1.2. Sentence Stress Flashcards
(6 cards)
Can we have stresses close together in a sentence in English?
No. English avoids it.
What words usually gets stressed in a sentence? What words do NOT usually get stressed?
We stress concept words or the words, which carry the lexical meaning: “She is tall and very attractive” (tall, very, attractive are stressed);
The grammar words are not usually stressed;
What are the exceptions regarding stresses of grammar words? When do they get stressed?
Auxiliary, modal and link verbs are stressed in contractions: “Yes, I ‘am”, “Yes, he ‘must”;
Prepositions are usually stressed in final position: “What is he looking ‘after?”;
Conjunctions are stressed if they start the sentence and are followed by an unstressed word: “‘If she is here by six”;
What are strong and weak forms of words? Does isolated pronunciation differ from the pronunciation in connected speech?
Isolated and connected speech pronunciation differ:
Bread and butter: /bred ənd ˈbʌtə/ (strong) and /bred n ˈbʌtə/ (weak)
What are the words that have two forms of pronunciation (weak and strong)?
About 50 words in English have two forms of pronunciation: strong (stressed) and weak (unstressed). Those are ‘little’ words with a grammatical meaning: auxiliary, link and modal verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, articles, particles and some of pronouns.
Does English need weak forms? How do we make it sound more natural?
Yes. It makes English sound English. Try weakening all the grammar words and attaching them to the previous concept words: “I can see it” - /aɪkənsi:ɪt/, “I need some paper” - /aɪniːdsəm ˈpeɪpə/
