Real English

Rhythm: stress and inflection

Hiya. In this series we’re going to see how stress creates the rhythm of the language. But hey, what is stress?

Well, stress is an extra force inside a word – a kind of a push. E.g. in the word ‘fanTAStic’, ‘tas’ is stressed. Also note that we have an inflection in the tone: fanTAStic. Great.

Now, if you get a rubber band like this one, you can mimic what happens to the vocal cords.

I’m going to say a list of words, and I want you to listen to the inflection. You will hear it even with short words. Here we go:

go, drink, nice, wait, sleep, brown, sharp
tennis, modern, wallet, practise, answer, brother, melody, harmony

Great. Now, let’s move the stress away from the first syllable. Please note that the stress is created by making a slight change in the tone (we call it ‘inflection’):

again, enough, asleep, aboard, abroad, mistake, repeat
education, politician, electrician, communication, accentuation, photography, nationality, artistic, thermometer, inflection

Cool. Now, as you practise, I want you to pay close attention to the inflection in your voice when you come to the stress in the word. Right? A rubber band will help you tremendously.

Now go, practise. See you soon.

Exercise 1

Spot the stress. Where is the stress in the following words?

politician
design
photography
complex
mechanic
mechanism
television
arena