Ever noticed how native English speakers use their voices to emphasize
important words and help you follow what they're saying?
The rise and fall of their pitch,
and the contrast between the words that matter, and those that don't,
create the natural rhythm and melody of American English.
If you're wondering how to find your own flow when speaking English,
then this video is for you. In this video,
you'll learn how to use stress, rhythm,
and melody to communicate clearly and confidently in American English.
You'll find out how to speak with word and sentence stress, contrast,
and thought groups so that your ideas have that natural flow you're looking
for. Let's get started!
We're going to start off by looking at word stress.
Word stress is when we emphasize one syllable more than the rest,
making it longer, louder, and higher in pitch,
with extra clear mouth movement on the vowel sound.
We relax and do less work on the rest of the syllables.
Here are some examples of word stress.
Mind, now, bring,
ready, around, forecast, challenge,
engineer,
umbrella, neighborhood.
Could you hear how one syllable of each word stood out
more than the rest? The stressed syllable was longer, louder,
and higher in pitch, with extra clear mouth movement,
even on those one syllable words.
If you're having trouble pronouncing a word,
figure out which syllable is stressed and focus attention on that
syllable using your voice.
If you're starting to feel like stressing a syllable is a lot of work for our
mouths,
remember that we actually relax and even reduce the rest of
the syllables. Let's hear them again.
Mind, now, bring,
ready, around, forecast,
challenge, engineer, umbrella,
neighborhood.
Did you notice how the rest of the syllables were more relaxed?
They were shorter, quieter, lower in pitch,
with less effort on those vowel sounds.
A lot of languages give equal weight and importance to each and every
syllable. You might use volume to emphasize a syllable,
but you won't significantly change your pitch,
lengthen one syllable more than the rest,
or move your mouth more on one vowel sound,
while relaxing or reducing the rest.
Because you're so used to producing syllables the way you do in your native
language, it can take time, patience,
and practice to create this contrast.
Let's move on to sentence stress so that you can see what I mean.
In order to speak English more efficiently,
we don't give every syllable of every word equal emphasis.
Instead, we highlight the most important words by stressing these key
syllables.
The words that express your meaning are called content words.
If you only say these content words,
people will still understand what you mean.
The other words are called function words,
and they're only there so that you have a grammatically correct sentence.
If you drop these words entirely, your meaning will still be clear.
Let's look at some examples.
See if you can tell which words express the meaning.
I've been working as an engineer for over 10 years,
but I'm ready for a new challenge.
I've been working as an engineer for over 10 years,
but I'm ready for a new challenge.
I've been working as an engineer for over 10 years,
but I'm ready for a new challenge. When you feel frustrated,
it helps to take a walk around the neighborhood to clear your mind.
When you feel frustrated,
it helps to take a walk around the neighborhood to clear your mind.
When you feel frustrated,
it helps to take a walk around the neighborhood to clear your mind.
Even though it's sunny out right now, the forecast calls for rain,
so remember to bring an umbrella.
Even though it's sunny out right now, the forecast calls for rain,
so remember to bring an umbrella.
Even though it's sunny out right now, the forecast calls for rain,
so remember to bring an umbrella.
Can you hear how the stressed syllables are lengthened and the rest seem to hide
or fade into the background?
This contrast in syllable length creates the natural rhythm of
English.
Can you hear how my pitch goes up and down between stressed and unstressed or
reduced syllables?
This contrast in pitch creates the natural melody of English.
Can you see how my mouth moves more on stressed syllables,
and does less work on the rest?
This helps us speak more quickly and efficiently.
If you just focus on highlighting these key words with your voice,
native English speakers will understand you so much better.
Because we're so used to hearing people emphasize these key syllables,
we're listening for them in order to identify which words you're
saying. If no syllable stands out,
native speakers have to listen extra carefully to decipher what you're saying.
To make sure your message and your meaning are clear,
stress the right syllables of your most important words.
Now that you understand how stress, rhythm, and melody work,
it's time to help you find your flow in English.
To help people follow what we're saying,
we break longer sentences into thought groups.
Thought groups are chunks of words that go together.
Packaging words together helps people follow your ideas and keeps people
listening when you're speaking at length. Of course,
it also gives you a little time to breathe.
Using thought groups is another way for you to highlight the most important
words and ideas with your voice.
Let's return to our examples.
Can you hear which words stand out the most?
Do you hear any short pauses or changes in pitch mid-sentence?
I've been working as an engineer for over 10 years,
but I'm ready for a new challenge.
I've been working as an engineer for over 10 years,
but I'm ready for a new challenge.
I've been working as an engineer for over 10 years,
but I'm ready for a new challenge. When you feel frustrated,
it helps to take a walk around the neighborhood to clear your mind.
When you feel frustrated,
it helps to take a walk around the neighborhood to clear your mind.
When you feel frustrated,
it helps to take a walk around the neighborhood to clear your mind.
Even though it's sunny out right now, the forecast calls for rain,
so remember to bring an umbrella.
Even though it's sunny out right now, the forecast calls for rain,
so remember to bring an umbrella.
Even though it's sunny out right now, the forecast calls for rain,
so remember to bring an umbrella. As you can hear,
every thought group has one word that's stressed the most.
We often call this a focus word.
This is why you can hear different levels of stress when people are speaking.
As I often tell people, trust your ear.
If you really linger on the focus word of each thought group,
it creates a nice flow between ideas that keeps people listening,
interested, and engaged. Let's try it.
I've been working as an engineer for over 10 years,
but I'm ready for a new challenge.
[
silence].
When you feel frustrated,
it helps to take a walk around the neighborhood to clear your mind.
[
silence].
Even though it's sunny out right now, the forecast calls for rain,
so remember to bring an umbrella.
[
silence].
Now that you understand stress and thought groups and how to create English
and melody through contrast, it's time to practice.
You need to train your ear and your mouth.
Start listening closely to native speakers and noticing which
syllables of which words are stressed the most.
Pay attention to how they break their ideas into smaller pieces,
and how they pause or change their pitch between thought
groups. And, of course, start experimenting with this yourself.
The only way to get better at stressing words,
breaking your ideas into thought groups,
and creating contrast is through practice. Remember,
your voice doesn't have to be perfect to be powerful.
Make sure people understand your meaning and your message by
emphasizing your most important words.
In my next video, we'll talk all about pitch and intonation, so see you there.
I'm Kim from englishwithkim.com. If you like this video,
please give it a thumbs up and don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already.
Have a good one. Goodbye.