Pronunciation word and sentence stress

Sentence stress is the music of spoken English. Like word stress, sentence stress can help you to understand spoken English, even rapid spoken English.

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 basic types of word:

• content words
  Content words are the keywords of a sentence. They are the important words that carry the meaning or sense—the real content.
• structure words
  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—its 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:

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:

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:

In our sentence, the 4 keywords (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» more quickly. We change the speed of the small structure words so that the rhythm of the key content words stays the same.

I am a proFESsional phoTOgrapher whose MAIN INterest is to TAKE SPEcial, BLACK and WHITE PHOtographs that exHIBit ABstract MEANings in their photoGRAPHic STRUCture.

2. Try saying this word as though you have been completely taken by surprise: for example, SYLlabus? baNAna? kangaROO? 

These three content words carry the most important ideas in the sentence. Unstressed words tend to be smaller words which we need in order to make our language hold together. They help the sentence “function” and for this reason they are called function words. 

Content Words	Function Words
Main Verbs	go, talk, writing	Pronouns	I, you, he ,they
Nouns	student, desk	Prepositions	on, under, with
Adjectives	big, clever	Articles	the, a, some
Adverbs	quickly, loudly	Conjunctions	but, and, so
Negative Aux. Verbs	can’t, don’t, aren’t	Auxiliary Verbs	can, should, must
Demonstratives	this, that, those	Verb “to be”	is, was, am
Question Words	who, which, where

Now, 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: 

Мы рассмотрели правила и примеры постановки ударений в английском языке. Чтобы узнать больше об английской грамматике, читайте другие публикации в разделе Grammar!

Sentence stress

Sentence stress is the governing stress in connected speech. All words have their individual stress in isolation. When words are connected into sense groups (also called thought groups, i.e., logically connected groups of words), and sense groups are connected into sentences, content words keep their stress, and function words lose their stress. The most important words in the sentence receive stronger stress. The last stressed word in the sentence receives the strongest stress with the help of a fall or a rise.

ANN is READing a NEW BOOK.

WHAT BOOK is she READing?

Does she LIKE the /BOOK?

Note: In this material, capital letters indicate stressed syllables and stressed one-syllable words; the backslash indicates the falling tone; the forward slash indicates the rising tone. Sentence stress is indicated according to the American variant of pronunciation.

Stress in some words or word combinations may be shifted or weakened in a certain way to keep the rhythm of speech. For example: New YORK – NEW York CITy; in the afterNOON – AFternoon SLEEP.

Emphatic stress may be used in the sentence, usually to compare, correct, or clarify things. Emphatic stress singles out the word that the speaker considers the most important, and in this case even a function word may become stressed.

Tina gave the book to ANN.

I said that MAX gave the book to Ann.

HE gave her the book.

Sentence stress is not just a phonetic peculiarity of English. Sentence stress has a very important function of marking the words that are necessary for understanding an utterance. When native speakers of English listen to their conversation partners, they listen for stressed words, because stressed words provide important information. It is often difficult to understand the meaning of the sentence in which even one content word is missing. It is also difficult to understand the sentence in which an important word is not stressed or a function word is stressed.

Unstressed function words make sentences grammatically correct. They are not very important in terms of the information that they provide, and their meaning is usually understandable from their immediate surrounding in a sentence. Even if you don’t get some quickly pronounced function words, the meaning of the whole sentence will be clear to you.

For example, a message from your friend says, «Missed train back Sunday.» You will understand that it means «I missed my train. I will be back on Sunday», right? Only content words are written in the message, but the meaning is clear. In the same way you should listen for stressed content words in speech to understand the meaning of the whole utterance. And you should stress content words in your speech so that other people could understand you.

Sentence stress and rhythm

Sentence stress is the main means of providing rhythm in speech. Rhythm is the key to fluent English speech. Imagine a metronome beating the rhythm. The stressed syllables are like the beats of the metronome: regular, loud, and clear. The unstressed syllables between the beats are shortened, obscured, and joined together.

