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Sentence stress- content words
Natalia Uñate Cuevas
Created on September 28, 2021
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Transcript
SENTENCE STRESS
START
What is stress?
Content words
Focus word
Contents
Sentence stress
What is it?
The glass is on the table
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Sentence stress is pronouncing words with a change in
Sentence stress
Not every single word is pronounced the same. There are important words in a sentence that need to be emphasized, while there are some others that are reduced.
- Volume
- Lenght
- Pitch
Reduced
Stressed
Function words
Content words
- Articles
- Prepositions
- Modals
- Auxiliary verbs
- Conjuctions
- Nouns
- Adjectives
- Verbs
- Adverbs
Sentence stress
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In other words...
Content words: Important: emphasized
Function words: less important: reduced
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Content words
Stressed
The words that are most important to understanding a sentence are longer, louder and higher in pitch
The following sentences have one content word only
boy!
It's a
it!
love
There it
goes
It
stopped
know
him
him
we
found
But in most scenarios we have more than one content word only
Focus word
More than one content word in a sentence
When there is more than one content word in a sentence, there is always one word that will stand out
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Rome is a content word
Italy is the focus word
Rome is in Italy
What are the content words?
Make yourself some coffee
What are the content words?
Make yourself some coffee
What is the focus word?
Make yourself some coffee
What is the function word?
coffee
Make yourself some
What are the content words?
She gave me a present
What are the content words?
She gave me a present
What is the focus word?
She gave me a present
What is the focus word?
She gave me a
present
What are the content words?
The children are playing in the park
What are the content words?
The children are playing in the park
What is the focus word?
The children are playing in the park
What is the focus word?
The children are playing in the
park
Practice time
Sentence stress
Read the following sentences and choose the content words and the function word
- The class will start in an hour
- He brought a present for Ana
- My highschool friends like to play basketball every evening
- He usually goes for a walk after breakfast
- My friends will come home next week
Focal intonation
Remember, stress is flexible and depends on the speaker's intentions. It's a tool we can use to emphasize the words we consider necessary depending on the specific meaning we want to give
Stress can be used on content and function words to give a specific meaning to a sentence.
You'll see the same sentence with one word that's being stressed the most. Is there any difference in meaning?
I never said she stole my money
I never said she stole my money
I never said she stole my money
I never said she stole my money
I never said she stole my money
I never said she stole my money
I never said she stole my money
Watch the following video to understand a bit more focal intonation
THANKS