Presented by:

Farda Naila Salsabila

English Student Community (ESC)
FITK IAIN Walisongo Semarang

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

English is a stress timed language

The English language is often referred to as stresstimed. 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
1
1
1

234
and 2 and 3 and 4
and a 2 and a 3 and a 4
and then a 2 and then a 3 and then a 4

word stress means a prominent syllable

word

pattern

tea.cher

beau.ti.ful

..

un.der.stand

..

con.ti.nue

..

When a syllable is stressed, it is pronounced

longer

in duration
higher in pitch
louder in volume

Longer
Higher

teeeeeeeeeeee cher
tea
cher

Louder

TEA cher

All three
combined

TEEEEEEEEEEE
cher

Where is the
stress?

Examples

Nouns

on the first
syllable

center
object
flower

Verbs

on the last
syllable

release
admit
arrange

on the first part

desktop
pencil case
bookshelf
greenhouse

Word type

Two syllables

Nouns
(N + N)
(Adj. + N)
Compound

Adjectives
(Adj. + P.P.)
Verbs
(prep. + verb)

on the last part

(the verb part)

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

Word type

Phrasal Verbs

Where is the stress?

Examples

on the particle

turn off
buckle up
hand out

-ic
the syllable before the
ending
Word with
added
ending

economic
Geometric
electrical

-tion, -cian, -sion

Technician
graduation
cohesion

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

-al

Photography
biology
geometry

-meter

the third from the last

syllable

Parameter
Thermometer
barometer

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.

content words and 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.

SELL

Will you

SELL

my

SELL

my

2
Will

CAR

SELL

my

Ive

CAR

CAR

1
you

GONE

because

GONE

Ive

because

to

GONE

3
CAR

FRANCE

FRANCE

to

FRANCE

1
Ive

GONE

To

FRANCE

The basic rules of sentence stress are:

1.
2.
3.

content words are stressed

structure words are unstressed
the time between stressed words is always the
same

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