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It's said that the letter ё is always stressed. However, while browsing declension charts for numerals, if I'm not mistaken, I noticed the following:

Трёхсо́т

With a stress mark on the syllable -сот.

So, what does this mean?

  1. The stress is on -сот rather than on трёх-
  2. Both stresses are possible
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  • 2
    Both, as I understand. There is also word четырёхколёсный exists.
    – Dmitriy
    Commented Mar 12, 2018 at 13:29
  • 7
    In compound words containing more than one root, Russian tends to stress the last root, as opposed to English which tends to stress the first one. So if the first root of a compound noun is monosyllabic and has ё in it, then this ё is not stressed, as in your example. But if the first root is polysyllabic and has ё, like in the example by @Dmitry , then that ё can have a secondary stress, but also can well have no stress whatsoever.
    – Yellow Sky
    Commented Mar 12, 2018 at 13:37
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    If "ё" were unstressed, it would be reducted and the word would be pronounced like [трихсот] or similar.
    – Abakan
    Commented Mar 12, 2018 at 14:19
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    @YellowSky - you should convert your comment to answer, to gain some well-deserved karma.
    – Peter M. - stands for Monica
    Commented Mar 12, 2018 at 14:42
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    @Joker_vD I doubt I have ever heard [трихсот].
    – Abakan
    Commented Mar 12, 2018 at 15:01

3 Answers 3

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There are several words with unstressed ё:

  • (Трёх-/Четырёх-) (-мéрный/-этáжный/-я́русный/-уго́льный/-колёсный/...) - two stresses: ё and other syllable.
  • (Трёхсо́т-/Четырёхсо́т-) (-мéрный/-этáжный/-я́русный/-уго́льный/-колёсный/...) - two stresses, ё unstressed.
  • Сёгýн - unstressed ё.
  • Щёлочноземéльный - two stresses.
  • Сёрфинги́ст, Кёрлинги́ст - unstressed ё.
  • Трёхрублёвка - two stresses.

Also, there's the geographic name Бёрёлёх. I don't know what syllable is stressed, but two of the three are definitely unstressed.

As for the word трёхсо́т, the stressed syllable is definitely cо́т.

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  • How is unstressed ё pronounced?
    – Chill2Macht
    Commented Mar 16, 2018 at 13:48
  • 4
    @Chill2Macht Just like stressed ё [йо], but without a stress. The same difference as between any other stressed and unstressed vowels. I doubt I can come up with anything else.
    – Dmitry ♦
    Commented Mar 16, 2018 at 14:58
  • That helps, thank you. Sometimes the unstressed versions sound like different vowels, hence my confusion.
    – Chill2Macht
    Commented Mar 16, 2018 at 21:29
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Short answer: the stress is on -сот; you may put a secondary stress on трёх-

This is a compound word. In compound words, generally the second part is stressed, but first part may have a secondary stress.

This rule seems to take over from the always-stress-ё rule.

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There are names transcribed with unstressed ё as well. For example, the surname of mathematician Paul Erdős is spelled as Э́рдёш.

Regarding трёхсот, you may put a secondary stress on the first syllable indeed, but I don't hear any difference between this word and the word двухсот, where there's no secondary stress to be heard, so that's not necessarily true.

What's more, you can construct longer words where secondary stress on ё can hardly apply: for example, трёхсо́тметро́вый.

You may want to listen to the pronunciation of these words on forvo:

трёхсотметровую

трёхсот

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