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.
Quick Definition
A two-syllable metrical foot with a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one (– ◡), common in trochaic verse.
Explore this topic in depth (2)
How to Scan a Poem
— Scansion is the practice of listening closely to a poem’s rhythm and marking its pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. It is not a way of forcing every line into a formula, but a method for hearing how regularity, variation and natural speech work together.
Metre and Rhythm
— Metre gives poetry an underlying pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables; rhythm is the living sound that results when a person reads it. Learn to hear the beat before naming it, and to notice how poets use regularity and variation to make language move.
Detailed Definition
A trochee is a metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one (DUM-da), as in “po-et” or “gar-den”; trochaic meter creates a falling, emphatic rhythm often associated with incantation, urgency, or solemnity, famously used in Blake’s “The Tyger” and Longfellow’s “The Song of Hiawatha.”
Example
Example in poetry:
Trochee (– u) appears in Shakespeare’s “Double, double toil and trouble”; modern example: Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” uses trochaic rhythm for incantation; trochee creates emphatic, falling rhythm; it’s common in spells and children’s verse; this foot suits urgency or doom; it contrasts with iambic rise.
Additional Notes
Trochee: A metrical foot with a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one (DUM-da); common in poems with strong openings (e.g., “Tyger! Tyger!”); creates urgency or intensity.