In spoken English, to emphasize a word from the sentence, we
use the rhythm. We pronounce the word strongly (with much
strength and with a tone more high).
1. The stress in the sentence
As a word has a stress, a sentence has stresses too. The sentence
stress is the stress on some specific words.
Examples:
You will come the next week. Won’t you?
Not this week.
To emphasize the subject, we stress it:
Frank did it.
I paid.
Emphasizing an auxiliary express a contradiction with
What it said before:
You are not aware of the trip.
I am.
He didn’t come, after all.
We add do or does or did to a base form to emphasize the verb:
You didn’t see!
I did see.
Unstressed syllables very often have the sound /ə/.
/ə/ glas/ə/ s /ə/ f water
/ə/ pair /ə/ f books
/ə/ book /ə/ bout /ə/ meric/ə/
She takes h/ə/ r brekf/ə/ st
I want t/ə/ go t/ə/ Californi/ə/
2. Rhythm
Rhythm is also important in a speech. It refers to keep
the same time between stressed words in a sentence.
Example:
Frank enjoys reading books. (Four syllables and four syllables stressed.)
As you might know, It will be a nice day tomorrow.
(Twelve syllables and four syllables stressed.)
We take the same time to say these two sentences.
3. Intonation:
The intonation depends on the voice and the tone. Rinsing and
falling tones of the language give more than a meaning to the
sentence.
Examples:
Question:
Are you ready?
Didn’t he come yet?
Exclamation:
What a beautiful day!
That’s too bad!
Tag question:
It has a falling tone and provides a comment
or gives an opinion. The speaker expects the other
person to agree.
You didn’t call yesterday. Did you?
The street is crowded. Isn’t it?
Falling: sure
Increasing: with an exclamation mark: not sure
4. The stress in the sentence
Other examples:
[ə]glas[ə]s [ə]f water
[ə]pair [ə]f books
[ə]book [ə]bout [ə]meric[e]
She takes h[ə]r brekf[ə]st
I want t[ə] go t[ə] Californi[ə]