The stress pattern which allegedly distinguishes compound nouns from phrases in English. Thus the compound blackbird has the stress pattern ˈblækbɜːd while the phrase black bird has the pattern ˌblæk ˈbɜːd. There are, however, many exceptional cases, where compounds have the pattern which is supposedly typical of phrases. An example is strawberry tart ˌstrɔːbri ˈtɑːt.

See also phrasal stress.