Talk a Lot Foundation Course Talk a Lot Foundation Course © English Banana.com i Lesson 3: Stress Le sn 3: Stres Reference: Talk a Lot Handbook (English Banana.com, 2009) 12.1 What is Sentence Stress? 12.28 List of Common Contractions in English 13.1 What is Word Stress? 15.1 Suffixes 16.1 Compound Nouns 17.1 Weak Forms Talk a Lot Foundation Course Lesson 3 – Stress Talk a Lot Foundation Course © English Banana.com Lesson 3 Outline 3.1 English is a stress-timed language, not a syllable-timed language _____________________________________________________________________________________________ 3.2 Content words each have one strong stress, while function words are not stressed _____________________________________________________________________________________________ 3.3 Word stress is irregular in English _____________________________________________________________________________________________ 3.4 Communication is reduced when we don’t use sentence stress _____________________________________________________________________________________________ 3.5 The sound spine is the sequence of vowel sounds on the stressed syllables in a sentence _____________________________________________________________________________________________ 3.6 It is not necessary to pronounce every letter in every word in every sentence _____________________________________________________________________________________________ 3.7 We reduce function words by using contractions and mega contractions _____________________________________________________________________________________________ 3.8 We also reduce function words by using weak forms _____________________________________________________________________________________________ 3.9 Most of the top 100 most common words in written English are function words, which have weak forms that students do not generally use _____________________________________________________________________________________________ 3.10 We are not going to focus on intonation during this course _____________________________________________________________________________________________ What I found most surprising /interesting today: What I need to revise again after this lesson: Talk a Lot Foundation Course Lesson 3 – Stress For more fun worksheets, games, and quizzes log onto www.englishbanana.com now! Talk a Lot Foundation Course © English Banana.com Lesson 3 Page 1 3.1 English is a stress-timed language, not a syllable-timed language. English is a stress-timed language. Each content word has one stressed syllable. The stress gives English its distinctive “up and down”, “rise and fall” rhythm. The contrast between the weak and strong stresses in a sequence of words creates the familiar rhythm of English. Other stress-timed languages include German, Dutch, and Swedish. Some languages are not stress-timed, but syllable-timed, giving each syllable an equal amount of stress, e.g. French and Spanish. Example: 1. Carol is taking her puppy Goldie for a walk to the fountain after tea. CArol is TAking her PUppy GOLdie for a WALK to the FOUNtain after TEA. Activities: 1. be be be be be be be be be be be be be be be be be be… etc. b BE b BE b BE b BE b BE b BE b BE b BE b BE… etc. 2. Read the sentence again. This time be LOUD on the stressed syllables and *whisper* the unstressed syllables: CArol is TAking her PUppy GOLdie for a WALK to the FOUNtain after TEA. 3.2 Content words each have one strong stress, while function words are not stressed. Content words are words that have their own meaning outside of a sentence, e.g. nouns, main verbs, and adjectives. They each have one syllable that is strongly stressed. Function words are grammar words, which do not have meaning apart from in a sentence, e.g. prepositions, pronouns, and articles. They are not usually stressed. Examples: Content words: nouns, (e.g. fountain), main verbs (e.g. take, but not “be”), adjectives (e.g. happy), adverbs (e.g. quickly, often), numbers, wh-question words (e.g. what, when), and negative auxiliary verbs (e.g. didn’t, isn’t). Function words: pronouns (e.g. she, them, my), auxiliary verbs (e.g. “have” in “I have eaten…”), prepositions (e.g. in, at, on), articles and determiners (e.g. a, the, some), conjunctions (e.g. and, but, or), quantifiers (e.g. many), and the verb “be” when used as a main verb. Activities: 1. Which words are content words and which words are function words: • My mum lives with her new partner in Brighton. • Sam’s brother is going to start university in Edinburgh next September. 2. Write two more of each kind of word, and say what kind of word they are (e.g. main verb, preposition, etc.) Talk a Lot Foundation Course Lesson 3 – Stress For more fun worksheets, games, and quizzes log onto www.englishbanana.com now! Talk a Lot Foundation Course © English Banana.com Lesson 3 Page 2 Discussion Questions: 1. Is your first language stress-timed? What is the stress like in your language? How does it compare to English? 2. Do you notice the stress in English? Do you like it? Why? /Why not? 3. Give an example of some song lyrics in English that demonstrate the rise and fall stress pattern. 