Word and phrase stress

Emphasis is an emphasis on one of the syllables in a word. It can also fall on a whole word, phrase, word in the sentence to amplify the semantic load.

Accents. What for?

In every language there are different rulesstatement of stresses. English is not an exception. And each language is different from the other in the rules for stating the accents. For example, in French stress always falls on the last syllable, and, for example, in Latin it is put on the second or third from the end. In Polish it falls on the penultimate syllable. This is called fixed stress. But it is important to know that there are also non-fixed accents in words. A vivid example of this is our native Russian language, which has a number of special features of styling. Therefore, it is very difficult for foreigners to study. After all, our native language is complex in its grammar statement of stresses.

Let’s return to accentology in Russian. Accents can fall absolutely on any syllable in the word. A special rule for stating the accents in words in Russian does not exist, as, for example, in Latin. But there are some points that you can rely on when studying. A stress in Russian can distinguish one word from another, it can be the same in one-root words, but at the same time it can differ. Russian is so complex that even native speakers do not always know how to pronounce a particular word correctly.

But the question arises: «Why do you need this stress?» Everything is extremely simple! After all, it allows a person to understand and distinguish words in a violent stream of speech.

Stress in English

As for stress in the words of the English language,then there are also a number of rules and features. For a competent statement of stresses in the English language, one must clearly understand the system of splitting words into syllables. It is important to note that in this regard, English is very similar to the Russian language, because they both have a free stress. This can be quite difficult for the foreigner.

To make it easier for you to learn English, a person should know:

• stress;
• type of syllable (closed or open).

As in Russian, English words haveopen and closed syllables, and to define them is a fairly easy task. After all, open syllables end with a vowel sound, and closed ones with a consonant.

In general, there are two most important rules:

1. One word can contain only one main thingstress! Of course, you can find more than one accent in the English word. But it will always contain the main stress and only then secondary, which are weaker than the first and occur in very long words.
2. The stress in English, like in any other, falls on a vowel or a vowel! Of course, there are exceptions to the rules, but their number is very small.

It is important to note that in English someThe elements of a vocabulary can be hit more often or less often. For example, such a part of a word as a prefix in the noun is under stress much more often than the prefix in the verb. There are also suffixes, which, as a rule, are percussion. We offer their list:

• -ate;
• -ete;
• -ite;
• -ute.

The rules of stress in English

Learning the grammar, it should be remembered that thisThe section is important in colloquial speech and less significant when working with texts. There are a number of rules for stating the stresses in English. By sticking to them, you can correctly put emphasis on words. This is incredibly important in mastering a foreign language. So, the rules are:

1. On the letter, the stress is placed on the third from the end of the syllable. Here is an example of a word: abIlity, university, socIology, and so on.
2. In words of French origin, the stress will remain unchanged. For example, the words: hotEl, guitAr. These words retain their French accent.
3. Stress can be placed after the prefixes. For example, a-lone, be-fore, o-mit, under-stand.

It is important to note that some suffixes canto exert some influence on the statement of stresses. For example, -ry has the property of pushing the stress on the fourth syllable from the end of the word. Vivid examples are the words: ORdinary voCAbulary.

Or the suffix -ic usually contains an accent. For example, draMAtic symBOlic.

Accents in derivative words

In derived words, stress can remainthe same as in the original word, but at the same time it may change. For example, in the case of creating a noun from a verb or vice versa, the stress often remains unchanged. For example, the noun «deNIal», transformed into the verb «deNY», retains its initial stress. But in derivative words, it is still possible that the stress shifts. For example, the noun «OBject», transformed into the verb «obJEct», shifts the stress on the second syllable from the end of the word.

Focus on the first, second syllables

In English, the stress falls on the first syllable in the following cases:

• Almost all nouns and adjectives that have two syllables are given an accent on the first.
• The emphasis on the second syllable is almost all verbs, which include in the total sum all the same two.

Verbal stress

The verbal accent in English is the emphasis on the syllable in the vocabulary. Long units can contain two stresses: the main and the secondary (it is often called an incidental one).

When learning new words, it is important to remember the basicaccent. And you need to realize that even in single-root words stresses can change. From how you learn this topic, depends on the perception of your speech by other people, because accentology helps to separate a set of letters into understandable word combinations.

About phrasal stress

Phrase accent in English is the pronunciation of individual words more emotionally than others, which are called unstressed.

As a rule, in English, the shock words are:

• nouns;
• verbs (semantic);
• adjectives;
• demonstrative pronouns;
• interrogative pronouns;
• adverbs;
• numerals.

Usually unaccented are: personal pronouns, articles, unions, auxiliary verbs, prepositions.

You can say that the phrase accent is in the same functions as the verbal one. It is divided into two types: centralized and decentralized.

The centralized view isas the center of the word or many words on which the speaker makes an accent. With a decentralized type, the speaker focuses on the whole sentence. This separates not the concrete word, but the entire phrase.

The degree of phrase accent in words

In English, it is customary to distinguish three degrees of phrasal stress, which include the following:

• The main thing. Gets the greatest accent.
• Secondary. Gets less stress.
• Weak. Gets even less strong emphasis.

As a rule, the more important a word is, the stronger the speaker should sing it out during oral speech.

On the logical stress

But it is important to note that, if necessary, the speaker, of course, has the right to give accent to any word, even if it is included in the list of unaccented.

