Knowing the position of lexical stress in a polysyllabic word may considerably limit the number of lexically possible responses. Thus perceptual cues may contribute to a higher probability of correct recognition and faster recognition of words in the perception of speech of less than optimal quality. Probability correct was assessed for 30 three‐syllable Dutch words, synthesized from diphones. All words were of CVCVCVC phonemic structure, containing no consonant clusters. Ten words each had initial, medial, or final lexical stress. Stress position was either not cued at all, cued by durational cues only, cued by a conspicious pitch movement, or cued by both durational and pitch cues. Each word in each condition was responded to by five listeners. Scores correct, averaged over stress position, were 66% with no stress cues, 74% with durational cues, 81% with pitch cues, and 81% with durational and pitch cues combined. The contribution of stress cues was strongest for words with initial stress (from 54%–76%), and minimal for words with final stress (from 80%–88%). To investigate the effect of stress cues on the rapidity with which listeners tune in on the correct response, a gating‐paradigm‐type of experiment was performed on the same material. However, in this task errors against stress position were much more frequent, and positive effects of stress position were small.