3.3 Word stress is irregular in English. It is not easy to predict which syllable will be stressed in any given word. Don’t expect the stress patterns in English to be the same as in your first language. For example, find the stress in each of these common words (all nouns): aeroplane reservation table behaviour anaesthetic apology Examples: However, there are some important word stress rules that we can learn: 1. in general, there is a tendency in English to stress words on the first syllable 2. suffixes are not usually stressed. For example, this means that two-syllable words ending in “-ing” or “-er”, etc. will always be stressed on the first syllable 3. compound words (e.g. “breakfast” = “break” + “fast”) are usually stressed on the first syllable 4. two-syllable nouns are very often stressed on the first syllable, e.g. “dentist”, “table”, “kitchen”, etc. 5. two-syllable verbs are very often stressed on the second syllable e.g. “improve”, “approach”, “contain”, etc. As a result, we can often use logic to work out word stress: e.g. in the word “teacher”, “-er” is a suffix, so the stress must be on the first syllable: Tee ch . Activities: 1. Find the stress in each holiday word: a) campsite, b) departure, c) foreigner, d) passport, e) relaxation, f) arrive, g) waiter 2. Match each word to a word stress rule above. 3. Find… a) 5 words with different suffixes, b) 5 compound words, c) 5 two-syllable nouns, d) 5 two-syllable verbs. Do you notice any exceptions to the rules? Discussion Questions: 1. Do you have word stress in your first language? If yes, is it regular or irregular? Where does the strong stress usually fall? 2. How much do you already know about word stress in English? How confident are you in identifying the stressed syllable in any given content word? Do you habitually learn the strong stress of each word when you are learning new vocabulary words? What strategies can you use to reduce your risk of error? 3.4 Communication is reduced when we don’t use sentence stress. Sentence stress creates the distinctive “rise and fall” rhythm of English: du DUH du DUH du DUH, du DUH, etc. When we don’t use sentence stress, or we get it wrong, communication is reduced because the Talk a Lot Foundation Course Lesson 3 – Stress For more fun worksheets, games, and quizzes log onto www.englishbanana.com now! Talk a Lot Foundation Course © English Banana.com Lesson 3 Page 3 listener cannot hear the all-important vowel sounds on the stressed syllables clearly. The listener is waiting to catch these sounds to be able to process your words quickly, and make sense of what you are saying. Example: • The bears at the zoo must be fed at least five times a day. “Each content word (shown in black) contains one syllable with a strong stress, which is underlined. Each stressed syllable has one vowel sound. The vowel sounds on stressed syllables are the most important sounds in the sentence. They make the “sound spine” of the sentence. To improve communication, try to get the sound spine right.” (from Talk a Lot course books) Activities: 1. Practise the stress in the sentence above. 2. Now – read the sentence again, but this time with… a) the wrong syllables stressed b) all syllables stressed the same (syllable-timed) c) the correct stresses but the wrong vowel sounds on the stressed syllables Which is hardest to understand? Discussion Questions: 1. How confident do you feel in separating content words from function words in a sentence? How can you improve your chances of identifying each kind of word correctly? 2. Do you speak English with stress or without? Ask a few of your fellow students, and your teacher, for their opinion. How can you improve? What areas do you need to work on in particular? 3.5 The sound spine is the sequence of vowel sounds on the stressed syllables in a sentence. These stressed vowel sounds are the most important sounds in the sentence – the sounds that the listener needs to hear in order to make sense of the words. They form the “backbone” of the sentence – i.e. the “sound spine”. We should always try to find and emphasise the sound spine in a sentence. Whatever other sounds are wrongly pronounced, the vowel sounds on the stressed syllables should be loud and clear. If one or more of these vowel sounds is wrongly pronounced, miscommunication can occur and the listener may have to say: “Sorry, I didn’t catch that. Could you repeat it, please?” Examples: • See Activity 2 c), above. With the wrong vowel sounds on the correct stressed syllables, the sentence: The bears at the zoo must be fed at least five times a day. could become: Talk a Lot Foundation Course Lesson 3 – Stress For more fun worksheets, games, and quizzes log onto www.englishbanana.com now! Talk a Lot Foundation Course © English Banana.com Lesson 3 Page 4 The BEERS at the TSAR must be FIRED at least FAVE TOMBS a DIE. English is such a rich language, with such a large number of words in its collection, that when you pronounce the wrong vowel sound on a stressed syllable, you are very likely to say a completely different word, rather than a nonsense word, as can be seen here: bears -> beers fed -> fired, etc. Activities: 1. a) Find the sound spine in this sentence: • The whole family has decided to go on holiday to Florida next year. b) Read just the stressed vowel sounds in order. 