Want to sound more like a native English speaker?
Then you need to create the natural rhythm of English through sentence stress.
What do I mean by sentence stress?
Sentence stress is when we put extra attention on the words that
convey the meaning of the sentence.
As I mention in my video on how to understand fast native English speakers, we signal which
words are truly important in our speech by making them longer, louder and higher in pitch.
Specifically, we make the stressed syllable of these words longer, louder
and higher in pitch.
Be sure to check out my video on word stress for more details.
You can find a link below the video.
Before getting into the details of which words are normally stressed in English, I want to
emphasize a key point.
The words that carry meaning in English are super clear and
easy to understand because we stress them.
We stress words by making them longer, louder and higher in pitch
so that they really get your attention.
This makes the key words in our sentence easy to identify and understand.
This means that the words that don't matter are not stressed.
They're even de-emphasized and reduced.
You can think of these less important words as quieter - you can't really hear them, shorter
- we rush right through them, and lower in pitch - they're not supposed to stand out.
You can think of us as hiding the less important words below the stressed words.
You can't hear them as much.
If you think about it, this is a very efficient way to speak.
We're trying to focus your attention on the words that truly matter, while hiding and
deemphasizing the ones that don't.
As we go into more depth about sentence stress in this video,
I want you to really keep this in mind.
The words that carry the meaning of the sentence are stressed.
They're obvious, they're clear, they're easy to understand and easy to hear.
The reason I want you to understand this is that in order to speak English more like a
native speaker and understand native English speakers, you need to tune your ear to this.
You have to understand WHY the words are stressed,
in addition to the rules for which words are stressed.
We're going to talk about the rules for sentence stress, but in order to clearly convey your
meaning in English, you want to make sure you stress these key words.
In order to understand native speakers, you want to listen for the words that are clearest
and easiest to hear.
Got it?
Good.
Let's get started.
In this video, we're focusing on the natural rhythm of English for normal, neutral sentences.
As you'll learn in another video, when we change the expected stress of the sentence,
we can actually change the meaning.
I'll include links to these videos in the description below.
As I keep emphasizing, when you hear the words that are longer, louder and higher in pitch,
you'll be able to follow the meaning of the sentence.
In fact, you don't really need the rest of the words.
Think of a little kid beginning to speak.
A lot of times they just use the key words; they don't use those connector words, but
their meeting is still clear.
Let's look at an example sentence.
I bought some food at a store in my neighborhood.
If I only emphasize the key words of the sentence - bought, food, store, neighborhood - you
can still understand the meaning.
Am I right?
I bought some food at the store in my neighborhood.
The key words are the ones that are clearest and easiest to understand.
The rest of the words just help the sentence flow.
Now, let's go into more detail.
When we talk about sentence stress, we have two categories of words:
content words and function words.
As I mentioned earlier, content words are the words that carry the meaning of the sentence.
Content words include nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, question words,
demonstratives, and most negatives.
Function words, also called structure words, are the words
that are basically the grammar of the sentence.
They help connect the content words.
Function words include articles, prepositions, auxiliary or helping verbs, pronouns, conjunctions,
determiners, and relative pronouns.
If you're feeling a little overwhelmed with these parts of speech, that's why I encourage
you to go back to what I said at the beginning of the video.
Think about the words that carry the meaning of the sentence and focus on those.
If you feel the need to categorize them, this list can help you.
In order to create the natural rhythm of English through sentence stress, you're going to emphasize
or stress the content words.
The function words are going to sound weaker or even be reduced.
You can hear the natural rhythm of English when you hear the up and down
between content and function words.
You'll hear the pitch change.
You'll hear that stressed syllables are longer.
You'll start hearing a difference between words that are stressed, and words that are
not stressed.
On stressed words, one syllable will be longer, louder and higher in pitch.
In sentence stress, these content words will be longer, louder and higher in pitch as well.
To create the natural rhythm of English, you need to have this up and down between content
and function words.
If you don't, it's going to be hard for a native speaker to follow your speech.
It's important to understand that the rhythm does not come from an even spacing of words.
You may have several content words in a row or you may have several function words in
a row.
The rhythm will come from the stressed words.
It doesn't matter how many content words or function words there are.
The beats are going to be the same between words that are stressed.
