Have You Got Rhythm?
How Word Stress Changes Meaning
Correct pronunciation of individual words lets people understand what you’re talking about.
Word stress, linking and contractions within a sentence helps you communicate your message clearly and with emotion.
What is word stress?
Well, first of all, only one syllable can be stressed in words that have more than one syllable. In words with more than one syllable, it's very important to stress the correct syllable, because there are countless English words where the meaning changes completely when you change the stressed syllable. (See my blog, Stress and Meaning for more examples.)
Some examples:
To produce (pruh DOOS) means to make or manufacture something, or to cause something to happen, while produce (PROH doos) means things that have been grown, especially by farming (like vegetables.)
To desert (dee ZURT) means to abandon someone or something, while desert (DEH zurt) means a dry, barren area of land, especially one covered with sand.
Sentence stress: When you stress a word in a sentence, you say it in a way that attracts more attention to it than other words in the sentence. You can do this by saying it just a little louder or just a little longer.
So, when you stress a word, you just stress the correct syllable of each word you want to stress. For example, in the word, “incredible” you will stress the second syllable (in CREH duh bl). So the correct way to say this sentence would be:
That is incredible!
In other words, you would say the underlined syllables either a little longer or a little louder than the other syllables. You would stress “that” because you are probably pointing at whatever it is, and you would stress “incredible” because that’s what you want your listener to clearly hear.
Generally, each sentence will have just one or two things that you want to communicate, so you’ll stress the words that best communicate that idea and/or feeling and all the rest of the words will be said in a space that lasts equally long between stressed syllables. For example:
Many of the country’s professionals and young people are going to welcome the change.
To make the time between stressed syllables fairly equal, it is necessary to use contractions. In the above sentence, the contractions would be:
of the => uhthuh and => ‘n going to => gonnuh
Remember, the way you stress the words in a sentence can literally change the meaning of not only the words in the sentence, but also the meaning of that sentence.
English is a lot like American Blues music. The rhythm and melody do most of the communication; the words simply clarify the message.