2. Listen to me (or a partner) read a phrase or short sentence. Write down just the stressed vowel sounds to make the sound spine. Discussion Questions: 1. How easy is it for you to find the sound spine? 2. How aware are you of the stressed vowel sounds when… a) you hear spoken English, b) you speak in English? 3.6 It is not necessary to pronounce every letter in every word in every sentence. When learners do this their pronunciation sounds wrong and “foreign”. The most important sounds are the vowel sounds on the stressed syllables in a sentence. Everything else can be reduced, i.e. made weaker (shorter) by being pronounced more quickly and without stress. We use contractions and weak forms to help us achieve this goal. Where possible in spoken English, we use contractions and weak forms, e.g. “Are you going to buy…?” becomes uh y g n Bai…? The main aim for speakers is to get to the next stressed syllable as quickly as possible; to emphasise the content words – the point of what we are saying. 3.7 We reduce function words by using contractions and mega contractions. A contraction is when two words are reduced and joined together to make one word. A mega contraction is when we reduce a normal contraction further. Examples: Full Form: Normal Contraction: Mega Contraction In a Phrase: (strong vowel sounds disappear): you are you’re y you’re too late I will I’ll uhl I’ll go in a minute she has she’s shz she’s got two brothers he is going to he’s gonna i zg n he’s gonna buy a new car they would they’d th they’d better be quick they are they’re th they’re really nice it will have it’ll’ve uh lv it’ll have finished by now This system of reduced reductions works because native speakers automatically associate particular beginning sounds with particular pronouns: Talk a Lot Foundation Course Lesson 3 – Stress For more fun worksheets, games, and quizzes log onto www.englishbanana.com now! Talk a Lot Foundation Course © English Banana.com Lesson 3 Page 5 uh = I y = you h = he sh = she uh /uh_ = it w = we th = they Activities: 1. Translate this phrase: s m v s g n… 2. Complete the table below: Reducing Function Words with Contractions and Mega Contractions: Full Form: Normal Contraction: Mega Contraction In a Phrase: (strong vowel sounds disappear): 1. __________________ you’re 2. __________________ ____________________ she will 3. __________________ shl ____________________ they are going to 4. __________________ th g n ____________________ I would 5. __________________ uhd ____________________ he has he’s 6. __________________ ____________________ 7. __________________ they’ll have 8. __________________ ____________________ Discussion Questions: 1. Do you typically use contractions when you speak in English? If not, why not? 2. Do you sometimes change contractions back into their full form when you are reading out loud from a text? If yes, why? How can you break this habit? 3. Have you ever heard native speakers using mega contractions, e.g. y instead of “you’re”, or w instead of “we’re”? When and where? Were you able to understand what they meant, e.g. from the context? 3.8 We also reduce function words by using weak forms. Many function words have both strong and weak forms, for example: Function Word: Strong Form: Weak Form: to too t for for f the thee or thu th of ov uhv …and so on. We usually use weak forms in spoken English rather than strong forms, because they reduce unstressed words further, and increase the contrast between the weak and strong syllables. Function words are not often used on their own, but are almost always sandwiched between content words, like this: “I went for a walk in the park.” I would never need to say, for example: “Hello! Am, to, the, by, the, to, a, of.” …but I could say: “Hello! I’m running to the shop by the park to buy a loaf of bread.” The strong forms of function words are rarely used in a sentence, but when a learner begins to learn English, they may learn these words as individual words, and memorise the strong forms, forever afterwards using them when they speak – rather than the weak forms, which should be used, but which the learner has not studied. The strong sounds of words like “for”, “to”, “I”, “but”, “and”, etc. become Talk a Lot Foundation Course Lesson 3 – Stress For more fun worksheets, games, and quizzes log onto www.englishbanana.com now! Talk a Lot Foundation Course © English Banana.com Lesson 3 Page 6 embedded in the learner’s memory, rather than the weak forms: f , t , uh , buh_ , uhnd , etc. Some learners may never learn the weak forms of function words. Function words are the glue, or the cement, of the sentence, which keep the content words in place. So, if you use the full forms of these words in a sentence, the sentence stress is affected negatively and the stressed vowel sounds are harder to hear, reducing communication. When we reduce function words by using contractions and weak forms, the stressed vowel sounds are easier to hear. In reducing function words we generally change the strong vowel sound into a Schwa sound (an unstressed vowel sound) – or remove it altogether. Examples: Normal Spelling: Individual Word Form (Strong Form): Sentence Form (Weak Form): and and