More about Stress & Intonation

Welcome to Lesson 2, Perfect Your Pronunciation.

In this lesson, we are going to focus on ways to increase your fluency and make your English pronunciation even better.

First I’ll discuss more about word stress, and then review other ways to help you speak more effectively.

First, let’s learn more about word stress.

I hope you remember what I said back in Module 1, that word stress is the magic key to clear English.

More than anything else, when you speak, it is your word stress that helps people understand what you are saying.

In some cases people in America will not understand people in England, even though both countries use English, some of the word stress varies making those words sound completely different.

For example, this word is pronounced garage in America, but in in England it’s pronounced garage.

In Module 1, we looked at the basic of word stress.

We stress only one syllable in every word, and we say that one syllable longer and louder.

In Module 3, we practiced correct word word stress for numbers with teens and tens.

Remember the difference between fourteen and forty?

In this lesson I’m going to introduce you to a few more guidelines to help you decide which syllable to stress.

We will look at regular and proper compound nouns, at nouns and verbs that look alike but have different stress, and finally at suffixes that change word stress.

First, regular compound nouns, a compound noun is a combination of two words.

Some are just one word with two parts, like basketball or network.

Others are two or more separate words like, driver’s license or coffee cup.

Listen while I say these compounds again.

Basketball, coffee cup, driver’s license, and network.

Where did I put the stress?

Yes, on the first word of each compound noun.

Another type of compound noun is the compound proper noun.

These are the names of a particular person, place, or thing, and they usually begin with a capital letter.

Names like Georgia Tech or Delta Airlines, unlike regular compound nouns, compound proper nouns receive stress on the last segment.

Whether the proper noun is two, three, or even four words, the stress will always fall on the last segment.

Listen to a few, New York City, Martin Luther King, The Golden Gate Bridge. The stress is always at the end.

Now let’s look and listen to nouns and verbs that are similar.

They look alike but they do not sound alike.

They have different word stress.

Listen to a few examples.

He records his speeches.

I keep a record of all the money I spend.

I will present my speech next week.

My friends gave me a present on my birthday.

What’s the difference between the nouns and the verbs?

We stress the first syllable in the nouns, and the second syllable in the verbs.

Let’s look at, and listen to, a few more examples.

Conduct.

Conduct.

Progress.

Progress.

Contract.

Contract.

Object.

Object.

Permit.

Permit.

Again, we stress the first syllable in the nouns, and the second syllable in the verbs.

Last, let’s look at some common suffixes, and how they affect word stress.

A suffix is a group of letters on the end of a word that changes the word form.

For example, adding r after the verb drive forms the noun driver.

Adding ness after the adjective good forms the noun goodness.

Many suffixes do not change the stress of the word, as in the following.

When you add ness, ful, ment, or to a word the stress remains the same.

Happy, happiness.

Power, powerful.

Require, requirement.

Employ, employer.

However, the following suffixes do change word stress.

Listen to how the stress moves right to the syllable immediately before the suffix.

Adding this to major, it becomes majority.

Adding this to educate, it becomes education.

Adding this to economy, it becomes economic.

Adding this to mechanism becomes mechanical.

And adding this to electric becomes electrician.

Having these guidelines for word stress can help you to identify the correct word stress to use, and they’re helpful.

But the best way to improve your word stress is to pay close attention to word stress during conversations, while you watch videos, and as you listen to the news or podcasts.

Over time and the more you listen and speak, the better and more accurate your word stress will be.

Now, I’d like to review a few more points to remember as you practice and improve your fluency.

Sentence stress, in every sentence focus on the content words, the important words in the sentence.

Say them louder and make them last longer.

Keep the structure words softer and shorter.

By doing this you create the rhythm of English, ta Ta ta Ta ta Ta.

Be aware of your intonation, the rise and fall of your voice at the end of sentences.

As your voice rises and falls at the end of statements and information questions, your listener can more easily follow what you were saying.

In longer sentences each time we pause our voices also rise and fall. Pauses and full stops are also very important when you are speaking.

You know what you’re going to say but your listener doesn’t.

Pauses give your listeners time to think and understand.

And the more they understand, the better you sound.

Finally, remember your body language.

Smile as you speak.

Move your hands to give meaning to what you are saying.

Lean into your audience, this shows that you are engaged and confident.

And remember, the more you practice, I should say practice, practice, practice, the easier it will become to speak fluently and effectively.

I look forward to hearing your next recording.

This brings us to the end of our course, Speak English Professionally In Person, Online, and On the Phone.

I have really enjoyed teaching this course and watching your progress through the modules.

You can feel confident that as you’ve practiced and performed an elevator speech, video conference conference, phone talk, interview questions and answers, and presentation prep, you also grew closer to reaching your professional and personal goals as an English speaker.

Congratulations for finishing this course.

I look forward to working with you again in the Capstone course.

See you soon.