English Pronunciation – Stress

Hi, my name is Maria Penner and I've been
with the British council for one year.

I'm going to talk about pronunciation.

Focusing on the pronunciation in English,

we often talk about sounds, and we forget

about other important features, such as
stress.

Not the stress you experience when
you're late for a meeting, but the

word stress. Such as,
“Nice to meet you!”, or “Hello!”

Using stress efficiently can help you
to be better understood or avoid

embarrassing mistakes and ambiguity.

We are all aware of word stress and how

shifting it can affect the meaning of the
word.

For example, to present and the present,

or to object and an object.

But we can also use sentence stress

to get our main message across
efficiently and quickly.

If I say, I asked him to buy 11 red roses.

What exactly am I trying to say?

That he didn't buy them?

or he bought the wrong ones?

Well, if I use sentence stress and I make

the keyword sound longer, then you can
easily understand what I'm talking about.

Like, I asked him to buy 11 red roses,
not 3.

Or, I asked him to buy 11 red roses,

not her or her friend, or his friend.

Or, I asked him to buy 11 red roses not
yellow ones.

So, if you want to use sentence
stress efficiently,

is a good idea to watch the news or
listen to the news and TV in English,

and try to copy the stress, or
just make mental notes

of how speakers use the stress.

Thank you!