One of the reasons that non-native speakers struggle to sound natural in English is that
they have trouble hearing the natural rhythm of the language.
One key element to producing the natural rhythm of English is word stress.
If you're new to word stress, I encourage you to sign up for my free email course, Sound
More Natural in Just Five Days at soundmorenatural.com.
I discuss word stress in greater depth in that free course.
In my series on vocabulary, I also mentioned how word stress is the very first thing you
should pay attention to when learning new words.
Word stress is essential to pronouncing words correctly and speaking more clearly.
When you start paying attention to word stress, your ear is going to start to
identify stress patterns.
You'll start noticing the different stress that people use when they're talking.
And as you advance, you're going to want to start paying attention to
words in phrases or chunks.
Remember, we don't usually use words on their own.
We usually use them in entire phrases, chunks, or sentences.
For this reason, it's important to pay attention to word stress, but also notice how it works
together with other words in order to create the rhythm of English in your sentences.
It may be frustrating to learn that native speakers produce these patterns
without even thinking about it.
It's second nature.
But the good news is that you can learn these stress patterns in order to speak English
more like a native English speaker.
In this video, we're going to discuss common phrases that use the word "and."
This is a recognizable stress pattern that you can learn and practice so that you start
sounding more natural in English.
As we go through the examples, think of other related phrases.
So let's start out with some common food phrases.
For example, you can start with bread and butter.
Bread and butter, bread and butter.
If you put extra stress on the word "bread," and less stress on "butter," it sounds weird.
Bread and butter, bread and butter.
That's not how it sounds when speaking English.
It's bread and butter, bread and butter.
Another common phrase is cream and sugar.
Cream and sugar, cream and sugar.
On the weekends, you may be enjoying wine and cheese, wine and cheese, or you may decide
to go have a burger and fries, burger and fries, burger and fries.
Some people really like the flavor, sweet and sour, sweet and sour, sweet and sour.
As you notice, these are recognizable stress patterns that
native speakers will produce automatically.
Like I said, you can practice them too and it will help you create
the natural rhythm of English.
Now, let's talk about a couple of phrases related to people.
We often talk about the difference between the rich and poor, rich and poor,
rich and poor.
Or you may talk about people's heights.
You may talk about your friends who are tall and short, tall and short, tall and short.
We often talk about men and women, men and women, men and women, or boys and girls,
boys and girls, boys and girls.
Or if we're talking about our animal friends, we talk about cats and dogs, cats and dogs,
cats and dogs.
Are you starting to hear the pattern in these phrases?
Last but not least, let's talk a little bit about music.
A lot of people really enjoy rock and roll, rock and roll, rock and roll.
Or are they may like R&B, R&B, R&B.
R&B is short for rhythm and blues, but most people talk about R&B music.
So as you can see, this particular pattern will help you sound more natural in English.
If you switch around the stress, it's going to sound unnatural.
It's not going to sound exactly the way a native speaker expects to hear it.
If you'd like more practice with stress patterns, I encourage you to check out my course,
Stress Simplified.
I have lots of lessons on different types of stress patterns that you can practice to
sound more natural in English.
Now it's your turn.
Can you think of any other phrases that follow this stress pattern?
Leave a comment and let me know.
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.