Look at this sentence:

Kevin sent a letter.

Let’s mark the stressed syllables:

KEVin SENT a LETter.

The pattern of stress in this sentence is stressed – unstressed – stressed – unstressed – stressed – unstressed, with equal number of alternating stressed and unstressed syllables. Try to pronounce this sentence rhythmically. It should be easy to do because the alternation of one stressed and one unstressed syllable is easy to reproduce. Be sure to make the stress in the stressed syllables strong – much stronger than normal Russian stress.

KEVin SENT a LETter.

Let’s make this sentence a little longer:

Kevin decided to send a letter to his relatives in the village.

Mark the stressed syllables and the fall:

KEVin deCIDed to SEND a LETter to his RELatives in the VILlage.

Now we have one, two, or several unstressed syllables in the intervals between the stressed syllables, but we have the same amount of time for each interval because the stressed syllables, like the beats of the metronome, have to occur regularly. And the sentence is not very long, so we won’t need noticeable pauses between the sense groups.

How do we fit all the unstressed syllables in the intervals between the stressed syllables without breaking the rhythm that we had in «Kevin sent a letter»? The rules of linking and reduction will help us to do it.

Linking and reduction

To preserve speech rhythm, the unstressed vowels in the sentence become shorter and less distinct. Completely unstressed vowels in the unstressed syllables become very short and are often pronounced as the neutral sound. In some cases, the neutral sound may be dropped, for example, can [kən], [kn], BAKery [‘beikəri], [‘beikri]. By the way, the neutral sound [ə] is the most common vowel sound of English, and it deserves your special attention.

The final consonant sound of a word is usually linked to the initial consonant sound of the next word without any pause between them. For easier linking, pronunciation of adjoining consonants may be changed in a certain way. For example, the sounds [s], [z], [θ], [ð], [t], [d] may lose part of their articulation at the juncture (e.g., what’s this; need three); the sounds [t], [d] usually blend into one sound at the juncture (e.g., hot day; need time), or the first [t] or [d] in the pair may be dropped (e.g., just drive; must do it).

The sound [h] in the unstressed words «his, him, her» may disappear to provide smooth linking of adjoining words.

The unstressed syllables become a stream of sounds jammed together. They are lower in pitch and much less distinct than the stressed syllables.

Sentence stress and intonation

Sentence stress is the key component of English intonation. Intonation organizes words into sentences, distinguishes different types of sentences, and adds emotional coloring to utterances. English intonation is quite difficult for Russian students. Developing the ability to hear, understand, and reproduce sentence stress in speech is the main prerequisite to mastering English intonation.

Let’s sum up the functions of sentence stress:

Sentence stress organizes separate words into sentences by making content words stressed and function words unstressed.

Sentence stress makes the utterance understandable to the listener by making the important words in the sentence stressed, clear, and higher in pitch and by shortening and obscuring the unstressed words.

Sentence stress organizes the words in the sentence rhythmically, making the stressed syllables occur at regular intervals and jamming together the unstressed syllables between the stressed syllables.

Sentence stress organizes the words in the sentence into sense groups by joining the unstressed syllables to the main stressed syllable in the group and marking the end of the sense group with a slight pause if necessary.

If necessary, sentence stress singles out the most important word in the sentence by giving it emphatic stress.

Sentence stress marks the end of the sentence by giving the strongest stress to the last stressed syllable with the help of a fall or a rise.

How to study stress and rhythm

It’s not possible, of course, to learn sentence stress and rhythm just by talking about them. Listening and repeating should become an important part of your work on pronunciation. Always try to choose textbooks that have corresponding listening materials – conversations, dialogues, monologues, poems, short stories, etc.

It is necessary to use a lot of additional listening materials to make your pronunciation stable. When you practice repeating sentences after the recorded speaker, mark falling and rising tones, sense groups, pauses, stressed and unstressed words, full and reduced vowels. (See examples in listening materials in the subsection Listening for Intonation in the section Phonetics.)

