there is no way to know in advance where the secondary stress will be- you have to learn every word in particular. A dictionary might help.

There are three environments where you can find a secondary stress : 1. Constructions with separable prefixes, such as re-form (as opposed to reform, without secondary stress on the first syllable). Those constructions are generally found with a secondary stress on the separable prefix, even if this generates a succession of two stresses. 2. When the word is derived (to which there are one or more suffixes), the secondary stress will generally be on a syllable bearing stress in the word from which it is derived (primary or secondary). For example : amBAssador --> amBAssaDOrial. However, when this generates a succession of two stresses, the secondary stress is moved to the first syllable, like : dePARtment --> DEpartMENtal. 3. There is a general "rythmical" constraint in English that states that no word may start with two unstressed syllables. So, if a word is not derived, it will generally receive a secondary stress on its first syllable. Like : KANgaROO. Hope it helps :)

Basically, a word with several syllables will have the main stress on one syllable, and a not-as-heavy stress on the syllable after the next. That is, a stressed syllable in a word will normally be followed or surrounded by weak syllables. Eg: *AL*-li-GA-tor, *SYL*-la-BLE, *AF*-ter-MATH, per-*FUNC*-to-RY My advice is, just listen for it first and imitate that. Trying to work it out technically may lead to mistakes in pronunciation.