Sentence stress

Sentence stress

Stress, as introduced in Lesson 6, means placing emphasis on a particular syllable. Stress is also important at the sentence level. In English, we may stress entire words and phrases to show emphasis or importance.

Stress words to clarify meaning.

Think about the following question. How does each stressed word change the meaning of the answer?

Who saw you?

  1. SHE saw me.
    • places importance on the subject
  2. She SAW me.
    • places importance on the verb
  3. She saw ME.
    • places importance on the object

Content and Function words

Stress patterns differ for content words, or words with meaning, and function words, or words just used in grammar.

Content words receive stress.

  • I VISited our friends this afterNOON.

Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs all generally receive stress.

Function words do not receive stress.

  • Her CAR is a PIECE of JUNK.

Articles, conjunctions, prepositions, pronouns, and helping verbs are function words.

Check the lesson on content and function words for more information.

Lesson 8: Rhythm