Beginning students usually find it useful to practice stress and rhythm with the help of those audio materials in which speech is not too fast and sentence stress is very clear, for example, short rhythmical poems, nursery rhymes, children’s songs, folk songs. (Information about poems and songs for children is provided in Nursery Rhymes Foreword and Songs for Children Foreword in the section Kids.)

Modern English songs are also a useful means for learning English stress and rhythm. At the beginning, it is better to practice singing (or saying loudly) the lyrics of those songs in which pronunciation, stress, and rhythm are very clear. (Some advice on how to study English songs can be found in Hobby in the section Hobby.)

You will be surprised how quickly your pronunciation will improve with the help of various audio materials if you practice repeating them regularly, loudly, with the stress, rhythm and intonation that you hear in the audio recordings.

Ударение в предложении и ритм

Ударение в предложении

Ударение в предложении – главное ударение в связной речи. Все слова по отдельности имеют свое индивидуальное ударение. Когда слова соединяются в смысловые группы (называемые sense groups или thought groups, т.е. логически связанные группы слов), а смысловые группы соединяются в предложения, значимые слова сохраняют свое ударение, а служебные слова теряют ударение. Самые важные слова в предложении получают более сильное ударение. Последний ударный слог в предложении получает самое сильное ударение с помощью понижения или повышения.

Анна читает новую книгу.

Какую книгу она читает?

Нравится ли ей эта книга?

Примечание: В этом материале, заглавные буквы указывают ударные слоги и ударные односложные слова; обратный слеш указывает тон понижения; прямой слеш указывает тон повышения. Ударение в предложении указано согласно американскому варианту произношения.

Ударение в некоторых словах или словосочетаниях может смещаться или ослабляться определённым образом, чтобы сохранить ритм речи. Например: New YORK – NEW York CITy; in the afterNOON – AFternoon SLEEP.

Эмфатическое ударение может применяться в предложении, обычно чтобы сравнить, исправить или прояснить что-то. Эмфатическое ударение выделяет слово, которое говорящий считает самым важным, и в этом случае даже служебное слово может стать ударным.

Тина дала книгу Анне.

Я сказал, что МАКС дал книгу Анне.

ОН дал ей книгу.

Ударение в предложении – это не просто фонетическая особенность английского языка. Оно имеет очень важную функцию выделения слов, которые нужны для понимания высказывания. Когда носители английского языка слушают своих собеседников, они ожидают услышать ударные слова, потому что ударные слова дают важную информацию. Часто бывает трудно понять значение предложения, в котором хотя бы одно значимое слово отсутствует. Также трудно понять предложение, в котором важное слово не ударное или служебное слово ударное.

Неударные служебные слова делают предложения грамматически правильными. Они не очень важны в смысле информации, которую они обеспечивают, и их значение обычно понятно по их ближайшему окружению в предложении. Даже если вы не уловите некоторые быстро проговариваемые служебных слов, значение всего предложения будет вам понятно.

Например, в сообщении от вашего друга говорится: «Пропустил поезд назад воскресенье». Вы поймете, что это значит «Я пропустил мой поезд. Я вернусь назад в воскресенье», правильно? Только значимые слова написаны в этом сообщении, но смысл понятен. Таким же образом вы должны вслушиваться в ударные значимые слова в речи, чтобы понять значение всего высказывания. И вы должны делать ударными значимые слова в своей речи, чтобы другие люди могли понять вас.

Ударение в предложении и ритм

Ударение в предложении – это главное средство обеспечения ритма в речи. Ритм это ключ к свободной английской речи. Представьте себе метроном, отбивающий ритм. Ударные слоги как удары метронома: регулярные, громкие и ясные. Неударные слоги между ударами укорачиваются, делаются неотчётливыми и соединяются вместе.

