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The rhythm of English

1/12/2019

1 Comment

 
Category: Pronunciation
English rhythm
As you know, English is a stressed language. So it’s important to learn how to speak with the same rhythm as a native English speaker.

Rhythm is the sense of movement in speech, which is marked by stress, timing and quantity of syllables. Spoken English words with two or more syllables have different stress and length patterns.
The rhythm of English is based on the contrast of stressed and unstressed syllables in regular intervals, with the stresses falling within content words.

The stressed syllables of the sentence create beats. The beats of the following sentence fall on the words 'like' and the second syllable of 'Colombia'.
English rhythm - Example
To know whether the words are stressed or not, we can consider the types of words: content and function.

Words that have the most stress in English are called content words. Content words are usually the nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and pronouns (demonstrative, possessive, reflexive, and interrogative). These words are important to express the main meaning of the sentence.

                        Nouns: Sam, chair, happiness, etc.
                        Verbs: read, love, dance, etc.
                        Adjectives: red, big, strong, etc.
                        Adverbs: nicely, patiently, equally, yesterday, always, etc.   
                        Negative words: not, never, neither, etc.
                        Modals: should, could, might, etc. but not will and can.
                        Yes and No in short answers.
                        Quantifiers: some, many, no, all, one, two, three, etc.
                        Wh-Question words.            

Function words are those words that are weaker and shorter. They include auxiliary verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, determiners, and possessive adjectives. These words are less important in expressing the meaning of the sentence.
​
                        Auxiliary verbs: are, was, has, could, would, etc.  
                        Prepositions: at, on, to, near, etc.
                        Conjunctions: and, so, but, not, however, etc.
                        Determiners: a, an, the, some, any, etc.
                        Pronouns: I, you, she, him, us, ours, etc.

Exercise
Decide which words are function and content words in the following sentences.
  1. John wants to be an actor, so he wants to live in Hollywood.
  2. Mary made an appointment with the dentist on Monday.
  3. What did you do yesterday?
  4. You are not going to that place, are you?
  5. Most people are fully aware that motorcycles can be dangerous to ride.
 
Check your answers below:
Exercise Answers. Content words are in bold and the stressed syllables are in capital letters.
  1. John wants to be an ACtor, so he wants to live in HOllywood.
  2. MAry made an apPOINTment with the DENtist on MONday.
  3. What did you do YESterday?
  4. You are not GOing to that place, are you?
  5. Most PEOple are FULly aWARE that MOtorCYcles can be DANgerous to ride.

​Now practice your English rhythm.
English rhythm exercise - Sentences
English pronunciation - Rhythm exercise
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What to read next
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7 Word stress rules in English
1 Comment

7 Word stress rules in English language

1/7/2019

3 Comments

 
Category: Pronunciation
Word stress rules
To communicate clearly when you are speaking in English, it’s important to stress the correct syllable in each word. All words of more than one syllable have what is called word stress. This means that at least one of the syllables is longer and louder than the other syllables. Basically, stressing means to emphasize a sound.

Uses:
  • Communicating clearly and accurately.
  • Understanding meaning (PRE - sent is a gift, pre - SENT is an action).

There are three very important rules about word stress:
  • One word, one stress.
  • The stress is always on a vowel.
  • Prefixes and suffixes are never stressed.

Rules for stressing
​
RULE #1
Most two-syllable nouns and adjectives
Stress on the first syllable.
 
Examples:
AP-ple
PRE-sent
HA-ppy
CLE-ver

RULE #2
Most two-syllable verbs and prepositions
Stress on the last syllable.
 
Examples:
re-QUIRE
pre-SENT
be-TWEEN

RULE #3
Three-syllable nouns

Stress on the first syllable (except words with long vowel sound: engiNEER).

Examples:
POL-i-tics
GOV-ern-ment
GEN-er-al

RULE #4
Three-syllable adjectives

Stress on the first syllable (except words with long vowel sound: PortuGUESE).
 
Examples:
GEN-er-al
DEL-i-cate
EX-cel-lent

RULE #5
Three-syllable verbs

Stress on the first syllable (except words with prefixes: reMEMber, conTINue).

Examples:
OR-gan-ize
DEC –o-rate
SIG-ni-fy

RULE #6
Words that end in -cy, -ty, -phy and –gy
 Stress on the third-from-last syllable.
 
Examples:
de-MOC- ra-cy
un-CER-tain-ty
ge-OG-ra-phy
ra-di-OL-o-gy

RULE #7
Compound nouns
Stress on the first part.
 
Examples:
HAIR-brush
SOME-thing
HOW-ever
CLASS-room
BREAK-fast
FOOT-ball

Remember that there are exceptions to every rule. Use a dictionary to check the word stress (’) of new words. The best way to learn English stress is to listen to audio materials and to repeat them after the speaker.
3 Comments

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