Sentence Stress and Rhythm
Lesson 3 of 9 in Advanced Canadian Pronunciation: Linking, Reductions & Rhythm · 25 minutes
Learn how Canadian English uses stress-timed rhythm. Understand which words in a sentence are stressed (content words) and which are reduced (function words), and how contrastive stress lets you correct or emphasize one word.
What you'll learn
- Identify content words and function words in a sentence
- Apply sentence stress and rhythm to sound more natural
- Use contrastive stress to correct or emphasize information
From the lesson
Sentence Stress: The Music of English
English is a stress-timed language. This means that stressed syllables occur at roughly equal intervals, and unstressed syllables are squeezed in between. This creates a rhythm that sounds like: da-DA-da-da-DA-da-DA.
Many languages (like Spanish, Hindi, Mandarin, and Tagalog) are syllable-timed, meaning every syllable gets roughly equal time. This is why newcomers to Canada sometimes sound 'flat' or 'robotic' — they give every word equal emphasis.
Content Words (STRESSED — louder, longer, higher pitch): - Nouns: BOOK, HOUSE, CANADA - Main verbs: GO, THINK, WORK - Adjectives: BIG, COLD, IMPORTANT - Adverbs: QUICKLY, ALWAYS, REALLY - Negatives: NOT, NEVER,…