Pronunciation: using stress to

convey meaning
Introduction
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Let’s focus

1 Are you serious?

2 ARE you serious?
3 Are YOU serious?
4 Are you SERIOUS? = probably the best

1 YOU want me to climb a mountain?

2 You want me TO climb a MOUNTAIN?
3 You want ME to CLIMB a MOUNTAIN? = probably the best
4 You WANT me to climb A mountain?

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Lead-in
Look at these five sentences:

1. HE didn’t steal my bag = Someone else did!

2. He DIDN’T steal my bag = he’s not a criminal!
3. He didn’t STEAL my bag = he borrowed it?
4. He didn’t steal MY bag = someone else’s
5. He didn’t steal my BAG = my phone?

How does the stress change meaning? How do you

interpret each of these sentences?

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Let’s focus

English is a stress-timed language. This means that when you speak,

stress occurs at regular intervals. Some syllables will be longer, some
syllables will be shorter.

Look at this sentence again. Try to say it out loud making all the syllables
the same length.

He didn’t steal my bag

Do you know what the speaker is trying to say here? What is the meaning?
Stress is used to make a sentence clearer.

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Let’s focus

English is a stress-timed language. This means that when you speak,

stress occurs at regular intervals. Some syllables will be longer, some
syllables will be shorter.

Listen to this sentence again. When we stress the word steal, which
syllables become unstressed? Write your answers in the chat.
He didn’t STEAL my bag = he borrowed it.

Why do you think these words are unstressed? Do they affect the meaning
of this sentence? Write your answers in the chat.

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Form

….So which words do I need to

stress?

The place of the main sentence stress

is manipulated by the speaker and
depends on the information the
speaker wants to convey. However,
there are some general rules you can
follow.
Form
Let’s look at a different example: I asked you to buy me a bunch of red roses.

CONTENT WORDS
These are the words that carry the most meaning. E.g. nouns, main verbs,
adjectives and adverbs. They are usually stressed.

FUNCTION WORDS
Grammatically important, but not important for the meaning of the sentence.
E.g. articles, prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns. They are usually unstressed.
However, there are circumstances in which function words are stressed such as
when they show negation, emphasis and contrast.
Check your understanding

1. Are content words usually stressed? = Yes!

2. Can function words ever be stressed? = Yes!

3. True or False: Examples of function words include nouns,

main verbs, adjectives and adverbs = No! These are
CONTENT words.

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Key points
1. English is a stress-timed language

2. Content words are usually stressed (verbs/adverbs/adjectives/nouns)

3. Function words are usually unstressed (articles/prepositions)

4. We can add stress to different words to change the meaning of the

sentence

Pronunciation tip:
In fluent speech, function words are often reduced. Vowel sounds in
function words often become a schwa (ə or the ‘uh’ sound). The
Pron25 Advanced Schwa webinar can help you with this!
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Practice
Match the stress pattern to its meaning. Type your answers in the chat box.

1. I asked YOU to buy me a bunch of red roses

2. I asked you to buy ME a bunch of red roses
3. I asked you to buy me a BUNCH of red roses
4. I asked you to buy me a bunch of red ROSES

A. A different type of flower was bought

B. Roses were bought for someone else
C. Only one or two roses were bought
D. Someone else bought the roses

Now practise saying the 4 sentences using the different stress patterns.
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How to practice after class

1. If you have a presentation to do, look at your speech and highlight the
stressed words. Think about which words are the most important for your
audience to hear. (verbs/nouns/people/numbers/names)

2. Record yourself speaking as you would do normally. Then record

yourself speaking when your really over-emphasise the stressed words in
your sentences. Consider which recording sounds more fluent.

3. Listen or watch videos that have subtitles or a transcript. Pause the

video at regular intervals and highlight the stressed words. Then read the
text out loud using the same stress as the speaker.
Pronunciation Checkout

Look at the following sentence. Which words are stressed

(content words) and which are unstressed (function words)?

I’ve heard that Marley and Bob spend their holidays in Jamaica.

Bonus question:
If you wanted to show surprise that both people spent their
holidays in Jamaica, which word would you stress?

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Pronunciation Checkout - Answers

Look at the following sentence. Which words are stressed

(content words) and which are unstressed (function words)?

I’ve heard that Marley and Bob spend their holidays in Jamaica.

Stressed – heard, Bob, Marley, spent, holidays, Jamaica

Unstressed – I’ve, that, and, their, in
Bonus question:
If you wanted to show surprise that both people spent their
holidays in Jamaica, which word would you stress? and
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Thank you for attending this
presentation!
Review the next few slides for lessons linked to this Live25 webinar.

https://www.britishcouncil.vn/en/myclass/language-skills-
development/pronunciation
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Speaking
Gifts: effective pronunciation
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Lesson: Things I can do Upper intermediate
Theme: Negotiations
Lesson: Chairing the meeting

Pre-intermediate
Theme: Business communication
Lesson: Investigating a problem

Advanced
Intermediate Theme: Expand your horizons
Theme: Presentations and processes Lesson: You be the judge
Lesson: Giving a presentation
 If you’re an English for Work student, now you’re ready for…

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Theme: At work Theme: A new position
Lesson: Showing your best Lesson: Describing yourself

Intermediate Upper intermediate Advanced

Theme: Ready to work Theme: Evaluating performance Theme: People and events
Lesson: Strengths and weaknesses Lesson: Looking ahead Lesson: Negotiating