 Words that contain three or more syllables have stresses accorded to their syllables by the quality and location of the different vowels in the words.In words of more than two syllables, the stress is on the penultimate syllable when the syllable contains a long vowel or diphthong, otherwise the stress is on the antepenultimate syllable.Whether a vowel is long or short in a classical Latin word is a function of the vowel and its relationship to the consonants that precede or follow it.