Lesson 13 – Stress rules in a sentence

Imitation

Listening is how you improve. Listen to and imitate the following story. Pause the video after each sentence if you need to.

Go through the video again and note which words are stressed.

Review

Syllables

How many syllables do these words have? What is the primary and secondary stress? You can look them up in an online dictionary like Dictionary.com. Choose “Show IPA” for the pronunciation.

• take after
• unverifiable
• advertisement
• obligatory
• vocabulary
• changed
• everywhere
• furthermore
• Portuguese
• materialistic
• horizontal
• standardized
• drive

Poem rhythm

Read Sea Fever again using the marked words as the stress rhythm:

 

Sea Fever
John Masefield (1874-1967)

I ˈmust go down to the ˈseas again, to the ˈlonely sea and the ˈsky,
And ˈall I ask is a ˈtall ship and a ˈstar to steer her ˈby,
And the ˈwheel’s kick and the ˈwind’s song and the ˈwhite sail’s ˈshaking,
And a ˈgray mist on the ˈsea’s face, and a ˈgray dawn ˈbreaking.

I ˈmust go down to the ˈseas again, for the ˈcall of the running ˈtide
Is a ˈwild call and a ˈclear call that ˈmay not be deˈnied;
And ˈall I ask is a ˈwindy day with the ˈwhite clouds ˈflying,
And the ˈflung spray and the ˈblown spume, and the ˈsea-gulls ˈcrying.

I ˈmust go down to the ˈseas again, to the ˈvagrant gypsy ˈlife,
To the ˈgull’s way and the ˈwhale’s way, where the ˈwind’s like a whetted ˈknife;
And ˈall I ask is a ˈmerry yarn from a ˈlaughing fellow-ˈrover,
And ˈquiet sleep and a ˈsweet dream when the ˈlong trick’s ˈover.

 

This recording emphasizes the rhythm slightly more than a natural reading would.

Stressed and unstressed words

Listen to which words are stressed in the following sentence:

I’m going to the store in a week.

Stressed words

The following types of words are usually stressed in a sentence:

Nouns	chair, dog, house
Verbs	run, love, go, eat
Adjectives	tall, green, beautiful
Numbers	four, eighty-seven, first
Adverbs	quickly, not, very
Wh- question words	who, what, when, how
Some pronouns	this, that, these, those, myself, himself
Single words	Yes, No, Hi, Oh, Hey, Wow

You could summarize most of these words as meaning words.

Unstressed words

These words are usually unstressed in a sentence:

Articles	a, an, the
Pronouns	he, she, they, his, her, my, that, whose
Helping verbs	be, have, do, can, may
Conjunctions	and, or, but, if, than, while
Propositions	to, in, on, for, with, from

 

Examples

I am going to my home.

Peter jumped on the chair.

The red car is very small and very fast.

How do you get to the bank?

Practice

I want a new book.

She can give him the money.

When do you eat lunch?

It’s small but it isn’t cheap.

That fish swam quickly through the water.

The man who is wearing the green hat looked at me.

More practice

(Taken from Manual of American English Pronunciation p. 33)

 

I don’t imagine you can succeed in a business venture.

In an hour it will be ready to turn over to you.

This red rose is to be planted here.

He eats three full meals each day.

I shall deliver it to you.

She says that she likes the apartment, doesn’t she?

Breaking the stress rules

For better rhythm

That ‘fish swam ‘quickly through the ‘water.
I’ll get ‘fruit and ‘vegetables.
‘Mike wants to eat ‘pizza.

For comparison or contradiction

‘He wants ‘two, but ‘I want ‘three.
‘How about ‘you?
It’s not ‘on the table. It’s ‘under the table.

General rule: Stress the important words that express your meaning

‘Oh, so ‘that’s why he was ‘crying.
‘What are ‘you doing here?
Are you going to call Tom now?
My red shirt is on the table.

Homework

IPA doubles dictation: Get 90% or more on the app with 50 sounds

Mark the stressed words in the following sentences according to the stress rules:

Write the following story in IPA, marking the stressed words: