Pronunciation

Word Stress

Native speakers of English use word stress naturally

Understanding Syllables

Every word is made of syllables.
Each word has 1,2, 3 or more syllables.

word		No.of syllables
cat	cat	1
red	red	1
quite	quite	1
quiet	qui-et	2
orange	or-ange	2
table	ta-ble	2
expensive	ex-pen-sive	3
interesting	in-ter-est-ing	4
realistic	re-al-is-tic	4
unexceptional	un-ex-cep-tion-al	5

Notice that (with a few rare exceptions) every syllable contains at least one vowel (a, e, i, o or u) or vowel sound.

What is Word Stress?

English speakers do not say each syllable with the same force or strength. In one word, a speaker accentuates ONE syllable. He says one syllable very loud (big, strong, important) and all the other syllables quietly.

click word to hear	shape	total syllables	stressed syllable
PHO TO GRAPH		3	#1
PHO TO GRAPH ER		4	#2
PHO TO GRAPH IC		4	#3

TEACH er,

 Ja PAN,

 CHI na,

 a BOVE,

 conver SA tion,

 IN teresting,

im POR tant,

 de MAND,

 et CET era,

The syllables that are not stressed are weak or small or quiet.

Rules of Word Stress in English

1. One word, one stress. (One word cannot have two stresses. So if you hear two stresses, you have heard two words, not one word.)
2. The stress is always on a vowel.

1 Stress on first syllable

rule	example
Most 2-syllable nouns	1.      PRES ent, 2.      EX port, 3.      CHI na, 4.      TA ble
Most 2-syllable adjectives	1.      PRES ent, 2.      SLEN der, 3.      CLEV er, 4.      HAP py

2 Stress on last syllable

rule	example
Most 2-syllable verbs	to pre SENT, to ex PORT, to de CIDE, to be GIN

In English, there are many two-syllable words, their meaning and class change with a change in stress. The word present, for example

3 Stress on penultimate syllable (penultimate = second from end)

rule	example
Words ending in -ic	GRAPH ic, geo GRAPH ic, geo LOG ic
Words ending in -sion and -tion	tele VI sion, reve LA tion

For a few words, native English speakers don't always "agree" on where to put the stress. For example, some people say teleVIsion and others say TELevision. Another example is: CONtroversy and conTROversy.

4 Stress on ante-penultimate syllable (ante-penultimate = third from end)

rule	example
Words ending in -cy, -ty, -phy and -gy	de MO cra cy, de pen da BI li ty, pho TO gra phy, geO Lo gy
Words ending in -al	CRI ti cal, Geo LO Gi cal

5 Compound words (words with two parts)

rule	example
For compound nouns, the stress is on the first part	BLACKbird, GREENhouse
For compound adjectives, the stress is on the second part	bad-TEMpered, old-FASHioned
For compound verbs, the stress is on the second part	to underSTAND,  to overFLOW

Sentence Stress

Like word stress,Sentence stress is the music of spoken English.

Sentence stress is what gives English its rhythm or "beat".

Most sentences have two types of word:

• content words
• structure words

Content words are the key words of a sentence. They are the important words that carry the meaning or sense. If you remove the content words from a sentence, you will not understand the sentence.

Structure words are not very important words. They are small, simple words that make the sentence correct grammatically or "structurally" If you remove the structure words from a sentence, you will probably still understand the sentence.

Imagine that you receive this telegram message:

Will

you

SELL

my

CAR

because

I've

GONE

to

FRANCE

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. We can add a few words:

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. We can add even more words to make one complete, grammatically correct sentence. But the information is basically the same:

Content Words
Will	you	SELL	my	CAR	because	I've	GONE	to	FRANCE.
Structure Words

The 4 key words (sell, car, gone, France) are accentuated or stressed.It is important because it adds "music" to the language. It is the rhythm of the English language.

I am a proFESsional phoTOgrapher whose MAIN INterest is to TAKE SPEcial, BLACK and WHITE PHOtographs that exHIBit ABstract MEANings in their photoGRAPHic STRUCture.

Linking in English

There are basically two types of linking:

• consonant > vowel
  We link words ending with a consonant sound to words beginning with a vowel sound

• vowel > vowel
  We link words ending with a vowel sound to words beginning with a vowel sound

In this lesson we look at:

vowels

a

e

i

o

u

consonants

b

c

d

f

g

h

j

k

l

m

n

p

q

r

s

t

v

w

x

y

z

The important thing in linking is the sound, not the letter. Often the letter and the sound are the same, but not always.

For example, the word "pay" ends with:

• the consonant letter "y" yet it gives the vowel sound "a"

Here are some more examples:

For example	though	know
ends with the letter	h	w
Yet it ends with the sound	o	o

 

For example	uniform	honest
begins with the letter	u	h
Yet it begins with the sound	y	o

 

Linking Consonant to Vowel

When a word ends in a consonant sound, we often move the consonant sound to the beginning of the next word if it starts with a vowel sound.

For example, in the phrase "turn off":

We write it like this:	turn	off
We say it like this:	tur	noff

Remember that it's the sound that matters. In the next example, "have" ends with:

• the letter "e" (vowel)
• the sound "v" (consonant)

So we link "have" to the next word "a" which begins with a vowel sound:

We write it like this:	Can I have a bit of egg?
We say it like this:	Ca-nI-ha-va-bi-to-fegg?

 

Linking Vowel to Vowel

When one word ends with a vowel sound and the next word begins with a vowel sound, we link the words with a sort of W or Y sound.

If our lips are round at the end of the first word, we insert a “W” sound:

oo | o

We write it like this: too often who is so I do all We say it like this: tooWoften whoWis soWI doWall

If our lips are wide at the end of the first word, we insert a Y sound:

oo | --

We write it like this: Kay is I am the end she asked We say it like this: KayYis IYam theYend sheYasked

 

 

Contractions

How to Pronounce "the" in English

When "the" comes before a vowel sound, we pronounce it as a long "thee".

vowel sound	we write	we say
A	the apple	thee apple
E	the egg	thee egg
I	the ice-cream	thee ice-cream
O	the orange	thee orange
U	the ugli fruit	thee ugli fruit

It is important to understand that it is what we say that matters, not what we write. It is the sound that matters, not the letter used in writing a word. So we use a long "thee" before a vowel sound, not necessarily before a vowel. Look at these cases:

we write	with	we say	with
the house	consonant (h)	thuh house	consonant sound
the hour	consonant (h)	thee our	vowel sound
the university	vowel (u)	thuh youniversity	consonant sound
the umbrella	vowel (u)	thee umbrella	vowel sound

When to Say "a" or "an"

The indefinite article is a or an. But how do we know when to say a and when to say an?

The rule is really very simple. It depends on the sound at the start of the following word. (It does not depend on the way we write the following word, it depends on the way we say it.)

A + consonant sound

If the following word starts with a consonant sound, then we say a.

a cat

a game of golf

a human emotion

a Peruvian

a very fat woman

 

An + vowel sound

If the following word starts with a vowel sound, then we say an.

an apple

an extremely easy job

an interesting film

an old man

an umbrella

 

The importance of sound

Normally, we pronounce consonant letters with a consonant sound, and vowel letters with a vowel sound. But there are some exceptions. The rule about a or an is still the same. You just need to think about the sound, not the writing. Look at these examples:

consonant letter with vowel sound
an honest man	on-est
an hour	our
an FBI agent	eff-bee-eye

 

 

Tongue-Twisters