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Sentence stress

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Sentence stress

Is the pattern of strong and weak syllables in a

sentence.

E.g. How do you do? OooO

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English is a stress-timed language

The English language is a stress-timed

language.

This means that stress in a spoken sentence

occurs at regular intervals and the length it

takes to say something depends on the

number of stressed syllables rather than the

number of syllables itself. (Croatian - syllable-timed language)

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e.g.

1 2 3 4

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

The four sentences take the same length of time

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Content words (those that carry information)

tend to receive stress in an utterance. These

are:

nouns, main verbs, adjectives, possessive

pronouns(mine, yours, hers...),

demonstrative pronouns(Whose books arethese?), interrogatives(Why, Who, How...?),

notand negative contractions (didnt, wont,

shouldnt, isnt ...), adverbs (always, very,almost...) adverbial particles (to figure out, to

drop off..., to take off...)

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Function (structure) words (those that

express grammatical functions in an

utterance) are usually unstressed, unless infinal position or when used emphatically.

These are:

articles, auxiliary verbs, personal pronouns,

possessive adjectives, demonstrativeadjectives, prepositions, conjunctions

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The way you say something can

affect its meaning? T or F

I asked you to buy me a bunch of red roses.

I asked YOUto buy me a bunch of red roses.

I asked you to buy me a bunch ofRED roses. I asked you to buy me a bunch of red ROSES.

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Unstressed words

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Words which are not usually stressed

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Pronouns

In fast speech:

do not pronounce the letter H in he, her,

him, hisunless it is at the beginning of the

sentence

the vowel sound is very short

If we want to emphasize something we stress

the pronouns

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Auxiliary verbs

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An auxiliary verb is a verb which does nothave a meaning by itself, it helps the grammar

of the sentence. (e.g. be, do, have) A contraction is a short form of an auxiliary

verb in writing. For example, areis contactedto rein they're.

Strong from/ weak form. Some functionwords have two pronunciations: a strong anda weak from. For example, but can be

pronounced /bt/(strong form) or /bt/ (weakform). The weak form is the usualpronunciation of these words.

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Pronunciation of the verb to be

am /m/, strong form: /m/

are /(r)/ (if the following word begins with a

vowel sound, the /r/ is pronounced too),

strong form: /(r)/

is /z/*(a separate syllable: S, CE, GE, CH)

were /w(r)/, strong form: /w: (r)/

was /wz/, strong form: /wz/

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Pronunciation of the verb todo

do /d/ strong form: /du:/

Does /dz/ strong form: /dz/

Did /dd/

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Pronunciation of the verb tohave

have /hv/ or /v/, strong form: /hv/

has /hz/ or /z/, strong form: /hz/

had /hd/ or /d/, strong form: /hd/

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Contracted forms

im /m/

hes

/hiz/ shes

/iz/

its

/ ts/

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