uhn e.g. thi zn that for for f e.g. Geu f r Work to too t e.g. ai Won t Geu a ei uh e.g. ai Nee d Lift (the Schwa sound is embedded – it occurs naturally when we say d ) (See P.10 for a comprehensive list of weak forms in English.) Activities: 1. Practise saying the following words with both strong and weak forms: the to of and you that because can your than 2. a) Listen to the full form and write the weak form, b) listen to the weak form and write the full form. 3.9 Most of the top 100 most common words in written English are function words, which have weak forms that students do not generally use. The Oxford University list of the top 100 high-frequency words in written English is based on an analysis of the Oxford English Corpus of over one billion words carried out by Oxford Online, in association with the Oxford English Dictionary1. (See word list on P.9.) Of these 100 words, 67 are function words (including the first 27 most frequently used words in English!), e.g. be, to, for, of, etc. the is the #1 word in English. It has been estimated that this group of 100 words – and their variants, e.g. be, was, been, etc. – repeated again and again account for 50% of all the words in the Oxford English Corpus! Since these function words are so commonly used (they are the words that fall in the gaps between the content words with the stressed syllables) it’s vital for students to learn the weak form (reduced version) of each of them (see Weak Forms – Lesson Plan). Remember – we do not normally use the full form of these function words. A notable exception is when one of them occurs at the end of a sentence, e.g. “What did you say that for?” (“for” is pronounced: for ). Another exception is when we use intonation (see 3.10, below), e.g. “That’s what I think!” (“I” is pronounced: ai ). The word “I” is stressed to emphasise a particular point, so we use the full form. 1 Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most_common_words_in_English, accessed on 04.04.2011 Talk a Lot Foundation Course Lesson 3 – Stress For more fun worksheets, games, and quizzes log onto www.englishbanana.com now! Talk a Lot Foundation Course © English Banana.com Lesson 3 Page 7 Examples: Word: Reduction (NEA): In a Phrase: the th it’s the best to t I went to the shop of uhv a piece of paper and uhnd fish and chips a uh I need a break I uh I saw you it uht it was good for f go for a walk with w I put it with the others he i he said that you y you need a haircut from frm different from me Activity: 1. Practise the phrases above using both the strong and weak form of each function word. 2. Write your own phrases for 5 of the function words, and practise them with a partner, using both the strong and weak form of each function word. 3. What are these common phrases: a) th z __________________________ e) k j? __________________________ b) in t w __________________________ f) sth __________________________ c) b k z vth ________________________ g) k dv __________________________ d) j…? __________________________ h) uh y g n? ________________________ (See Weak Forms – Lesson Plan.) Discussion Questions: 1. Have you ever learned about weak forms in English before? If yes, when and where? What percentage of this course is brand new information for you? 2. Have you ever knowingly used mega contractions? Why do you think students tend to use the full forms of function words, rather than the weak forms, as they ought to? 3.10 We are not going to focus on intonation during this course. On this course we are using Standard Pronunciation – also known as Received Pronunciation (RP). In this lesson we have looked at stress patterns – the sound spine – in sentences that use Standard Pronunciation. However, we can use stress differently, putting heavy stress (or emphasis) on a particular word or phrase, which then highlights the part of the sentence that we want to focus on. This is called intonation. It is really useful when we want to avoid misunderstandings or correct mistakes. However, we are not going to pay too much attention to intonation at this stage. As it says in the introduction to the Talk a Lot Elementary Handbook: “The sentence stress activities in [Talk a Lot courses] are focused on neutral speech. Intonation is largely ignored … in favour of grounding students in the basics of word stress, sentence stress, and connected speech techniques. The subtleties of intonation, and how meaning can be altered, can of course be practised in conjunction with Talk a Lot materials, but should perhaps come later on for new students of spoken English…” Talk a Lot Foundation Course Lesson 3 – Stress For more fun worksheets, games, and quizzes log onto www.englishbanana.com now! Talk a Lot Foundation Course © English Banana.com Lesson 3 Page 8 Examples: 1. Customer: I’ll have four eggs, please. Shop assistant: Sorry, how many did you say? Customer: FOUR eggs, please. I’d like FOUR. [“four” has heavier stress than normal] The customer adds intonation to (emphasises) the keyword “eggs” to enable better understanding. 