Stress

Stress Definition: In speech, stress may be defined as the degree of intensity or loudness placed on a sound; that is, the amount of force one puts on a syllable or word to give it importance. Type: word stress vs. sentence stress Significance: Stress is such an important feature of spoke English that it determines not only the rhythmic flow of words, but also the quality of the vowels. Correct word and sentence stress in spoken English can mean the difference between good communication and no communication at all.

Type of stress Three types of stress can be found in English: Primary stress refers to the strong emphasis a speaker puts on the most important syllable of a particular word. Secondary stress refers to a less strong emphasis on the next most important syllable. Zero stress refers to any syllable that receives no stress, and it is also called unstressed syllable. The frequent occurrence of unstressed syllable is one of the fundamental characteristics of spoken English, and the one that most distinguishes English from Chinese.

How to pronounce word stress? When a syllable is stressed, it is pronounced longer in duration higher in pitch louder in volume e.g. teacher

vs. Unstressed Syllables banana ba NAAAA na Syllable 1 Syllable 2 Syllable 3 (short) (long) (short) vs. Unstressed Syllables Stressed syllables are strong syllables. Unstressed syllables are weak syllables.

Check you progress: P85 compound nouns P86 compound proper nouns P89 compound nouns or descriptive phrases P90 noun or verb

Schwa // Any English vowel letter can be pronounced with the schwa //. allow a firemen e possible i // command o support u

Strong and weak syllables The vowel in a weak syllable tends to be shorter, of lower intensity and different in quality. ‘father’: the second syllable is shorter than the first, is less loud and has a vowel that cannot occur in strong syllables. ‘bottle’: the weak second syllable contains no vowel at all, but consists entirely of the consonant /l/. We call this a syllabic consonant.

Word Stress Rule Word type Where is the stress? Examples Two syllables Nouns on the first syllable center object flower Verbs on the last syllable release admit arrange Compound Nouns (N + N) (Adj. + N) on the first part desktop pencil case bookshelf greenhouse Adjectives (Adj. + P.P.) on the last part (the verb part) well-meant hard-headed old-fashioned Verbs (prep. + verb) understand overlook outperform

the syllable before the ending economic Geometric electrical Word type Where is the stress? Examples Phrasal Verbs on the particle turn off buckle up hand out Word with added ending -ic the syllable before the ending economic Geometric electrical -tion, -cian, -sion Technician graduation cohesion -phy, -gy, -try, -cy, -fy, -al the third from the last syllable Photography biology geometry -meter Parameter Thermometer barometer

Sentence Stress Sentence stress refers to the word or words in a sentence that receive a strong accent. Sentence stress is what gives English its rhythm or "beat". Word stress is accent on one syllable within a word. Sentence stress is the strong accent on certain words within a sentence. Sentence stress is the music of spoken English. Like word stress, sentence stress can help you to understand spoken English, especially when spoken fast.

Examples of sentence stress e.g. I am happy because I am with you. I am happy / because I am with you. I am `happy because I am with you. I am happy because I am with `you.

Most sentences have two types of word: content words (information words) function words (structure words) Content words are the key words of a sentence. They are the important words that carry the meaning or sense. function words have little or no meaning in themselves. They are small, simple words that make the sentence correct grammatically. If you remove the function words from a sentence, you will probably still understand the sentence.

Practice makes perfect! Content words are usually nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. They give information about who, what, when, where, why, and how. They express the main idea or content of the phrase or sentence. They carry the message and therefore usually stressed. Unstressed words are usually function words like articles, pronouns, possessives, prepositions, auxiliary verbs, and conjunctions. These words connect the information words to form grammatical sentences. Practice makes perfect!

Strong stress (focus words) Stress (content words) A native speaker may emphasize any word in order to express a particular idea. --- I mean the book in the desk, not on the desk. --- He did go there. --- The truck has been hit by another truck. --- Did you say “bread”? Here you are. --- I said “bread and butter”. There are three levels of stress in English sentences: Strong stress (focus words) Stress (content words) Unstressed words (function words) What are the conditions which may cause a normally unstressed word to become stressed, and vice versa?

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