1. Word Stress & Sentence Stress
Huang Wanmei

2. 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

3. The height of the body of the tongue

4. The front-back position of the tongue

5. Description of the vowels
Front & Central Vowels
/:/ high, front, unrounded vowel
// lower high, front, unrounded vowel
/e/ mid, front, unrounded vowel
/æ/ low, front, unrounded vowel
/:/ mid, central, unrounded vowel
/ə/ mid, central, unrounded vowel

6. Back Vowels /:/ low, back, unrounded vowel
// low, back, rounded vowel
/:/ mid-low, back, rounded vowel
/u/ lower high, back, rounded vowel
/u:/ high, back, rounded vowel
// lower mid, back, unrounded vowel

7. 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.
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

8. Word Stress A word stress means a prominent syllable word pattern
tea.cher
• .
beau.ti.ful
• . .
un.der.stand
. . •
con.ti.nue
. • .

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

10. How do you say teacher? TEA cher Longer teeeeeeeeeeee cher Higher tea
Louder
TEA cher
All three combined
TEEEEEEEEEEE

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. Imagine that you receive this telegram message:
SELL
CAR
GONE
FRANCE
SELL my
CAR
I’ve
GONE to
FRANCE
Will
you
SELL my
CAR
because
I’ve
GONE to
FRANCE

16. 2 1 3
Will
you
SELL my
CAR
because
I’ve
GONE to
FRANCE

17. Rules for Sentence Stress in English
The basic rules of sentence stress are:
content words are stressed
structure words are unstressed
the time between stressed words is always the same

18. Content words - stressed
Words carrying the meaning
Example
main verbs
SELL, GIVE, EMPLOY
nouns
CAR, MUSIC, MARY
adjectives
RED, BIG, INTERESTING
adverbs
QUICKLY, LOUDLY, NEVER
negative auxiliaries
DON'T, AREN'T, CAN'T
Structure words - unstressed
Words for correct grammar
Example
pronouns
he, we, they
prepositions
on, at, into
articles
a, an, the
conjunctions
and, but, because
auxiliary verbs
do, be, have, can, must