Посмотрите на это предложение:

Кевин послал письмо.

Давайте разметим ударные слоги:

KEVin SENT a LETtеr.

Модель ударения в этом предложении: ударный – неударный – ударный – неударный – ударный – неударный, с равным числом чередующихся ударных и неударных слогов. Постарайтесь сказать это предложение ритмично. Это должно быть легко сделать, т.к. чередование одного ударного и одного безударного слога легко воспроизвести. Обязательно сделайте ударение в ударных слогах сильным – гораздо сильнее, чем нормальное русское ударение.

KEVin SENT a LETtеr.

Сделаем это предложение немного длиннее:

Кевин решил послать письмо своим родственникам в деревне.

Разметьте ударные слоги и понижение:

KEVin deCIDed to SEND a LETtеr to his RELatives in the VILlage.

Теперь у нас один, два или несколько неударных слогов в интервалах между ударными слогами, но мы имеем то же самое количество времени для каждого интервала, потому что ударные слоги, как удары метронома, должны возникать регулярно. А предложение не слишком длинное, поэтому нам не понадобятся заметные паузы между смысловыми группами.

Как нам разместить все неударные слоги в интервалах между ударными слогами без нарушения ритма, который у нас был в «Kevin sent a letter»? Правила соединения и редукции помогут нам сделать это.

Соединение и редукция

Чтобы сохранить речевой ритм, неударные гласные в предложении становятся короче и менее отчётливыми. Полностью безударные гласные в неударных слогах становятся очень короткими и часто произносятся как нейтральный звук. В некоторых случаях нейтральный звук может выпадать, например, can [kən], [kn], BAKery [‘beikəri], [‘beikri]. Кстати, нейтральный звук [ə] – самый распространённый гласный звук английского языка, и он заслуживает вашего особого внимания.

Конечный согласный звук слова обычно соединяется с начальным согласным звуком следующего слова без какой-либо паузы между ними. Для более лёгкого соединения, произношение соседних согласных может изменяться определённым образом. Например, звуки [s], [z], [θ], [ð], [t], [d] могут потерять часть своей артикуляции на стыке (например, what’s this; need three); звуки [t], [d] обычно сливаются в один звук на стыке (например, hot day; need time), или первый [t] или [d] в паре может выпасть (например, just drive; must do it).

Звук [h] в неударных словах «his, him, her» может исчезнуть, чтобы обеспечить гладкое соединение соседних слов.

Неударные слоги становятся потоком звуков, сжатых вместе. Они ниже по тону и гораздо менее отчётливые, чем ударные слоги.

Ударение в предложении и интонация

Ударение в предложении – это ключевой компонент английской интонации. Интонация организует слова в предложения, различает разные типы предложений и добавляет эмоциональную окраску в высказывания. Английская интонация весьма трудна для русских студентов. Развитие способности слышать, понимать и воспроизводить ударение в предложении – главное необходимое условие для освоения английской интонации.

Давайте суммируем функции ударения в предложении:

Ударение в предложении организует отдельные слова в предложения, делая значимые слова ударными, в служебные слова неударными.

Ударение в предложении делает высказывание понятным слушателю, делая важные слова ударными, отчётливыми и выше по тону и укорачивая и делая неотчётливыми неударные слоги.

Ударение в предложении организует слова в предложении ритмически, заставляя ударные слоги возникать через регулярные интервалы и сжимая вместе неударные слоги между ударными слогами.

Ударение в предложении организует слова в смысловые группы путем присоединения неударных слогов к основному ударному слогу в группе и обозначая конец смысловой группы небольшой паузой, если требуется.

Если необходимо, ударение в предложении выделяет наиболее важное слово, давая ему эмфатическое ударение.

Ударение в предложении отмечает конец предложения, делая самое сильное ударение на последнем ударном слоге с помощью понижения или повышения.

