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Sentence Stress

November 26, 2015

When a little stress is a good thing…

How do students of English learn to speak like native speakers? Everyone knows that pronunciation is important, but some people forget about sentence stress and intonation. The cadence and rhythm of a language are important for fluency and clarity. Languages of the world vary greatly in word and sentence stress—many languages stress content words (e.g., most European languages) while others are tonal (e.g., Thai) or have little to no word stress (e.g., Japanese). Practicing sentence stress in English helps students speak more quickly and naturally. Fortunately for teachers, students usually enjoy activities like the one in the worksheet below! After one of our subscribers asked us for resources on sentence stress this week, I thought I’d share some tips and a worksheet that you can use in class.

Sentence stress occurs when we say certain words more loudly and with more emphasis than others. In English, we stress content words because they are essential to the meaning of the sentence. In general, shorter words or words that are clear from the context don’t get stressed.

To Stress

Content words include nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Negative words such as not or never also get stressed because they affect the meaning of the sentence. Modals, too, can change the meaning of a sentence. Here is a list of words to stress in an English sentence:

  • nouns (people, places, things)
  • verbs (actions, states)
  • adjectives (words that modify nouns)
  • adverbs (words that modify verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, or entire sentences)
  • negative words (not, never, neither, etc.)
  • modals (should, could, might, etc., but not will or can)
  • yes, no, and auxiliary verbs in short answers (e.g., Yes, she does.)
  • quantifiers (some, many, no, all, one, two, three, etc.)
  • Wh-Question words (what, where, when, why, how, etc.—note that what is often unstressed when speaking quickly because it’s so common)

Not to Stress

Some words don’t carry a lot of importance in an English sentence. Short words such as articles, prepositions, and conjunctions don’t take stress. Pronouns don’t usually get stressed either because the context often makes it clear who we’re talking about. The Be verb and all auxiliary verbs don’t carry much meaning—only the main verb does. Here is a list of words that shouldn’t be stressed in an English sentence:

  • articles (a, anthe)
  • prepositions (to, in, at, on, for, from, etc.)
  • conjunctions (and, or, so, but, etc.)
  • personal pronouns (I, you, he, she, etc.)
  • possessive adjectives (my, your, his, her, etc.)
  • Be verb (am, is, are, was, were, etc.)
  • auxiliary verbs (be, have, do in two-part verbs or questions)
  • the modals will and be going to (because they’re common, and the future tense is often clear from context)
  • the modal can (because it’s so common)

Examples

Model the following examples for your students and have them repeat after you. The words (or syllables when the word has more than one) that should be stressed are in bold.

  • The kids are at the park.
  • Do you have any brothers or sisters?
  • Why aren’t you doing your homework?
  • He bought a red car for his daughter.
  • I am Brazilian.
  • We are not familiar with this new computer program.
  • The athlete ran quickly and won the competition.
  • She does not know the answer.
  • I don’t know the answer, either.
  • We aren’t sure.
  • I’ve never heard of that before, but it makes sense.
  • They’ll ask the teacher for help.
  • Some people prefer Macs, but many others prefer PCs.
  • She is going to study tonight.
  • I can speak French.
  • I can’t speak Japanese.
  • Yes, I can. / No, I can’t.

Practice

When practicing sentence stress, whether in the examples above, the worksheet below, or your own activity, encourage reductions such as wanna, gonna, whaddaya, etc. These reductions will make it easier for your students to speak more quickly and will help them recognize when native speakers use these reduced forms. Plus, they’re fun to say!

Sentence Stress – Grammar & Usage Resources

Worksheet Answers

  1. boys, playing, video game
  2. computer, broken
  3. Where, going, after, class
  4. doesn’t,likecake
  5. writing, test, long, time
  6. prefer, coffee, tea
  7. doing, tonight (optional: What /encourage reduced pronunciation of Whaddaya)
  8. brother, wants, buy, red, car (demonstrate wanna for the subjects I, you, we, they, and plural count nouns)
  9. come, party (encourage reduced pronunciation of gonna)
  10. said, has, dog, not, cat

Here’s hoping your students don’t get too stressed!

Tanya

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Comments (74)

Deborah P.(Teacher)

I found that lesson really interesting! It is clearly explained and very useful for the students.

Reply to Comment

Tanya Trusler(Author)

I'm so happy to hear that. Thanks, Deborah!

Sutharcini (Guest)

Thank you. It is very useful and clear.

Tanya Trusler(Author)

Wonderful!

Mr.Hojadr (Guest)

Hi,my dear.
It was so useful but it make me confuse when in the sentence we have lots of 'adjrective,adverd,and verb' and so on .
As an example 'I will (buy) a (nice) (dress) (soon)'
All the words get stress????

