Rules for accentual patterns:

Accent or stress is the force of voice with which a syllable

is pronounced.
Accent denotes the pitch of voice and marks out syllable
or syllables that receive greater stress than the rest in a
word.
Accent generally falls on the root syllable and not on the
suffix or prefix and is known by the mark(`) placed either
on vowel sound of the stressed syllable or at the stressed
end of it.
Accented syllable are also called heavy or stressed, and
the unaccented are known as light or unstressed.
Placing of accent on right syllable is very important in
English.
A great deal of correct pronunciation of words of English
language depends upon the placing of right accent.
Most Indian speakers of English have defective accents.
That is why their English is not intelligible to foreign
speakers.
There are few rules of accent in English as there are few
rules of grammer.
Accents of words should be learnt with the help of a
pronouncing dictionary or by constantly listening to the
native speakers of English.
However, the broad guidelines are given here.
(1) All parts of speech in a line are not equally
important in value.
(2) Nouns, verbs, demonstrative and interrogative
pronouns, adjectives and adverbs being of greater
value than other parts of speech, generally receive
accents except for special reasons.
(3) Words of two or three syllables have, ordinarily,
only one accent (e.g. `ac-ci-dent).
(4) Longer words, however, often contain two
accented syllables (e.g.
(5) Ex-,am-i-`na-tion).
(6) Here the first stress receives lesser prominence
than the second.
(7) Hence the first is called the secondary stress and
the second which receives more prominence, is
called the primary stress.
(3) Nouns of two syllables have generally the first
syllable accented :`ho-nour, `ma-rri(a) ge, ri-ver (
exceptions are a-` dieu, a-`bode).
(4) Adjectives in all degrees of comparison have the
accent on the first syllable:`gen-tle, `gen-tler, `g`en-tlest.
(5) When a word of two syllables is used as both noun
and adjectives, it is accented on the first syllable when a
noun and on second when an adjective;
`Au-gust(an)_ the month of August
Au-`gust ( adj)_an August personality
Exception:`patient( noun & adj.
Both)
(6) When a word of two syllables is used as both adjective
and verb, it is accented on the first syllable when used an
adjective and on the second, when used a verb.
`Ab-sent( adj)_ an absent girl.
Ab-`sent( v)_ she absented herself from the class.
`Per-fect( adj)_a perfect scheme.
Per-`fect( v)_ the scheme was perfected by experts.
Exception:_ Ex_`act( adj & verb)
(8) When a word of two syllables is used as both noun
and verb, it is accented on the first syllable when a
noun, and on the second when a verb:
Accent( n)_ the accents of Indians speaking English are
defective.
Ac-`cent( v)_ accent the following words.
`Con-duct( n)_ his conduct is good
Con-`duct( v)_ the case was well conducted.
Exception_ sup-`port( nouns and verb).
(8) Words with weak prefixes are accented on the root,
e.g. a`cross, a`head, a`lone, become, be`neath.
(9) The inflexional sufifixes -es-ing-ed, and derivational
suffixes ,-age, -ance, -en,-ess,-fy –hood,-ice,-ice,-ish,-
ive,-less,-ly,-ment,-ness,-or,-ship,-ter,-ure,-ice,y and zen
do not affect the accent,e.g. catch,`catches; begin
,be`ginning; ap`pear, ap`peared; `break, `b`reakage;
ap`pear, ap`pearance;wide, `widen`;`bright`, brighter;
`god,`goddess; `beauty, `beautiful; `class,
`classify,`boy,boyhood;`coward,`cowardice;,`fool,`foolish
; `help,`helpless, `enclose,`enclosure; `mood,`moody;
`city,`citizen.
(10) Words ending in –ion have the primary accent on the
penultimate syllable e.g. `appli`cation ,conver`sation,
de`termination,
ex`amination,i`magi`nation,`qualifi`cation.
(11) Words ending –ic, ical, icality, ious,-ial, ially, have
the primary accent on the syllable preceding the suffix,
e.g. apolo`getic, electrical, me`chanically,
arti`ficial,in`dustrious, vic`torious.
(12) Words ending in –ity have primary accent on the
ante-penultimate syllable, the third syllable from the end
,e.g. possi`bility.
(13) The suffixes –al and –ally affect the accentual
pattern, e.g,`accident,acci-dental; `origin ; o`riginal.
(14) In words of more than two syllables ending in –ate ,
the tonic`accent is placed on two syllables before the
suffix, i.e., on the third syllable from the end ,e.g.,
`culti,vate, `edu-cate.
(15) Words ending in –aire,-eer,-esce, escence,-esque,-
ique,-it is take the primary accent on their first syllable,
e.g. pioneer , millio`naire, fund`mental,
exis`tential,phy`sique,neu`ritis.