Sentence Stress

Sentence Stress in English

Two types of words in most sentences.
1.Content words - These are the key words of a sentence. They are the important words that carry the meaning or sense.
2.Structure words – These are not very important words.They are small,simple words that make the sentence correct grammatically.

(1) Will you SELL me CAR because I’m GONE to FRANCE.
This sentence is not complete. It’s not grammatically correct. 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.

Will you SELL my CAR because I’ve GONE to FRANCE.
The new words do not really add any more information . But they make the message more correct grammatically.
Why we discuss it? 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 the example 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. A constant beat on the stressed words is maintained.To do this, we say ‘my’ more slowly , and ‘because I’ve ‘ more quickly. The speed of the small structure words is changed so that the rhythm of the key content words stays the same.


Syllable

2 1 3 4
Will you SELL my CAR because I’ve GONE to FRANCE


Rules for sentence stress
1.Content words are stressed.
2.Structure words are unstressed.
3.The time between stressed words is always the same.
Examples of Content words - stressed
Main verbs - Sell, give, employ
Nouns -Car ,Music,Mary
Adjectives -Red,Big,Interesting
Adverbs -Quickly,Loudly,Never
Negative Auxilliaries -Don’t,Aren’t,Can’t
Structure words - unstressed
Pronouns - he,we,they
Preposition -on ,at ,into
Articles -a ,an, the
Conjunctions -and,but,because
Auxiliary verbs -do,be,have,can,must