Word Stress & Sentence Stress

Huang Wanmei

Review of Vowels
Three factors for the description of English vowels I. The height of the body of the tongue highest point of tongue (vertical axis); II. The front-back position of the tongue highest point of tongue (horizontal axis); III. The degree of lip rounding - lip posture

The height of the body of the tongue

The front-back position of the tongue

Description of the vowels

Front & Central Vowels /:/ / / /e/ // /:/ // high, front, unrounded vowel lower high, front, unrounded vowel mid, front, unrounded vowel low, front, unrounded vowel mid, central, unrounded vowel mid, central, unrounded vowel

 Back Vowels
/:/ // /:/ /u/ /u:/ / / low, back, unrounded vowel low, back, rounded vowel mid-low, back, rounded vowel lower high, back, rounded vowel high, back, rounded vowel lower mid, back, unrounded vowel

Unit 8: Word Stress

English is a stress timed language
The English language is often referred to as stress-timed. Stress in a spoken sentence occurs at regular intervals and the time to say something depends on the number of stressed syllables rather than the number of syllables itself.
1234 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 1 and a 2 and a 3 and a 4 1 and then a 2 and then a 3 and then a 4

Word Stress
A word stress means a prominent syllable
word tea.cher beau.ti.ful pattern . ..

un.der.stand
con.ti.nue

..
..

How to pronounce word stress?

When a syllable is stressed, it is pronounced longer in duration higher in pitch louder in volume

How do you say teacher?

Longer
Higher Louder All three combined

teeeeeeeeeeee cher tea cher

TEA cher
TEEEEEEEEEEE cher

Word Stress Rule

Word type Where is the stress? Nouns Two syllables Verbs on the last syllable on the first syllable Examples center object flower release admit arrange

Nouns (N + N) (Adj. + N) Compound Adjectives (Adj. + P.P.) Verbs (prep. + verb)

on the first part

desktop pencil case bookshelf greenhouse

well-meant hard-headed old-fashioned understand overlook outperform

on the last part (the verb part)

Word type

Where is the stress?

Examples turn off buckle up hand out economic Geometric electrical Technician graduation cohesion Photography biology geometry

Phrasal Verbs

on the particle

-ic the syllable before the ending Word with added ending

-tion, -cian, -sion

-phy, -gy, -try, -cy, -fy, -al

the third from the last syllable

-meter

Parameter Thermometer barometer

Sentence Stress in English

Sentence stress is the music of spoken English. Like word stress, sentence stress can help you to understand spoken English, especially when spoken fast.

Sentence stress is what gives English its rhythm or "beat". You remember that word stress is accent on one syllable within a word. Sentence stress is accent on certain words within a sentence.

Most sentences have two types of word:

content words structure words

Content words are the key words of a sentence. They are the important words that carry the meaning or sense. Structure words are not very important words. They are small, simple words that make the sentence correct grammatically. If you remove the structure words from a sentence, you will probably still understand the sentence.

Imagine that you receive this telegram message:

SELL

CAR

GONE

FRANCE

SELL

my

CAR

Ive

GONE

to

FRANCE

Will you

SELL

my

CAR

because

Ive

GONE

to

FRANCE

Will

you

SELL

my

CAR

because

Ive

GONE

to

FRANCE

Rules for Sentence Stress in English

The basic rules of sentence stress are: 1. content words are stressed 2. structure words are unstressed 3. the time between stressed words is always the same

Content words - stressed

Words carrying the meaning Example main verbs nouns adjectives adverbs negative auxiliaries SELL, GIVE, EMPLOY CAR, MUSIC, MARY RED, BIG, INTERESTING QUICKLY, LOUDLY, NEVER DON'T, AREN'T, CAN'T

Structure words - unstressed

Words for correct grammar pronouns Example he, we, they

prepositions
articles conjunctions auxiliary verbs

on, at, into

a, an, the and, but, because do, be, have, can, must