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    What Is Sentence Stress?

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    Yogita Bhamare

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    What Is Sentence Stress?

    Uploaded by

    Yogita Bhamare
    21 views5 pages

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    Sentence Stress

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    21 views5 pages

    What Is Sentence Stress?

    Uploaded by

    Yogita Bhamare

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Sentence Stress

    https://www.wordstress.info/word-stress/sentence-stress/

    What is Sentence Stress?


    Words in a sentence are not all given the same salience in oral English.
    Some words are picked out and are stressed in contrast to others. The one
    that is the most stressed is said to receive the sentence stress. This usually
    implies differences in meaning. In the following sentences, the sentence
    stress is indicated in bold case. Consider the difference in meaning for each
    of these scenarios.

    Sentence Stress Illustrated:


    Sentences Meaning
    1. I don’t think she would write I don’t think that, but someone else does.
    it.
    2. I DON’T think she will listen It is not true that I think that.
    to him.
    3. I don’t THINK she will listen I don’t think that, I know that. Or: I don’t think that,
    to him. but I could be wrong.
    4. I don’t think SHE will listen I think that someone other than her will listen to him.
    to him.
    5. I don’t think she WILL listen I think that she is will not be willing or agreeable to
    to him. listening to him.
    6. I don’t think she Instead of listening, she might talk to him.
    will LISTEN to him.
    7. I don’t think she will listen I think that she will listen to someone else than him.
    to HIM.
    Now listen to the sentences to hear the differences:

    Audio Player
    00:48
    00:48
    Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume.
    As you can see, the sentence stress depends a lot on the context. It is closely
    related to the meaning.

    Sentence Stress Rule


    Usually:

    o Content words are stressed (words that still have some meaning


    if you put them out of context: nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.)
    o Grammatical words are not stressed (words that help structure
    a sentence in English but that do not really have some meaning if you
    put them out of context: a, an, the, is, etc.)
    But, as in the examples above, even grammatical words can be stressed in
    some specific contexts.

     Sentence Stress Cartoon


    Click here or on the image below to read a funny example of how sentence
    stress can be used to convey different meanings.

    Sentence stress: 1 Sentence, 7 Different meanings. By David Recine.


     Sentence Stress Exercise
    Do this short exercise to check if you can recognize sentence stress!

    Listening to Sentence Stress A


    This is an exercise on sentence stress.
    Listen to the following sentences. For each one, indicate which
    word(s) were stressed.
    Audio Player
    https://www.wordstress.info/word-stress-exercises/listening-sentence-
    stress/

    00:00

    00:00

    Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume.

    1. He didn’t like me.

    2. In short, they want you, out of here.

    3. It’d be a change of view at least.

    4. Get out of my way.


    5. Get out of my country!

    6. I think they wanted to trample me!

    7. I could have killed him.

    8. I know what they’re like.

    9. He was angry.

    10. I don’t mean that… I mean, I do mean it, but I don’t…


    You feel it but you don’t like the fact that you do.
    (Many words are stressed. Type one of them!)

    11. Something bad happens to the best of man.

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