What is content word and function word?

Content words are the word class which is not limited as adjectives, nouns, verbs…ect, they
give you the key idea. The function words are the word class which is limited as determiners
(the, a, an), pronoun, preposition…ect, they do not give you the key idea.

What are weak and strong syllables?

All words are stressed when they are alone, eg: 'home, 'that, but in the sentence only the
content words are stressed, eg: the 'home of 'movies. But how to know where we have to put
the stress when the word occurs alone
1. When the syllable have a schwa ,we don not put it eg: forget /f ∂ 'g e t/
2. when we have a final “i” ,we do not put it eg: happy / 'h æ p i /
3. prefixes or suffixes , we do not put it eg: react / r i 'æ k t/
4. when we have /U/ before another vowel in the word, we do not put it eg: evacuation
/ I 'v k j U e I ∫ n/
5. when we have a syllabic consonant , we do not put it eg: panel / p æ n Ļ/

What is the structure of the syllable?

1. Onset: consonant precedes vowels.

2. Peak: the vowel. P a t
3. Coda: consonant after the vowels.

- Weak form= function words=unstressed.

Strong form= content word= stressed.

The function words can be in their strong form as their weak form but with some rules:
1. Always weak form before consonant and strong forms before vowels, eg:
- the door / ð∂/ the end /ði/.
- a door /∂/ an apple /∂n/ and see / ∂n/ (sometimes /ņ/ after t d s z ∫)
2. when the h is in the beginning of the sentence we write it, eg: he closed the door
/hi/ but when it is at the middle or the end we omit the h, eg: when he was young
/i/
3. Function words end with “er” like “her, your” we write /∂/ before consonant, eg:
…her bus and we write/∂r/ before vowels, eg: …her own.
4. function words are always strong at the end of the sentence, eg: “from” /frОm/
But at the beginning it is weak /frΛm/ for the most of other function words in the strong form
it is written /æ/ and weak form is written/∂/ as in can, weak in “they can wait” and strong in
“I think we can”.
5. Pronoun is always weak form (she, he, we, you, us), that when it is demonstrative
it is strong form and when it is relative it is weak form. And so many other rules.

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