The speaker stressed the word “I” more than all the other words. I think you can identify which word is being stressed. Yet, by putting stress on one word each time, we can give the seven-word sentence seven different meanings. But notice that one single word doesn’t grab your attention. Naturally, some words carry a little more stress than others. By the end of the program, you will understand its simple genius. I chose a sentence that English language teachers have been using for years. Today, we will do a listening exercise to explore the connection between sentence stress and meaning. ![]() ![]() ![]() Smith notes that, in English, even when you use the same words, you can get very different meanings. Her YouTube channel, Rachel’s English, has become a respected tool for learning about pronunciation. Rachel Smith is an American English pronunciation expert based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On this Everyday Grammar program, I will use a simple sentence to show you what that sounds like and how meaning can change completely when the sentence stress changes. Sentence stress is saying a word or words in a sentence louder and longer than the other words. The word “painting,” for instance, has two syllables. Word stress is saying one syllable of a word louder and longer than the other syllables. English speakers use two kinds of stress together when they speak: word stress and sentence stress. When we talk about stress in spoken language, we are talking about saying something louder and holding the sound a little longer. If you are listening to this program, you just heard me add stress to the word “not” to help make that message clear. ![]() But, as you know, that is not true for English. In some languages, speakers say each word in a sentence with equal stress.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |