Stress refers to the relative loudness of syllables within words and sentences. There are three types of stress: major stress, minor stress, and schwa. Rhythm deals with the length, number of stressed words, pauses, and intonation in speech. Two-syllable words usually have major stress on the first syllable if a noun and the second if a verb. Compound words have major stress on the first word and minor on the second. Function words are stressed when spoken alone but unstressed in connected speech. Suffixes are stressed on the same syllable as the base word. Contractions involve the loss of the initial consonant of an auxiliary verb.