Как изучать ударение и ритм

Конечно, невозможно изучить ударение и ритм одними разговорами о них. Прослушивание и повторение должны стать важной частью вашей работы над произношением. Старайтесь всегда выбирать учебники, имеющие сопроводительные материалы для прослушивания – разговоры, диалоги, монологи, стихотворения, короткие рассказы и т.д.

Необходимо использовать много материалов для прослушивания, чтобы сделать ваше произношение стабильным. Когда вы повторяете предложения за диктором на записи, отмечайте тоны понижения и повышения, смысловые группы, паузы, ударные и неударные слова, полные и редуцированные гласные. (См. примеры в материалах для прослушивания в подразделе Listening for Intonation в разделе Phonetics.)

Начинающие студенты обычно находят полезными упражнения по ударению и ритму с помощью тех аудиоматериалов, в которых речь не очень быстрая, а ударения очень отчётливые, например, короткие ритмичные стихотворения, детские стихи, детские песни, народные песни. (Информация о стихах и песнях для детей дана в статьях Nursery Rhymes Foreword и Songs for Children Foreword в разделе Kids.)

Современные английские песни – тоже полезное средство для изучения английского ударения и ритма. Сначала лучше тренироваться петь (или громко проговаривать) слова тех песен, в которых произношение, ударение и ритм очень отчётливые. (Некоторые советы, как изучать английские песни, можно найти в статье Hobby в разделе Hobby.)

Вас удивит, как быстро ваше произношение улучшится с помощью различных аудиоматериалов, если вы будете тренироваться повторять их регулярно, громко, с ударением, ритмом и интонацией, которые вы слышите в аудиозаписях.

English students often learn syllable and word stress rules before venturing into sentence stress. This is because sentence stress rules are far more variable and complex, while the rules for correct intonation in English generally stay the same. To demonstrate the differences, let’s look at a few different examples of stress in English.

Syllable Stress vs. Sentence Stress

When you learn how to pronounce different vowel and consonant sounds, you must also learn how to stress different parts of a word correctly. Stress is just another way to say “emphasize.” This means that some parts of a word are stronger (and slightly louder) than others. Here are a few examples:

• Away (pronounced: a-WAY)
• Delicious (pronounced: de-LI-cious)
• Anticipate (pronounced: an-TI-ci-PATE)
• Communication (pronounced: comm-un-i-CA-tion)
• Autobiography (pronounced: au-to-bi-O-gra-phy)

Some longer words have a primary stressed syllable and one or more secondary stressed syllables. The primary stressed syllable is always stronger than the secondary stressed syllable, while both are stronger than unstressed syllables. Be sure to check out our guide on stressed and unstressed syllables to learn more about using proper English intonation.

Sentence stress refers to the words in a sentence that get the most emphasis. While common sayings and phrases usually have unchanging sentence stress rules, you can emphasize different words in a sentence to create new meanings. For example, let’s look at the common saying: I told you so!

The most common way to say this phrase is to put the primary stress on “told” and the secondary stress on “so,” like this:

I TOLD you SO!

However, you could also change the implicit meaning of the phrase by emphasizing “I.” By doing this, you will stress the fact that you (the speaker) were the one who told them (the listener) about something. 

Which words should you stress in a sentence?

So, how can you know which words to stress in a sentence? Again, there are no hard-and-fast sentence stress rules, but there are some general principles that will help you use stress properly when speaking in English. You can often tell which words should be stressed based on the parts of speech and where the words fall in a sentence.

• Content words (nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and main verbs) are usually stressed.
• Function words (determiners, prepositions, and conjunctions) are usually unstressed unless you want to emphasize their role(s) in a sentence.
• Question words (who, what, when, where, why, and how) are usually unstressed unless you want to emphasize their role(s) in a sentence.
• Subject pronouns (I, You, He, She, We, They) are usually unstressed, while object pronouns (me, you, him, her, us, them) are usually stressed.

