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

/:/ high, front, unrounded vowel

// lower high, front, unrounded vowel
/e/
mid, front, unrounded vowel
//
low, front, unrounded vowel
/:/
mid, central, unrounded vowel
//
mid, central, unrounded vowel

 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

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

pattern

tea.cher

beau.ti.ful

..

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

teeeeeeeeeeee cher
tea
cher

Louder

TEA cher

All three
combined

TEEEEEEEEEEE
cher

Word Stress Rule

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 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

Will you

CAR

SELL

my

SELL

my

CAR

CAR

GONE

Iv
e
because

GONE

Ive

FRANCE

to

GONE

FRANCE

to

FRANCE

2
Will

1
you

SELL

my

3
CAR

because

1
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

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