English is a stressed language while many other languages are considered syllabic. What does that mean? It means that, in English, we give stress to certain words while other words are quickly spoken (some students say eaten!). In other languages, such as French or Italian, each syllable receives equal importance (there is stress, but each syllable has its own length).
Many speakers of syllabic languages don't understand why we quickly speak, or swallow, a number of words in a sentence. In syllabic languages each syllable has equal importance, and therefore equal time is needed. English however, spends more time on specific stressed words while quickly gliding over the other, less important, words.
Many speakers of syllabic languages don't understand why we quickly speak, or swallow, a number of words in a sentence. In syllabic languages each syllable has equal importance, and therefore equal time is needed. English however, spends more time on specific stressed words while quickly gliding over the other, less important, words.
You need to understand which words we generally stress and which we do not stress. Basically, stress words are considered CONTENT WORDS such as
- Nouns e.g. kitchen, Peter
- (most) principal verbs e.g. visit, construct
- Adjectives e.g. beautiful, interesting
- Adverbs e.g. often, carefully
Non-stressed words are considered FUNCTION WORDS such as
- Determiners e.g. the, a, some, a few
- Auxiliary verbs e.g. don't, am, can, were
- Prepositions e.g. before, next to, opposite
- Conjunctions e.g. but, while, as
- Pronouns e.g. they, she, us
Mark the stressed words in the following sentences. After you have found the stressed words, practice reading the sentences aloud.
- John is coming over tonight. We are going to work on our homework together.
- Ecstasy is an extremely dangerous drug.
- We should have visited some more castles while we were traveling through the back roads of France.
- Jack bought a new car last Friday but he never sold his old one.
- They are looking forward to your visiting them next January.
- Exciting discoveries lie in Tom's future.
- Would you like to come over and play a game of chess?
- They have been having to work hard these last few months on their challenging experiment.
- Shakespeare wrote passionate, moving poetry.
- As you might have expected, he has just thought of a new approach to the problem.
- He wanted to eat at the restaurant this weekend but I didn't want to go out
Paragraph to be Read
Our school is the best in town. The teachers are friendly, and very knowledgeable about English. I've studied at the school for two years and my English is becoming very good. I hope you will visit our school and try an English class. Maybe we can become friends, too!
Paragraph with Sound Scripting Markup
Our school is the BEST in town. The teachers arefriendly, and VERY KNOWLEDGEABLE aboutEnglish. I've studied at the school for two yearsand my English is becoming VERY GOOD. I hopeyou will visit our school and try an English class.MAYBE we can become FRIENDS! -
Paragraph to be Read
In this day and age, facts, statistics and other numbers are used to prove everything. Intuition, gut feelings and personal preferences are all out the door. Of course, there are some who are trying to battle this trend. Recently, Malcolm Gladwell wrote Blink, a best-seller which explores the usefulness of making split-second decisions based on intuition rather than careful consideration of all the facts and figures.
In this book, Gladwell argues that initial impressions - or gut-feelings - are quite rational. However, that this "split-second" thinking process moves faster than what we usually associate with thinking. If you are one of these people - and there are many of us - Blink provides "proof" that you're actually quite a rational human being.
Paragraph with Sound Scripting Markup
In this day and age, facts, statistics and other numbers are used to prove EVERYTHING.Intuition, gut feelings and personal preferences are all OUT THE DOOR. Of course, there ARE some who are trying to battle this trend. Recently, Malcolm Gladwell wrote BLINK, abest-seller which explores the USEFULNESS of making SPLIT-SECOND DECISIONS based on INTUITION rather than careful consideration of all the facts and figures.
In his book, Gladwell argues that INITIAL IMPRESSIONS - or GUT-FEELINGS - are quite rational. However, that this "split-second" thinking process moves FASTER than what we usually associate with thinking. If YOU are one of these people - and there are MANY of us -Blink provides "PROOF" that you're actually quite a RATIONAL HUMAN BEING.
Read the following article and identify the Content (stressed) and non-content (non-stressed) words
Read the following article and identify the Content (stressed) and non-content (non-stressed) words
Woman shocked when surgical pin pops out of pregnant belly
A woman from the U.K. has a surgical pin poking through her stomach, just inches away from her unborn baby, Metro.co.uk reported.
Kelly Donegan had her appendix removed in 2009, and surgeons must have accidentally left the pin inside.
The 26-year-old said she has been feeling some “discomfort” on the left side of her stomach, and six weeks before her baby was due, the pin popped through her skin.
Doctors told her she has to wait until her baby is delivered before they can remove the pin.
Donegan was told her unborn child will be unaffected by the pin.
“All they can do until then is trim the sharp end off it, so it doesn’t catch on things,” said Donegan, who lives in Bletchley, Buckinghamshire, in the U.K. “It’s horrible, and it’s also quite sore. But, there’s nothing I can do except wait.”
English Tongue Twisters to Improve your Pronunciation
English Tongue Twisters to Improve your Pronunciation
- clam cream can: How can a clam cram in a clean cream can?
- Four furious friends: Four furious friends fought for the phone.
- Green glass globes: Green glass globes glow greenly.
- Ice cream : I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!
- Sandwich sane witch: There's a sandwich on the sand which was sent by a sane witch
- Spell New York: Knife and a fork, bottle and a cork, that is the way you spell New York
- I thought of thinking: I thought, I thought of thinking of thanking you but then I thought of thanking you thirty thousand times.