Reply to Comment

Tanya Trusler(Author)

Hi Mr. Hojadr,

That's right! You would pronounce it 'da-da-DA da-DA DA DA.' Say the unstressed words (I, will, a) more quickly and softly than the stressed ones (buy, nice, dress, soon). Remember that the last word will have falling intonation since it's the end of a sentence.

Thu (Guest)

Great! It's very useful to me. Thank you so much!

Reply to Comment

Tanya Trusler(Author)

I'm happy to hear that, Thu!

Alison Sattler(Guest)

Thank you very much for describing sentence stress in clear and simple terms, and for your listening and speaking practice sheets. They are very helpful for me as an English language tutor. I plan to use them for my pronunciation lesson tomorrow! :-)

Reply to Comment

Tanya Trusler(Author)

Fantastic! Let us know how it goes, Alison.

Pnina (Guest)

I personally think it is important to provide teaching tools and skiills
It is very useful

Reply to Comment

Tanya Trusler(Author)

I agree! Thanks for your comment.

Ms Myint Myint(Guest)

Thank you. It's of great help.

Reply to Comment

Tanya Trusler(Author)

I'm so glad! Thanks for commenting.

Nidhi (Guest)

Hi. This blog is useful to understand how stress works.
I have a suggestion to make. It would have been ever more useful if you could transcript the sentence into IPA format and then mark the syllables.
Thanks?

Reply to Comment

Tanya Trusler(Author)

Hi Nidhi,

Great idea! I'm working on lessons on syllables, word stress, and sentence stress, and I'm planning on including some words written in IPA with stress marks. Watch for them in this section over the next few months: https://ellii.com/courses/118/lessons

Sandra Jepekemboi(Guest)

I have actually leant a lot. Thanks so much.

Reply to Comment

Tanya Trusler(Author)

I'm so happy to hear this, Sandra!

Adriana C.(Teacher)

Thanks for this lesson. I find the information a bit confusing when it comes to the words that should not be stressed. In the explanation it says that the modal can and the be verb are not stressed, but on the examples, they are stressed like "Yes, I can." (last one) or "Why aren’t you doing your homework? (third). Is there an exception on these two examples?
Thanks!

Reply to Comment

Tanya Trusler(Author)

Great question, Adriana! The stress on modals such as can, might, and will and auxiliary verbs such as be, have, and do is only dropped when the modal or auxiliary is followed by something.

So in a positive sentence or a question, we don't stress the modal or auxiliary (e.g., I can ski. / Can you ski? / You are cold. / Are you cold?).

However, in a short answer with nothing after the modal or auxiliary, we must stress it because it would be awkward to finish a sentence without stress in English (Yes, I can. / No, I can't. / Yes, you are. / No, you aren't.).

Also, negative modals/auxiliaries always have stress because the meaning is affected by the adverb "not" (I can't ski. / You aren't cold.). Hope that helps!

Patience J.(Member)

Stressed this words they have been learning English for two months

Tanya Trusler(Author)

Hi Patience J., you would stress it like this: They have been learning English for two months.

Abdelbasset M.(Member)

Helpful & Reliable. I do like it. I really appreciate your tremendous efforts. Thanks

Reply to Comment

ingilizce kursu istanbul(Guest)

English course is very important. It is necessary to learn a common language in order to communicate easily with people in every international country you visit. That's why it's worth reviewing your course.

Hey You(Guest)

Great lesson thank you very much. I would like to ask 2 questions.

  1. Japanese - stress is not on -nese?

  2. Before - stress on -fore

Reply to Comment

Tanya Trusler(Author)

You're welcome! You are correct. We would say "Ja pa nese" and "be fore." I see that I had stressed the wrong syllables in my post for those words! I will fix that right away, and I really appreciate you bringing this to my attention. Sorry for any confusion!

Teacher Ver(Guest)

Thank you this is very helpful.

Reply to Comment

Tammy Wik(Ellii Staff)

So glad you found it useful. Thanks for the positive feedback :)

Jamilu M.(Member)

I am glad thank you you are well tutor

Reply to Comment

Jamilu M.(Member)

Thank you very much helping us.

Reply to Comment

Jamilu M.(Member)

For helping us

Reply to Comment

Tanya Trusler(Author)

My pleasure, Jamilu! Thanks for your comments.

Naik Mirzad (Guest)

I want to improve my speaking and writing can you help me

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    Lei Kayanuma(Author)

    Hello Naik,

    Our Functional English (https://ellii.com/courses/92/lessons) and Everyday Dialogues (https://ellii.com/courses/76/lessons) sections are great for speaking practice.

