# Prenucleus Patterns

Prenucleus patterns can be divided into two parts: 

**Heads:** Begins with the stressed syllable of the first accented word and ends iwth the syllable immediately preceding the nucleus. 

**Pre-head:** Consists of any syllables before the sressed syllable of the accented word. 

***Examples:*** 

*1) It was an unusually dark night.* 

* **Prehead:** *It was an* 
* **Head:** *unusually dark*
* **Nucleus***: night.*

*2) Where's John?* 

* **Head:** *Where's*
* **Nucleus:** John?

{% hint style="info" %}
In this case, there is no pre-head. This is because there aren't any sylalbles that appear before the head. 
{% endhint %}

*3) I could have kicked myself.* 

* **Pre-head:** *I could have* 
* **Nucleus:** *kicked*
* **Tail:** *myself.* 

Prenucleus Patterns are divided into patterns that pertain to the head and patterns that pertain to the pre-head. 

Heads:

* The Low Head: Occurs only before the Low Rise nuclear tone. All the syllables are said on the same low pitch as the beginning of the Low Rise. 
* The High Head: All syllables are said on the same high pitch. 
* The Falling Head: The first syllable of the falling head is high in pitch and any following syllables will gradually make the pitch lower. 
* The Rising Head: Its first syllable is low in pitch and any following syllbles gradually bring the pitch higher. 

Preheads: 

* The Low Pre-head: All the syllables in the low pre-head are said on the same pitch. 
* The High Pre-head: All the syllables said on the same relatively high pitch.