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§ 486. Subject pronouns have much weaker stress than the verb apart from the forms of the copula əs &c., e.g. ·hi꞉Nʹ ʃə, ‘he stretched’; ·henʹi mʹə, ‘I saw’.

§ 487. A dependent genitive or attributive adjective is more strongly stressed than the sub­stantive, e.g. mαdə ·ruə, ‘fox’; pʹαdər Nə ·bʹi꞉Nʹαχə, ‘Peter of the pence’ (the name of a beggar); rɔʃə ·wα꞉n, ‘fair Rose’; tαluw ·mαiç, ‘good land’.

The numerals however also have strong stress, e.g. ·dʹɛ ·bo̤Ntə, ‘ten pounds’; ·ku꞉gʹ ·fʹi꞉pə, ‘five pipes’. But when dʹɛəg follows the sub­stantive the latter loses its strong stress, e.g. ·ɔχ(t) bʹi꞉Nʹ ·dʹɛəg, ‘eighteen pence’. Note also ·ꬶαiçəd, ‘forty’.

§ 488. Adjectives and substantives used predicatively with əs (= is) and the negatives Nʹi꞉, Nαχ &c. have stronger stress than the subject, e.g. əs ·mo꞉r ə fʹαr ə, ‘he is a big man’; Nαχ ·bʹrʹɛ꞉ N Lα꞉ ə, ‘is it not a fine day?’

Similarly with tα꞉, e.g. tα꞉ ʃɛ ·dɔrəχə, ‘it is dark’. But tα꞉ may have the stress in an emphatic reply, e.g. ·tα꞉ ʃɛ dɔrəχə = ‘you are right, it is dark’ (locally ‘it’s jest dark, ’tis jest, jest’).

§ 489. A substantival object is more strongly stressed than the governing verb, e.g. du꞉rsə ·ɔ꞉rαn, ‘he sang a song’; kαihəm to̤·bαkə, ‘I smoke tobacco’.

A pronominal object has weak stress, e.g. ·krαkə mʹə huw, ‘I shall strike you’; tər ·dũw ə, ‘give it to me’.

§ 490. Adverbs and adverbial expressions have generally stronger stress than the verbs or ad­jectives they qualify, e.g. glαk gə ·sɔkyrʹ ə, ‘take it easy’; Nα kyrʹ kɔ ·tʹUw̥ iəd, ‘do not set them so close’.

§ 491. Prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions and the negative particles have weak stress, e.g. ‑Nə ‑Nαχ ·wαkə ‑tuw ‑mʹə, ‘did you not see me?’; ‑mαs ·mαi ‑lʹαt, ‘if you please’; gə‑dʹe꞉ ‑mər ·tα꞉ ‑tuw, ‘how are you?’

§ 492. Emphasis is denoted either by the construction with əs or by stressing a word which would otherwise not have the strong stress, e.g. ·Nʹïlʹəs əgəm ·kα wiLʹ ʃə, ‘I do not know where it is’.

Sentence-stress is marked in the first few lines of the tale An Chevalier agus na tri daill p. 241.