Pronunciation
WORDS AND SENTENCES STRESSED
Normally when we say "I feel
stressed" it means "I feel anxious". Stress is a kind of worried
feeling about life or work. But there is another kind of stress that actually
helps us understand. This other kind of stress is an accent that we make on certain
syllables and words when speaking English.
In some languages, for example Japanese,
people say each syllable with equal force. But in English, and some other
languages, we put a big force (stress) on some syllables and no force on other
syllables or words. This can make it difficult for speakers of other languages
to understand English that is spoken quickly. Of course, for native speakers it
is not difficult - in fact, stress actually helps native speakers understand
each other. So it is very important.
We shall talk here about WORD STRESS
(stress on a syllable inside a word) and SENTENCE STRESS (stress on words
inside a sentence).
WORD
STRESS
Word
stress is like a golden key to speaking and understanding
English.
If you do not already know about word
stress, you can try to learn about it. This is one of the best ways for you to
understand spoken English - especially English spoken fast.
What is word stress?
Take 3 words: photograph, photographer and
photographic. Do they sound the same when spoken? No. Because ONE syllable in
each word is STRESSED (stronger than the others).
- PHOtograph
- phoTOgrapher
- photoGRAPHic
This happens in ALL words with 2 or more
syllables: TEACHer, JaPAN, CHINa, aBOVE, converSAtion, INteresting, imPORtant,
deMAND, etCETera, etCETera, etCETera
The syllables that are not stressed are
"weak" or "small" or "quiet". Native speakers of
English listen for the STRESSED syllables, not the weak syllables. If you use
word stress in your speech, you will instantly and automatically improve your
pronunciation and your comprehension.
If you have an English teacher, you can
ask her to help you understand word stress. Or you can try to hear the stress
in individual words each time you listen to English - on the radio, or in films
for example. Your first step is to HEAR and recognise it. After that, you can
USE it.
Two important rules about word stress:
- One word, one stress
- The stress is always on a vowel
SENTENCE
STRESS
Sentence
stress is another golden key for speaking and understanding
English. With sentence stress, some words in a sentence are STRESSED (loud) and
other words are weak (quiet). Look at the following sentence:
We want to go.
Do we say every word with the same stress
or force? No. We make the important words BIG and the unimportant words small.
What are the important words in this sentence? Yes, that's right: WANT and GO.
- We WANT to GO.
- We WANT to GO to WORK.
- We DON'T WANT to GO to WORK.
- We DON'T WANT to GO to WORK at
NIGHT.
Now that you know that word stress exists,
you can try to learn more about it.
You should KNOW that SENtence and WORD
STRESS are VERy imPORtant !!!
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Taylor, E. (2015). Word
stress in English. Retrieved November 29, 2017, from
http://lawebdelingles.com/nivel-b2/word-stress-en-ingles/
ÁNGELA
BERMÚDEZ ESCUDERO
Choose the stressed syllable
Matching exercise
Match the items on the right to the items on the left.