    To practice your writing skills, you can check out our Writing in English section (https://ellii.com/courses/74/lessons) It includes various writing activities!

    Tersugh Raymond(Guest)

    If someone Make a sentence like I pass through alot of stresses today.is the sentence right or wrong?

    Reply to Comment

    Tanya Trusler(Author)

    Hi Tersugh, with that use of "stress" (meaning the anxiety and pressure you feel because of work or other things you're worried about), we don't use "pass through" in English. You can use verbs like "feel," have," and "experience" or other common expressions (see examples below). Also, we don't usually use a plural form of the noun, and the adjective forms "stressed" and "stressed out" are very common. Here are some common ways to express stress:
    - I was really stressed out today.
    - Today was (so/very/really) stressful.
    - I had a stressful day.
    - I felt stressed today.

    Premnadh T.(Member)

    Thank you. Your explanation is simple and so clear.

    Reply to Comment

    Lei Kayanuma(Author)

    Thank you for your comment, Premnadh!

    Olasiji S.(Member)

    Wow! This is wonderful. The reductions require more of frequent practices to the ESL learners

    Reply to Comment

    Tanya Trusler(Author)

    Thank you! Practicing intonation helps learners sound more natural when speaking.

    Dominic L.(Member)

    This is quite helpful. Thank you

    Reply to Comment

    Tanya Trusler(Author)

    I'm happy to hear that, Dominic!

    Marva H.(Teacher)

    awesome I always wanted to find ways of improving my students pronunciation

    Reply to Comment

    Tanya Trusler(Author)

    Thanks for your comment, Marva! We will also develop more syllable and intonation materials for our site since they're important for overall pronunciation.

    Pauline M.(Teacher)

    I teach ESL at the Porterville library. I begin on first day with stress and clapping syllable. They do not get it at first, but eventually they do (like a light bulb turning on). They transfer both skills, stress and syllables, from their own language. Thank you for these exercises.

    Reply to Comment

    Tanya Trusler(Author)

    Thanks for sharing what works for you, Pauline! I also loved clapping while teaching my students about syllables and stress. There was another good exercise from an old book (I forget the name now) that was called the Da-Da language exercise (or something like that). It taught students to substitute English sentences for "da" with stress on the appropriate syllable to really focus on intonation (e.g., See you later = DA da DA da). Anything interactive like clapping or other activities is usually a hit in the classroom!

    Mateus P.(Teacher)

    Thanks, Tanya! Very helpful.

    I missed an explanation about demonstrative pronouns, whether they are stressed or not. Sorry if that should be obvious, I'm not a native speaker :)

    I saw in your examples, one that has "this" stressed and another that has "that" stressed. What is the rule here?

    Reply to Comment

    Tanya Trusler(Author)

    Hi Mateus, great question! When this/that/these/those are demonstrative pronouns (not followed by another noun), we would usually stress them. When this/that/these/those are demonstrative adjectives (followed by another noun), we wouldn't stress them.

    The logic here is that when a pronoun replaces a noun, it's more of a content word that needs stress. When acting as an adjective, it functions more like an article (not much content—it's the following noun that has the true content). However, an exception is if you need to distinguish between two nouns (e.g., if you're pointing)—in that case, you would want to stress this/that/these/those even though they're demonstrative adjectives. Here are some examples:

    • This is what I was talking about! (pronoun, stressed)
    • Here are five things I like about this book. (adjective, not stressed)
    • I want to buy this jacket, not that jacket. (emphasized adjective, stressed)

    Zoltan Kiraly(Guest)

    Nice post. I was wondering what is happening to those words that have both primary and secondary stress in a sentence. For instance, the word "Something" when used in a sentence: "Something is wrong". Does the word "something" lose it's secondary stress on the second syllable?

    Reply to Comment

    Tanya Trusler(Author)

    Hi Zoltan, great question. In a sentence, words like "something" or "anything" don't have much content/meaning, but it would be more natural to hear those words with secondary stress when they're in the subject position: Something is wrong. You could say "something" without stress in that sentence if you were speaking very quickly, but most people would probably apply a bit of stress to it.

    Note that "something" has stress on the first syllable (something), not the second. The second part would have stress only if "thing" was a separate noun (some thing).

    Queen Jessi(Guest)

    It really understandable

    Reply to Comment

    Tanya Trusler(Author)

    That's great to hear! Thanks for your comment.

    Irene Nikoloski(Guest)

    I never paid attention to sword tress, I though it comes naturally. How wrong have I been :-)
    Thank you Eliii!

