This document discusses pronunciation in English, specifically content words versus grammar words and sentence stress. It notes that English is a stress-timed language, meaning some syllables are longer and more prominent than others. Content words like nouns, verbs, adjectives are usually stressed, while small function words are not. Sentence stress gives English its rhythm, and stressing different words can change a sentence's meaning. Examples are provided of sentences with various words stressed. The document encourages practicing stress patterns through poems, limericks and copying audiobook readers.

1. Pronunciation: Lesson 4
By @EasyEnglishwithJames

3. Many of my students tell me the reasons they found
listening difficult in English…
Some comments were:
"The words come too fast“
"I panic when I don't understand every word“
"Some words are swallowed“
“It sounds like they aren’t pronouncing every word properly”
“Some words are really quick and some words are really slow”
“When I pronounce a word it sounds different to how native speakers say it in a sentence”.

4. Content Words vs Grammar Words
A lot of people think, when they’re studying a language they need to
pronounce each word fully and clearly in order to be
well-understood. But in English that’s actually not true. English is a
stress-timed language. That means some syllables will be longer, and
some will be shorter. Many languages, however, are syllable-timed,
which means each syllable has the same length. Examples of
syllable-timed languages: French, Spanish, and Cantonese. So, when
an American hears a sentence of Spanish, with each syllable having
the same length, it can sound strange and be more difficult to
understand. This is because we are used to stressed syllables,
syllables that will pop out of the line because they’re longer and they
have more shape. Our ears, our brains, go straight to those words.
Those are the content words. When all syllables are the same length,
then there’s no way for the ear to know which words are the most
important.

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

6. Which sentence takes the longest to read?

7. Content Words vs
Grammar Words
“When you are unsure of which words to stress and which words
not to stress. The ‘default’ stress in English often involves
Stressing CONTENT WORDS and not stressing GRAMMAR Words.

8. Which words should be stressed?
How can we know which words to stress in a sentence? There are no hard-and-fast (obvious)
sentence stress rules, but there are some general principles that will help you use stress
properly when speaking in English. You can often tell which words should be stressed based
on the parts of speech and where the words fall (occur) in a sentence.
•Content words (nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and main verbs) are usually stressed.
•Function words (determiners, prepositions, and conjunctions) are usually unstressed unless
you want to emphasize their role(s) in a sentence.
•Question words (who, what, when, where, why, and how) are usually unstressed unless you
want to emphasize their role(s) in a sentence.
•Subject pronouns (I, You, He, She, We, They) are usually unstressed, while object pronouns
(me, you, him, her, us, them) are usually stressed.

9. Pronoun Main Verb Adverb Preposition Determiner Noun
I Went Quickly To The Car
Unstressed Stressed
(Can also be
unstressed.)
Stressed Unstressed Unstressed Stressed

10. Content Words vs Grammar Words
I have my and a
sold car bought motorbike
I have sold my car and bought a
motorbike.

11. With stress vs without stress…
"It is true for all that that that, that that that refers to is not the
same that, that that that refers to.”
"It is true for all that that that, that that that refers to is not the
same that, that that that refers to.”
ðət ðət
ðət

12. Notice how different stress to different words changes the meaning:
•I ran quickly to the car. (emphasizes who is doing the running)
•I ran quickly to the car. (emphasizes what action is being done)
•I ran quickly to the car. (emphasizes the way in which you ran, but does not fundamentally change
the meaning of the sentence)
•I ran quickly to the car. (inappropriate sense stress, but emphasizes the direction in which you ran)
•I ran quickly to the car. (inappropriate sense stress, but emphasizes that it was a specific car)
•I ran quickly to the car. (emphasizes the object or location to which you ran)
Practice stressing different words in a sentence…

13. Look at this sentence to see how to stress different words to alter the meaning:
•I asked you to buy me a pack of yellow stickers. (emphasizes who is doing the asking)
•I asked you to buy me a pack of yellow stickers (emphasizes who should have bought the stickers)
•I asked you to buy me a pack of yellow stickers (emphasizes who is the receiver)
•I asked you to buy me a pack of yellow stickers (emphasizes that a pack and not any other type is bought)
•I asked you to buy me a pack of yellow stickers. (emphasizes the colour of the stickers wanted)
•I asked you to buy me a pack of yellow stickers. (emphasizes the type of product wanted)
You could also say…(if you wanted to be funny)…
•I asked you to buy me a pack of yellow stickers. (implies that you STOLE the stickers instead of buying them)
Practice stressing different words in a sentence…

14. Record Yourself at home
practicing these limericks.

15. There was a young lady from Niger,
Who smiled as she rode on a tiger.
After the ride
She was inside,
And the smile on the face of the tiger.
Practice Poems and Limericks

16. There was a young lady from Niger,
Who smiled as she rode on a tiger.
After the ride
She was inside,
And the smile on the face of the tiger.
Practice Poems and Limericks

17. Practice Poems and Limericks
There once was a lady named Lynn
Who was so uncommonly thin,
that when she essayed
to drink lemonade,
she slipped through the straw and fell
in!

18. Practice Poems and Limericks
There once was a lady named Lynn
Who was so uncommonly thin,
that when she essayed
to drink lemonade,
she slipped through the straw and fell
in!

19. Practice copying the characters in this scene until you sound just like them!
Try closing your eyes and listening for the STRESSED WORDS.

20. Listen to
audiobooks and
read at the
same time!
Practice until
you can copy
the readers
STRESS,
INTONATION
and SPEED.