Advanced Pronunciation – Stress Sentence Worksheet
Students’ names: __________________________________________________
This lesson will help you:
- Understand what sentence stress is in English pronunciation.
- See how to recognize and pronounce stress correctly in a sentence.
- Look at the difference between stressed and unstressed elements of English pronunciation.
- Understand how to add extra stress and how it can change the meaning of a sentence.
Content:
1. Introduction to Sentence Stress
2. Recognizing and Pronouncing Sentence Stress
3. Stressed vs. Unstressed Contrast
4. Shifting Sentence Stress
Activity: Watch the video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnJCKda4oWU) and answer the following
questions.
- What is stress?
- Why is it important to pronounce sentence stress correctly?
- What are content words?
- What are grammar words?
- What is the difference between content words and grammar words?
- What does the speaker imply when he/she says that stress is flexible?
Activity: read the sentences below and highlight the content words; the practice reading them.
Activity: “I don't think he should get the job”.
This simple sentence can have many levels of meaning based on the word you stress. Consider the meaning
of the following sentences with the stressed word in bold. Read each sentence aloud and give a strong stress
to the word in bold:
I don't think he should get the job. Meaning: Somebody else thinks he should get the job.
I don't think he should get the job. Meaning: It's not true that I think he should get the job.
I don't think he should get that job. Meaning: That's not really what I mean.
I don't think he should get that job. Meaning: Somebody else should get that job.
I don't think he should get that job. Meaning: In my opinion it's wrong that he's going to get that job.
I don't think he should get that job. Meaning: He should have to earn (be worthy of, work hard for) that job.
I don't think he should get that job. Meaning: He should get another job.
I don't think he should get that job. Meaning: Maybe he should get something else instead.
As it can be seen, there are many different ways this sentence can be understood. The important point to
remember is that the true meaning of the sentence is also expressed through the stressed word or words.
Here is an exercise to help you develop the art of correct word stress.
Take the following sentence: I said she might consider a new haircut.
EXERCISE: Say the sentence aloud using the stress word marked in bold. Once you have spoken the
sentence a few times, match the sentence version to the meaning in front.
Grammarians divide all words into two classes:
1. Content words, which have meaning by themselves. They are usually stressed and include:
Nouns, Verbs (with a few exceptions), Adjectives, Adverbs, Demonstratives (this, these, that, those),
when used as pronouns. Interrogatives (who, when, why, and so on…)
2. Function words, which have little or no meaning other than the grammatical idea they express. They
are usually unstressed and include:
Articles (a, an, the), Prepositions (to, of, in, and so on …), Personal and object pronouns (I, me, he, him
…), Possessive adjectives (my, his, her, your …), Relative pronouns (who, that, which,), Common
conjunctions (and, but, or, as, if,), Modal auxiliary verbs (be, have, do, will, would, shall, should, can,
could, might, must …). ONE, when used as a noun substitute.
Activity: Repeat the following expressions and underline the content words. Be sure to STRESS the
content words and NOT the function words.
1. Sooner or later
2. In a moment
3. An apple a day
4. To tell the truth
5. As soft as a kitten
6. Silence is golden!
7. Honesty is the best policy
8. Truth is stranger than fiction
9. A penny saved is a penny earned
10. To err is human; to forgive is divine.