You may very well have a string of content words, so make sure that they are all stressed.
That means they're longer, louder and higher in pitch.
Let's look at some example sentences.
I am planning to go to the beach this weekend.
Can you identify which words are stressed in the sentence?
I am planning to go to the beach this weekend.
As you can hear, the stressed words are planning, go, beach, weekend.
I'm planning to go to the beach this weekend.
If I just say "planning go beach weekend," you can follow my thought, right?
Here's another example.
I love to drink tea first thing in the morning.
Which words should be stressed?
I love to drink tea first thing in the morning.
As you can hear.
I'm stressing love, drink tea first thing morning.
I love to drink tea first thing in the morning.
Let's look at a third example.
You need to cross the street to catch the bus downtown.
Which words am I stressing?
You need to cross the street to catch the bus downtown.
Let's talk about the words that are stressed: need, cross, street, catch, bus, downtown.
In these examples, I'm using a number of short content words because we use so many short
one or two syllable words in natural speech.
I want you to pay extra attention to these short content words.
I'll include a link to my video on how to stress short words so you can understand how
stressing these short content words will help you speak English more clearly.
Now that you understand how stressing content words helps you create the natural rhythm
of English, I want to give you a few more details.
You may hear that there are different levels of stress within a sentence.
There are more complex patterns.
This is what I call word partnerships.
I give an example in my video on how to stress phrases with the word "and."
Be sure to check out that video as well.
As you continue to advance your understanding of sentence stress,
you'll notice that there are certain stress patterns based on the words that appear together,
certain chunks of words or phrases.
You'll also hear different stress based on the intonation of the sentence.
Different people may use stress slightly differently based on the cadence or the ups and downs
of their own speech, but for right now, I encourage you to focus on making sure you
stress these content words.
Even if you stress them evenly, it's going to help a native speaker understand you.
You'll be able to create the natural rhythm of English by stressing the content words
and de-emphasizing or reducing the rest.
Sounding as natural as a native speaker comes with time and practice.
Let's get started with the most important element of highlighting the content words
with your voice.
From there, you can evolve the way that you speak to sound even more like a native speaker,
but for now, let's focus on those content words.
You definitely want to get started stressing those content words to be understood by a
native English speaker.
Like I said earlier, using the expected natural rhythm of English will help native speakers
understand you because you're emphasizing the words that
carry the most meaning of the sentence.
You're emphasizing which words are most important.
You're giving them what they expect to hear, and you're making it really easy for them
to identify which words matter.
Even if you stumble over or mispronounce a word, this natural rhythm will make it easier
for people to understand you.
Now you're probably asking yourself, how can I practice sentence stress?
It can be a little overwhelming to try to keep it all in your mind at the beginning.
That's why I encourage you to practice with written information at first: blog posts,
articles, books, short stories, emails.
I encourage you to analyze these texts and identify which words you think should be stressed.
By practicing with written information, you don't have to worry about clearly conveying
the meaning and you can focus on the rhythm.
Once you've made notes on which words should be stressed, try reading the texts out loud.
Try creating the natural rhythm of English yourself.
Another excellent way to practice sentence stress is to
find a short audio clip with a transcript.
You can listen for the words that are stressed, the words that carry the meaning,
and mark the transcript.
Then you can try repeating it out loud yourself.
From there, you can start doing this in your own speech.
You may want to practice speaking out loud by yourself first
before bringing it into conversations.
Or if you're feeling ambitious, start using stress in conversations.
When you notice that native English speakers understand you, you're going to feel more
confident because you know that you're making your speech as easy to understand as possible.
I'll repeat it one more time.
Sentence stress makes it easy for people to follow what you're saying because you're signaling
which words are important.
You're telling them what they should listen to.
It's not always about your accent.
It is sometimes just about this rhythm that we're expecting to hear.
As I mentioned throughout this video, all my links to related videos and playlists will
be in the description below the video and you can also check them out in the cards.
If you think of any questions about sentence stress, be sure to ask away.
I'll be answering your questions about sentence stress in future videos.
Once again, I'm Kim from englishwithkim.com.
I'm your guide to the essential conversation skills you need to sound more natural in English.
If you like this video, please give it a thumbs up and share it with a friend.
Have a good one.
Goodbye.