First, it must be said that a huge rolein English speech plays intonation. The function of intonation is the transmission of a hue of the said speaking phrase. This is the main difference between Russian and English. After all, Russian intonation is perceived as boring and flat. And English contains the pace of speech, logical pauses and, of course, the tone.

As already mentioned, the logical stress inEnglish — these are intentionally selected words for emotional coloring. In speech there is an increase and a lowering of intonation. It is important to note that there are also mixed for making oral speech of special brightness and saturation.

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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

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

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!

Word stress in English

Outline

1.
Nature
of word stress

2.
Place
of word stress in English. Degrees of stress

3.
Functions
and tendencies of the English stress

4.
Typology
of accentual structures

1. Nature of word stress

The sequence of syllables in
the word is not pronounced identically. The syllable or syllables
which are uttered with more prominence than the other syllables of
the word are said to be stressed or accented. Stress in the isolated
word is termed word stress; stress in connected speech is termed
sentence stress.

Stress is
defined differently by different authors. B.A. Bogoroditsky, for
instance, defined stress as an increase of energy, accompanied by an
increase of expiratory and articulatory activity. D. Jones defined
stress as the degree of force, which is accompanied by a strong
force of exhalation and gives an impression of loudness. H. Sweet
also stated that stress, is connected with the force of breath.
According to A.C. Gimson, the effect of prominence is achieved by
any or all of four factors: force, tone, length and vowel colour.

If we
compare stressed and unstressed syllables in the words contract
[‘kσntrækt],
to
contract [kən’trækt],
we may note that in the stressed syllable:

(a) the force is greater,
which is connected with more energetic articulation;

(b) the
pitch of voice is higher, which is connected with stronger tenseness
of the vocal cords and the walls of the resonance chamber;

(c) the
quantity of the vowel [æ] in [kən’trækt] is greater, the vowel
becomes longer;

(d) the
quality of the vowel [æ] in the stressed syllable is different from
the quality of this vowel in the unstressed position, in which it is
more narrow than [‘æ].

On the auditory level a
stressed syllable is the part of the word which has a special
prominence. It is produced by a greater loudness and length,
modifications in the pitch and quality. The physical correlates are:
intensity, duration, frequency and the formant structure. All these
features can be analyzed on the acoustic level. Word stress can be
defined as the singling out of one or more syllables in a word,
which is accompanied by the change of the force of utterance, pitch
of the voice, qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the
sound, which is usually a vowel. In different languages one of the
factors constituting word stress is usually more significant than
the others. According to the most important feature different types,
of word stress are distinguished in different languages.

1) If special prominence in a
stressed syllable or syllables is achieved mainly through the
intensity of articulation, such type of stress is called dynamic, or
force stress.

2) If special prominence in a
stressed syllable is achieved mainly through the change of pitch, or
musical tone, such accent is called musical, or tonic. It is
characteristic of the Japanese, Korean and other oriental languages.

3) If special prominence in
a stressed syllable is achieved through the changes in the quantity
of the vowels, which are longer in the stressed syllables than in
the unstressed ones, such type of stress is called quantitative.

4) Qualitative type of stress
is achieved through the changes in the quality of the vowel under
stress.

English word stress is
traditionally defined as dynamic, but in fact, the special
prominence of the stressed syllables is manifested in the English
language not only through the increase of intensity, but also
through the changes in the vowel quantity, consonant and vowel
quality and pitch of the voice.

Russian word stress is not
only dynamic but mostly quantitative and qualitative. The length of
Russian vowels always depends on the position in a word.

Now we
should like to distinguish the notions of word stress and sentence
stress. They are first of all different in their sphere of
application as they are applied to different language units: word
stress is naturally applied to a word, as a linguistic unit,
sentence stress is applied to a phrase. Secondly, the distinction of
the rhythmic structure of a word and a phrase is clearly observed in
the cases when the word stress in notional words is omitted in a
phrase, e.g. I
‘don’t think he is ‘right or
when the rhythmic structure of the isolated word does not coincide
with that of a phrase, e.g. ‘Fifteen.
‘Room Fifteen. ‘Fifteen ‘pages.

So in a speech chain the
phonetic structure of a word obtains additional characteristics
connected with rhythm, melody, and tempo. Though the sentence stress
falls on the syllable marked by the word stress it is not realized
in the stressed syllable of an isolated word but in a word within
speech continuum. Since the spheres of word stress and sentence
stress fall apart their functions are actually different. Sentence
stress organizes a sentence into a linguistic unit, helps to form
its rhythmic and intonation pattern, and performs its distinctive
function on the level of a phrase.

Stress
difficulties peculiar to the accentual structure of the English
language are connected with the vowel special and inherent
prominence. In identical positions the intensity of English vowels
is different. The highest in intensity is /a:/, then go /о:,
з:,
i:, u:, æ, σ, e, υ,
i/.

All
English vowels may occur in accented syllables, the only exception
is /ə/, which is never stressed. English vowels /i, и,
ə υ/
tend to occur in unstressed syllables. Syllables with the syllabic
/1, m, n/ are never stressed. Unstressed diphthongs may partially
lose their glide quality. In stressed syllables English stops have
complete closure, fricatives have full friction, and features of
fortis/lenis distinction are clearly defined.

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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. 

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: 

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