Is a vocal effect that extends over more than one sound segment in an utterance, such as pitch, stress, or juncture pattern.
Say this sentence aloud and count how many seconds it takes. The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance. Time required? Probably about 5 seconds. Now, try speaking this sentence aloud. He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the evening. Time required? Probably about 5 seconds. Wait a minute the first sentence is much shorter than the second sentence! The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the evening
You
are
only
partially
right!
This simple exercise makes a very important point about how we speak and use English. Namely, English is considered a stressed language while many other languages are considered syllabic. What does that mean? It means that, in English, we give stress to certain words while other words are quickly spoken (some students say eaten!). In other languages, such as French or Italian, each syllable receives equal importance (there is stress, but each syllable has its own length). Many speakers of syllabic languages don't understand why we quickly speak, or swallow, a number of words in a sentence. In syllabic languages each syllable has equal importance, and therefore equal time is needed. English however, spends more time on specific stressed words while quickly gliding over the other, less important,
words. Let's look at a simple example: the modal verb "can". When we use the positive form of "can" we quickly glide over the can and it is hardly pronounced. They can come on Friday . (stressed words underlined) On the other hand, when we use the negative form "can't" we tend to stress the fact that it is the negative form by also stressing "can't". They
can't
come
on
Friday
.
As you can see from the above example the sentence, "They can't come on Friday" is longer than "They can come on Friday" because both the modal "can't" and the verb "come" are stressed. So, what does this mean for my speaking skills?
Well, first of all, you need to understand which words we generally stress and which we do not stress. Basically, stress words are considered CONTENT WORDS such as
Nouns e.g. kitchen, Peter
(most) principal verbs e.g. visit, construct
Adjectives e.g. beautiful, interesting
WORD STRESS IN ENGLISH Word stress is your magic key to understanding spoken English. Native speakers of English use word stress naturally. Word stress is so natural for them that they don't even know they use it. Non-native speakers, who speak English to native speakers without using word stress, encounter two problems:
They find it difficult to understand native speakers, especially those speaking fast. The native speakers may find it difficult to understand them. In this lesson we look at the most important aspects of word stress, followed by a short quiz to check your understanding: UNDERSTANDING SYLLABLES To understand word stress, it helps to understand syllables. Every word is made from syllables. Each word has one, two, three or more syllables Word Dog Quite Table Expensive
Word
Number of silabes Dog 1 Quite 1 Ta-ble 2 Ex –pen –sive 3
WHAT IS WORD STRESS? In English, we do not say each syllable with the same force or strength. In one word, we accentuate ONE syllable. We say one syllable very loudly (big, strong, important) and all the other syllables very quietly. Let's take 3 words: photograph, photographer and photo graphic. Do they sound the same when spoken? No. Because we accentuate (stress) ONE syllable in each word. And it is not always the same syllable. So the shape of each word is different.
Words
shape
total syllables
stressed syllable
PHO TO GRAPH
3
#1
PHO TO GRAPH ER
4
#2
PHO TO GRAPH IC
4
#3
Where do I Put Word Stress? There are some rules about which syllable to stress. But...the rules are rather complicated! Probably the best way to learn is from experience. Listen carefully to spoken English and try to develop a feeling for the "music" of the language. When you learn a new word, you should also learn its stress pattern. If you keep a vocabulary book, make a note to show which syllable is stressed. If you do not know, you can look in a dictionary. All dictionaries give the phonetic spelling of a word. This is where they show which syllable is stressed, usually with an apostrophe (') just before or just after the stressed syllable. (The notes at the front of the dictionary will explain the system used.) Look at (and listen to) this example for the word plastic. There are 2 syllables. Syllable #1 is stressed. example
phonetic spelling: dictionary A
phonetic spelling: dictionary B
/plĂŚs'tIk/
/'plĂŚs tIk/
PLAS TIC
RULES OF WORD STRESS IN ENGLISH There are two very simple rules about word stress: 1. One word has only one stress. (One word cannot have two stresses. If you hear two stresses, you hear two words. Two stresses cannot be one word. It is true that there can be a "secondary" stress in some words. But a secondary stress is much smaller than the main [primary] stress, and is only used in long words.) 2. We can only stress vowels, not consonants. Here are some more, rather complicated, rules that can help you understand where to put the stress. But do not rely on them too much, because there are many exceptions. It is better to try to "feel" the music of the language and to add the stress naturally.
1 Stress on first syllable rule
example
Most 2-syllable nouns
PRESent, EXport, CHIna, TAble
Most 2-syllable adjectives
PRESent, SLENder, CLEVer, HAPpy
2 Stress on last syllable rule
example
Most 2-syllable to preSENT, to exPORT, to verbs deCIDE, to beGIN
3 Stress on penultimate syllable (penultimate = second from end) rule
example
Words ending in -ic
GRAPHic, geoGRAPHic, geoLOGic
Words ending in sion and -tion
teleVIsion, reveLAtion
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. They give the sentence its correct form or "structure". If you remove the structure words from a sentence, you will probably still understand the sentence. If you remove the content words from a sentence, you will not understand the sentence. The sentence has no sense or meaning.
Imagine that you receive this telegram message: Wil yo SEL m CA l u L y R
becaus I'v GON t FRANC e e E o E
This sentence is not complete. It is not a "grammatically correct" sentence. But you probably understand it. These 4 words communicate very well. Somebody wants you to sell their car for them because they have gone to France. We can add a few words: Wil yo SEL m CA l u L y R
becaus I'v GON t FRANC e e E o E
The new words do not really add any more information. But they make the message more correct grammatically. We can add even more words to make one complete, grammatically correct sentence.But the information is basically the same: Wil yo SEL m CA becau I'v GON t FRANC l u L y R se e E o E. Structure Words In our sentence, the 4 key words (sell, car, gone, France) are accentuated or stressed. Why is this important for pronunciation? It is important because it adds "music" to the language.
It is the rhythm of the English language. It changes the speed at which we speak (and listen to) the language. The time between each stressed word is the same. In our sentence, there is 1 syllable between SELL and CAR and 3 syllables between CAR and GONE. But the time (t) between SELL and CAR and between CAR and GONE is the same. We maintain a constant beat on the stressed words. To do this, we say "my" more slowly, and "because I've" morequickly. We change the speed of the small structure words so that the rhythm of the key content words stays the same. syllables 2
1
3
1
Wil yo SEL m CA becau I'v GON t FRANC l u L y R se e E o E. beat t1
t1
bea t
beat t1
beat t1
Thanks for your attention ď Š