Review: Stress & Intonation
Objectives
- Explain and identify the standard stress and intonation patterns in American English
- Use variations of set patterns to change the meaning of a sentence
Stress Patterns
The words that are stressed are what we call content words, meaning they are important information for meaning. Content words are the nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs that give us the essential information in the idea. If you only have those bolded words, you can still understand the general meaning.
Example
I went to the store to buy some new shoes.
Grammatical words are not normally stressed but can be stressed if the meaning is very important. Grammatical words are auxiliary verbs, prepositions, pronouns and articles. This information helps and is important to get the full understanding. However, if we only have those words, the sentence doesn't have any meaning.
Example
I went to the store to buy some new shoes.
However, sometimes we emphasize grammatical words. This usually happens when someone does not understand the first meaning.
Example
Put the bag on the table. No. I said on the table, not next to the table.
Stressing grammatical words can also be used to show emotion or attitudes (this is an important aspect of sarcasm for example), show the difference between a statement and a question, or to signal the type of question you're asking.
Examples
When the action is the main focus: What are you doing?
When the other person is the main focus: What are you doing?
To show surprise: What are you doing?
When you give a close-ended answer: Yes, I'm doing the dishes.
When someone is interviewed: Do you do dishes?
A speaker may also stress a word to emphasize it is important to understand. This is a great way to notice new vocabulary that is essential for participating in a conversation on the topic.
Intonation Patterns
Intonation is the rise and fall of your voice when you speak. Think of how your voice changes when you sing — this is intonation. Intonation is crucial in English because it portrays the speaker's feelings or attitude toward something. For example, if the pitch of your voice is too low, this may indicate that you are bored or tired. Intonation can also provide the speaker with some information about how to respond to what you said. We will focus on the use of intonation to express structural information rather than emotional information.
Statements
A statement is a typical sentence. Where you would put a period at the end of a sentence instead of a question mark or exclamation mark, the intonation is falling. This signals the end of an idea. While this is the typical pattern, it can vary if there is a strong emotion connected to the idea.
Examples
I finished my homework.
You work at the restaurant.
We learned that yesterday.
Questions
The intonation you use will depend on what type of response you want from the listener.
Yes/No Answers:
If you want a simple yes/no answer to your question, you will use a rising intonation. This means that the last syllable in your question will be a higher pitch than in the previous words.
Examples
Do you want to go to lunch?
Are you taking an English class?
Have you tried Thai food before?
Longer Answers:
If you ask a question using who, what, where, when, why, or how (also known as wh- questions), you are expecting a more specific answer. This type of question has a falling intonation pattern, like in a typical statement.
Examples
When is your class?
Where do you live?
How did you learn to play the piano?
Tags:
A tag is a word or phrase we put at the end of a statement to make it a question. This is more common in conversational English. The statement part of the sentence will be falling with the tag in a rising intonation.
Examples
Your favorite color is blue, right?
You haven't seen my pen, have you?
I'm just too busy, you know?
Clarification Statements:
Sometimes a statement is used as a question. This is usually when the listener repeats the sentence with rising intonation to check that they heard it correctly. There is usually additional stress on the word the listener is unsure about as well.
Examples
A: I started working at that store. B: You work at that store?
A: Oh no! The store is closed. B: It's closed?
A: The package will arrive today. B: I thought it was arriving tomorrow?
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Exercise 1: Listen & Speak
Watch this video and listen for stress. Some words are naturally stressed content words. Others may be stressed to clarify, add meaning, or emphasize an important word.
Speaking Practice
- Summarize the information from the video. Using the transcript, identify some new vocabulary you want to use in your summary. When you use those words, stress them and provide a simple explanation to emphasize the importance of those terms.
- What are your habits for drinking water? Do you keep track of how much water you drink?
Exercise 2: Listen & Speak
Watch this video and listen for statement and question intonation. Notice how the speakers do not always follow the patterns above. They do this to express a different meaning.
Transcript
How does the meaning change in the bolded sentences when the speakers do not follow the intonation patterns?
Speaking Practice
- While the video has the main purpose of being entertaining, fast food is a common debate topic. Do you eat fast food? What do you think some of the pros and cons are for this type of food?
- Some people follow a strict diet, while others eat whatever they want, whenever they want. What do you think is best and why?
Exercise 3: Listen for it
This video is about exercise. Your teacher will play a section of the video and you will listen for words that are stressed.
Exercise 4: Imitation
Watch this video about milk. Use the subtitles or the transcript on YouTube (click the three dots next to "save video" to see the option "open transcript" so you can see the full text.
- Choose a 30-second section of the video to practice with. Your partner should choose a different section.
- Repeat the words along with the speaker. Try to match the stress patterns of the words. Don't worry as much about pronunciation.
- Play the section of the video with NO sound and perform that section for your partner. Your partner will give you feedback on your imitation of the sentence-level stress.
- Listen to your partner perform his or her section. Then provide feedback on sentence-level stress.
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