Sentence Stress in a Statement

Pronoun	Main Verb	Adverb	Preposition	Determiner	Noun
I	ran	quickly	to	the	desk.
unstressed	unstressed	STRESSED (primary)	unstressed	unstressed	STRESSED (secondary)

This example denotes the natural rise and fall of the sentence. However, as previously stated, you could stress different words to alter the meaning:

• I ran quickly to the desk. (emphasizes who is doing the running)
• I ran quickly to the desk. (emphasizes what action is being done)
• I ran quickly to the desk. (emphasizes the way in which you ran, but does not fundamentally change the meaning of the sentence)
• I ran quickly to the desk. (inappropriate sense stress, but emphasizes the direction in which you ran)
• I ran quickly to the desk. (inappropriate sense stress, but emphasizes that it was a specific desk)
• I ran quickly to the desk. (emphasizes the object or location to which you ran)

Sentence Stress in a Question

Pronoun	Modal Verb	Main Verb	Preposition	Determiner	Noun
Who	will	come	to	the	party?
unstressed	unstressed	STRESSED (primary)	unstressed	unstressed	STRESSED (secondary)

Like the previous example, the sentence stress here also denotes the natural rise and fall of the word combination. However, you could still ask this question six different ways to convey six slightly different meanings:

• Who will come to the party? (you want to know who the party attendees are)
• Who will come to the party? (you want to know who will definitely be attending the party)
• Who will come to the party? (you want to know who will attend the party, but this form does not change the standard meaning of the question)
• Who will come to the party? (inappropriate sense stress, but emphasizes the location of the party) 
• Who will come to the party? (inappropriate sense stress, but emphasizes which party you’re talking about)
• Who will come to the party? (you want to emphasize the party, possibly in contrast to a separate event)

Sentence Stress and Intonation in English

If you couldn’t already tell, sentence stress is often linked to the way our voices rise and fall (intonation) while speaking. The natural rise and fall in pitch usually determines which words are stressed and unstressed. This is why the two example sentences above have similar structures. They are both examples of falling intonation.

In American English, there are two basic types of intonation: rising intonation and falling intonation. Falling intonation is far more common. When you speak with falling intonation, the pitch of your voice starts high and gets lower by the end of the sentence. More often than not, sentences with falling intonation use stressed verbs and objects. For example:

• I saw a crab at the beach.
• They never return my calls.
• Frank is a responsible person.
• My dad doesn’t like to wash the dishes.

Alternatively, rising intonation occurs when the pitch of your voice starts lower and gets higher at the end of the sentence. This type of intonation is less common, but you can use it when you want to ask a Yes/No question or when you want to express a negative emotion, like anger. Similarly, the stress often falls on verbs and objects, though this can vary depending on the meaning you want to convey. Here are some examples:

• Are you sure?
• Do you want to go to the park?
• You’re so mean!
• I don’t want to talk to you!

What is sense stress?

You might have heard of sense stress, which is very similar to the concept of sentence stress. Sense stress simply refers to the use of stress on different words to convey different meanings. Thus, sense stress is a form of sentence stress. Usually, people refer to appropriate or inappropriate sense stress. Appropriate sense stress sounds natural and correctly conveys the meaning of a sentence. Here are some examples of appropriate sense stress:

• How many HAMBURGERS should we get?
• What TIME is it?
• He ANSWERED the phone.
• They did NOT want to go swimming.

Alternatively, inappropriate sense stress sounds unnatural and conveys strange or incorrect meanings. Here are a few examples:

• Where do you want to eat?
• Did you go to the doctor?
• I never go to the supermarket by myself.
• She was watching a movie when the guests arrived.

Conclusion

Sentence stress is an element of English that can be difficult to grasp, especially for beginner or even intermediate learners. However, with practice, you can use stress to accurately express yourself. With time, you’ll find that sense and sentence stress are some of the best ways to get your point across to other English speakers!

If you’d like to hear native English speakers using sentence stress, be sure to subscribe to the Magoosh Youtube channel!