2. Bob was happy because his boss gave him more overtime. [Standard Pronunciation: neutral – without special intonation] Who was happy? Bob was happy because his boss gave him more overtime. How did he feel about it? Bob was happy because his boss gave him more overtime. Why was Bob happy? Bob was happy because his boss gave him more overtime. Who gave him more…? Bob was happy because his boss gave him more overtime. …and so on. Activities: 1. Practise the sentences above with the particular intonation. 2. Write your own example and practise it with a partner, e.g. “Are they new shoes?” /“Are they new shoes?” etc. Discussion Questions: 1. Do you use intonation in your first language? How is it similar to /different from its use in English? 2. In what situations might you need to use intonation (heavy stress) to avoid a misunderstanding or correct a mistake? Think of a few example situations and roleplay them. Final Thought: If a listener can’t understand your spoken English, it could be because… Stress: Vowel Sounds: Result: ?! ?! ?! ☺ Homework: • Learn the List of Common Weak Forms on P.10. • Practise using the weak forms of function words when you speak and when reading out loud. If necessary, make a conscious decision to change how you pronounce function words. Talk a Lot Foundation Course Lesson 3 – The 100 Most Common Words in Written English The Oxford University list of the top 100 high-frequency words in written English is based on an analysis of the Oxford English Corpus, which is a collection of texts in English that has a combined total of over one billion words. This analysis was done by Oxford Online, in association with the Oxford English Dictionary. Of these top 100 words, 60 are function words, including all but 2 of the top 30 words! “the” is the most common word in written English. From Wikipedia: “Note that the items listed may represent more than one actual word; they are lemmas. For instance the entry “be” contains within it the occurrences of “are”, “is”, “were”, and “was”. Note also that these top 100 lemmas listed below account for 50% of all the words in the Oxford English Corpus.” [emphasis mine] Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most_common_words_in_English, accessed on 04.04.2011 Function words are highlighted and weak forms (where possible) are shown with the NEA: Talk a Lot Foundation Course © English Banana.com Lesson 3 Page 9 1. the th 2. be bi 3. to t 4. of uhv 5. and uhn 6. a uh 7. in 8. that th_ 9. have uhv 10. I uh 11. it i_ 12. for f 13. not 14. on 15. with w 16. he i 17. as uhz 18. you y 19. do d 20. at uh_ 21. this 22. but b_ 23. his iz 24. by b 25. from frm 26. they th 27. we w 28. say 29. her uh 30. she sh 31. or uh 32. an uhn 33. will uhl 34. my m 35. one 36. all 37. would wd 38. there th 39. their th 40. what 41. so 42. up 43. out au_ 44. if uhf 45. about uh bau_ 46. who 47. get 48. which 49. go 50. me mi 51. when 52. make 53. can kn 54. like 55. time 56. no 57. just 58. him im 59. know 60. take 61. person 62. into 63. year 64. your y 65. good 66. some sm 67. could kd 68. them thm 69. see 70. other 71. than thn 72. then 73. now 74. look 75. only 76. come 77. its uh_s 78. over 79. think 80. also 81. back 82. after 83. use 84. two 85. how 86. our ar 87. work 88. first 89. well 90. way 91. even 92. new 93. want 94. because b kz 95. any uh nii 96. these 97. give 98. day 99. most 100. us uhz Talk a Lot Foundation Course List of Common Weak Forms in Spoken English • In spoken English we often use the weak forms of function words instead of the strong forms to make the sound spine stand out more clearly. This is true of Standard Pronunciation, dialects, and accents • The weak form is often made by replacing the vowel sound in the strong form with a Schwa sound: uh • Most function words that have weak forms are monosyllabic – they have only one syllable • If we use strong forms when we should use weak forms, we sound too formal and it is more difficult for people to understand us, because the sentence stress is incorrect. Communication is reduced • If a function word comes at the end of a sentence we usually use its strong form, rather than its weak form, e.g. “What are you looking for?” ( for ) or, “Who are you writing to?” ( too ) • If we want to show emphasis or contrast, we can vary the intonation by using strong forms where we would normally use weak forms, e.g. “What did you think of the book?” ( yoo ) Talk a Lot Foundation Course © English Banana.com Lesson 3 Page 10 articles & determiners weak strong prepositions weak strong a uh ei about uh bau_ uh baut an uhn an as uhz az any uh nii e nii at uh_ at some sm sum by b bai such sch such for f for that th_ that from frm from the thi or th thee of uhv ov out au_ aut verb “be” & auxiliary verbs weak strong to t too am uhm am with w with are uh ar be bi bee pronouns weak strong been bin or bn been he hi or i hee is uhz iz her h or uh her was wz woz him im him were w wer his iz hiz do duu or d doo I uh ai does dz duz it i_ it had hd or uhd had its uh_s its has hz or uhz haz me mi mee have hv or uhv hav my m mai can kn kan our ar auw could kd kuud she sh shee must mst or ms must their th their shall shl shal them thm them should shd shuud there th their will uhl wil they th thei would wd wuud us uhz us we wi or w wee conjunctions weak strong you y yoo and uhn and your y yor because b kz bi koz but b_ but if uhf if or uh or than thn than