    Reply to Comment

    Tanya Trusler(Author)

    Hi Irene, it can happen naturally too, especially if you listen to English a lot. It also depends on your first language. Sometimes intonation is similar between languages, but sometimes it's quite different (depending on the languages). It often helps to have guidelines to follow so you can be sure you're doing it right.

    Denis YABRE (Guest)

    I'm interested in this session

    Reply to Comment

    Tanya Trusler(Author)

    I glad this interests you, Denis! Thanks for your comment.

    Carla C.(Teacher)

    Could we get an interactive lesson on this topic? It is such a good topic to discuss especially for online teaching.

    Reply to Comment

    Tanya Trusler(Author)

    Hi Carla, great idea! I'll pass on your suggestion to our publishing team.

    Happiness C.(Member)

    Hmmmm! Stress is an interesting topic even though it's not easy to understand this part, but I will keep working on my self. Thanks

    Reply to Comment

    Tanya Trusler(Author)

    Good for you. Happy studying!

    Shaxnoza M.(Teacher)

    Good day. As we know there different types pronouns in English. Are they all unstressed in the sentence? For example: some, any, none, etc

    Reply to Comment

    Tanya Trusler(Author)

    That's a great question, Shaxnoza. When words like "some" and "any" are acting as adjectives, they won't usually be stressed. (E.g., Do you want some tea?) As pronouns, since there is no noun following, they will have stress. (E.g., Yes, I'd like some.) An exception is "no" as an adjective—both the adjective "no" and the pronoun "none" will usually have stress because a negative element affects the sentence meaning so much. (E.g., There is no time. / There is none.)

    Hanine Damaj(Guest)

    How do I beat the stress of the following sentences in the conversation?

    Hello. Sasha here.
    Hi, it's Mustafa.
    Hi Mustafa. How are you?
    I'm fine, thanks. How about you?
    Very well, thanks.
    Are you busy? Do you want to have lunch in that Turkish place on Broad Street?

    Reply to Comment

    Tanya Trusler(Author)

    Hi Hanine, here's what I'd do:

    Hello. Sasha here.
    Hi, it's Mustafa.
    Hi, Mustafa. How are you?
    I'm fine, thanks. How about you?
    Very well, thanks.
    Are you busy? Do you want to have lunch at that Turkish place on Broad Street?

    Reply to Comment

    Stephan Walters (Guest)

    Do you want to have lunch at that Turkish place at board street. You didn't stress 'want have' can I Know why?

    Tanya Trusler(Author)

    Hi Stephen, it depends on how quickly you're speaking. If you're speaking quite slowly, then it would be natural to stress all the verbs including "want" and "have" (Do you want to have lunch at that Turkish place on Broad Street?).

    However, if you're speaking quickly, "want to" is often reduced to "wanna" and not stressed. "Have" also doesn't have much meaning here and wouldn't be stressed (since the word "lunch" already implies "have/eat"). When speaking quickly, this question would sound like this: D'ya wanna have lunch at that Turkish place on Broad Street? (written as "Do you want to have lunch at that Turkish place on Broad Street?")

    David umunnakwe(Guest)

    ɨt ɦɛʟքɛɖ ʍɛ ʀɛaʟʏ աɛʟʟ as a stʊɖɛռt

    Reply to Comment

    Tanya Trusler(Author)

    I'm glad to hear it, David!

    AJ M(Guest)

    Hi, I’m not 100% sure where to place the stress in the following sentences. The more I say them the more confused I get.
    How have you been?”
    “Did (s)he just hang up on me?”
    Talk to me! “
    “Can I call you now?”
    ”Let me help you out
    “Could you take a quick look?”
    Good morning!”
    Are these correct?
    Thanks for your help! Fantastic article by the way!

    Reply to Comment

    Tanya Trusler(Author)

    Hi AJ, great guesses! Your choices are mostly natural, but we don't usually stress subject or object pronouns. Here are my suggestions:
    How have you been?”
    “Did (s)he just hang up on me?”
    Talk to me! “
    “Can I call you now?”
    ”Let me help you out.”
    “Could you take a quick look?”
    Good morning!”

    Marvin Lim(Guest)

    Very helpful and interesting. Thanks.

    Reply to Comment

    Tanya Trusler(Author)

    Glad it was helpful, Marvin!

    Azaan K.(Teacher)

    This was so helpful! I just started teaching and I often struggle with teaching word stress to my learners, but this really helped me. Thank you!

    Reply to Comment

    Tanya Trusler(Author)

    That's wonderful to hear! Glad it helped.

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