4. Incorrect word or sentence stress

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Why does it happen?

Spanish and English have different systems of stress placement. In Spanish, stress is generally placed on the second-to-last syllable of a word, whereas in English, stress can be placed on any syllable within a word, depending on the word's context, meaning, and function within a sentence.

This difference in stress placement can cause difficulties for Spanish speakers when learning English pronunciation, as they may not be accustomed to identifying and producing stress patterns in English words and sentences.

Additionally, Spanish has a relatively predictable stress pattern, whereas English has many exceptions and irregularities. In Spanish, stress is typically determined by the word's spelling and accent marks. In English, however, stress can be influenced by factors such as the word's part of speech, the number of syllables in the word, and the emphasis placed on certain words within a sentence.

Furthermore, in English, sentence stress is an important aspect of communication and can change the meaning of a sentence depending on which words are emphasized. Spanish speakers may not be used to this level of emphasis in their own language and therefore may struggle to identify and produce appropriate sentence stress in English.

EXERCISES

1. Word Stress. 

Say the following list of words out loud and make an emphasis on the syllable in bold. That's where the word stress is, depending if the word is a noun, a verb, or an adjective. 

  • project (n) - project (v)
  • record (n) - record (v)
  • content (n) - content (adj)
  • present (n) - present (v)
  • progress (n) - progress (v)
  • repeat (n) - repeat (v)
  • increase (n) - increase (v)
  • refund (n) - refund (v)
  • impact (n) - impact (v)
  • object (n) - object (v)


2. Sentence stress.

It refers about the words in a sentence that get the most emphasis. You can emphasize different words in a sentence to create new meanings. Let's read aloud this common saying: I told you so!

The most common way to pronounce it is to put the primary stress on "told" and the secondary stress on "so", like this:

I TOLD you SO!

However, you can also change the implicit meaning of the phrase by emphasizing "I". By doing this, you will stress the fact that you (the speaker) were the one who told them (the listener) about something:

I told you so!


How you can know which words to stress in a sentence?

Well, there are not sentence stress rules but there are some general principles to follow in order to use sentence stress properly; you can often tell which words should be stressed just based on the parts of speech and where the words fall in a sentence:

-content words are usually stressed

-function words are usually unsurpassed unless you want to emphasize their role(s) in a sentence.

-Question words are usually unsurpassed unless you want to emphasize their role(s) in a sentence.

-subject pronouns are usually unstressed while object pronouns are usually stressed


Look at the following sentences. Try to place the emphasis on the appropriate word to answer the questions. 

Jack will walk to the restaurant tonight. 

Who will walk to the restaurant tonight?

What will Jack do to the restaurant tonight?

Will Jack walk to any restaurant tonight?

Where will Jack walk to tonight?

When will Jack walk to the restaurant?


I don't think she will listen to him. 

Who doesn't think she will listen to him?
What do I think?
Who wont' listen to him?
What won't she do?
Who won't she listen to?

Comments

  1. Livan SorianoApril 12, 2023 at 4:38 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Livan SorianoApril 12, 2023 at 5:07 PM

    Hello guys!
    Your blog was more than fantastic! I really liked the activities you proposed and also the way you explained why every of the errors you chose happens to Spanish speakers that are learning English. Also, I liked the colors of your blog, how is everything following a patter of organization, and the simple but effective instructions of the activities. Congratulations.

    Livan David Soriano Ortega

    ReplyDelete
  3. joseph morenoApril 12, 2023 at 8:13 PM

    Hello guys!
    Well done!
    Nice selection of the names in the topics (Could be better if you pick more redondable fonts)
    This blog is well done, the structure is fantastic! since you read the main topic, the content has a good organization, the exercises will help us a lot! I like the explanation of the errors, and also the pictures.
    Joshep Alejandro Torres Moreno

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ada RodriguezApril 12, 2023 at 8:35 PM

    Hi guys, your blog has an excellent presentation, and you selected common mistakes I liked that you gave a broad explanation before starting the exercises; I'm sure they will help more than one person with this.

    - Ada Rodriguez

    ReplyDelete

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