ENGLISH RHYTHM

Content words vs. function words

When it comes to the analysis of English pronunciation, this is the initial
distinction that needs to be made. On the one hand, there are the lexical or
content words which include nouns, main verbs, adjectives and adverbs. These
words are part of the lexis or field of the discourse, that is to say they are the
speaker´s choice and have a significant weight in the communicative situation.
This weight is reflected in the fact that they have a pronunciation which could
be described as protected; this means they do not have vowel reduction on
their stressed syllables and their pronunciation stays the same regardless of
the rhythm of the utterance.

On the other hand, the remaining words are grammatical or structural, often
called function words and even though they, too, have a weight in the
discourse, they are unstressed in connected speech to sort of stand back and
allow the lexical choices be the protagonists. They are conjunctions, pronouns,
prepositions, auxiliary verbs and articles. This obscuration in their
pronunciation impacts mainly on the quality of the vowel sounds in them.

Below is a list of the main function words in the English language which have a
weak pronunciation. Some function words such as “on” haven´t got a weak
pronunciation.

Function Word Weak Pronunciation Strong pronunciation

a ə eɪ

am əm æm

an ən æn

and ənd nd ən n̩ ænd

are ə ɑ:
as əz æz

at ət æt

be1 bi bi:

been bɪn bi:n

but bət bʌt

can2 kən kæn

could kəd kʊd kʊd

do (aux.) du du:

does (aux.) dəz dʌz

for fə fr f fɔ:

from frəm frm frɒm

had (aux.) həd əd hæd

has (aux.) həz əz hæz

have (aux.) həv əv hæv

he hi hi:

her hə ɜ: ə hɜ:

his hɪz ɪz hɪz

me mi mi:

1
The verb TO BE in all its forms is almost always weak, regardless of whether it functions as an auxiliary or
as a main verb.

The negative forms can´t /kɑ:nt/ and cannot /ˈkænɒt/ have no weak forms, like all contracted negative
2

forms.
must məst məs mʌst

of əv ə ɒv

shall ʃəl ʃl̩ ʃæl

she ʃi ʃi:

should ʃəd ʃd ʃʊd

some (adj.) səm sm sʌm

than ðən ðæn

that (as a conj. or rel. pron.) ðət ðæt

the ðə (+C) ði (+V) ði:

them ðəm ðem

there (existential subject) ðə ðeə

to (and into, onto) tə (+C) tu (+V) tu:

us əs ʌs

was wəz wɒz

we wi wi:

were wə wɜ:

who hʊ hu:

would wəd wʊd

you ju ju:

Notice that even though most of the times these function words are used in
their weak form, in certain contexts, the strong form is needed. When?
 in instances of contrastive focus, citation or emphasis;
 when prepositions or auxiliary verbs are stranded;
 in negative contractions;
 when buttressing prepositional phrases in final position in the clause.

 Let’s think of examples of each of the above. The last one is probably
new to you, for that one please read on.

Buttressing
Buttressing is the optional use of the strong form for an unaccented
preposition with a pronoun complement, after the nucleus. In the following
sentences, transcribe both optional readings:
I had a letter from him
 ..........................................................................

 ..........................................................................

Give it to me.
 ..........................................................................

 ..........................................................................

English as a language has its own distinctive rhythm. In this section, we are
going to explore certain tendencies in word stress so that you will be more
likely to sound both natural and fluent.

Read the sentence below:

It’s the worst thing that you could do.
In this case, the rhythm produced by the combination of content and function
words is all it takes for it to “sound English”. That is because the words in it
are all monosyllables, so simply using a strong or a weak pronunciation builds
a rhythmical pattern. But when a content word has more than one syllable,
speakers have to also succeed in stressing and unstressing the sequence of
syllables within those bi or polysyllabic words correctly. This causes changes to
the ‘shape’ of words.
Why is word stress important? Mistakes in word stress are a common cause of
misunderstanding in English. That is, stressing the wrong syllable in a word
can make the word very difficult to hear and understand; for example, try
saying the following words:
oO Oo
b'tell 'hotl
And now in a sentence: I carried the b'tell to the 'hotl. Now reverse the stress
patterns for the two words and you should be able to make sense of the
sentence: I carried the bottle to the hotel.

Although we can´t say there are fixed rules, there certainly are some patterns
in word stress. Here are some general tendencies for word stress in English.
Let´s first look at the case of bisyllabic or two-part words.

Example Type of Rule or Exceptions

(and common
Word word Tendency mistakes)

apple two-syllable stress on the first hotel

table nouns and syllable guitar
happy adjectives Oo
apple exam

event

suspect two-syllable The noun has the respect

words stress on the first
import syllable witness
which can be Oo
export used as control
You are the suspect!
insult both The verb has the comment
noun and verb stress on the second
accent notice
syllable
transport oO
I suspect you.
transfer
hairbrush Stressed
football on the first part and
compound nouns no vowel reduction on
blackboard the weak unaccented
keyboard syllable
Oo
bodyscanner hairbrush

bookshelf

bad-tempered Stress shift is

common: on the first
old-fashioned compound or second part,
adjectives depending on the
narrow-minded
syntactic position
good-looking
A bad-tempered boy

He´s bad-tempered

Understand Fairly equally

balanced but with
overlook compound verbs stronger stress
overflow on the second part

OoO

understand

What happens in longer words?

Let’s take the following polysyllabic words: qualify, important, understand. We
can perceive that there is one identifiable syllable in each word which sounds
louder than the others: QUAlify, imPORTant, UNDerSTAND. The syllables
indicated in capitals are the stressed syllables. Each stressed syllable, as said
above, has a change in pitch - the level of the speaker’s voice - and the vowel
sound in that syllable is lengthened and is more clearly articulated.
In polysyllabic words, the main stress can fall on the first, second or third
syllable of a word, as is shown here:
Ooo oOo ooO
QUAlify imPORTant UNderSTAND
SYLLabus enGAGEment REpreSENT
FAMily aMAZing KANgaROO
TECHnical phoNEtic AFTerNOON
CONSonant together VOLunTEER

The words in the first group (Ooo) are all stressed on the first syllable, thus
admitting a succession of weak syllables afterwards. That sounds English.
The words in the second group (oOo) are stressed on the second or middle
syllable, thus being well-balanced. They take weak syllables in initial and final
position. That sounds English.
Now, those in the third group (OoO) which are stressed in the third (or
sometimes fourth) syllable require a secondary stress two syllables before
which is less prominent than the primary stress but necessary for word
balance. Without that secondary stress, these words wouldn´t sound English.
Finally, negative prefixes such as un- or de- also carry a secondary stress (e.g.
uncertain, deforestation).

In word families, there are useful patterns such as in the following examples:

Oo o O oo Ooo oooOo
equal equality equalise equalisation
final finality finalise finalisation
neutral neutrality neutralize neutralisation

Let´s practise!
1. Read these words. Which are the stressed syllables? What happens to
the unstressed syllables in terms of sound quality?

personality
analytical
pharmacology
pathogenic
metabolic

2. Read the following pairs of words. Are the stress patterns in both words
the same or different?

under over
question answer
require offer
certificate delivery
considerably manufacturer
absolutely recovery
specify separate
open around

3. Now practise saying the following words, making the difference in stress.
What seems to be the tendency?

NOUN VERB

a set-up to set up

a take-off to take off

a stopover to stop over

a handout to hand out

some makeup to make up

a dropout to drop out

4. Where does the stress go in each of these words? Is that the default
position or is it an exception?

 Guitar
 Holdup
 Event
 Prefer
 Immigration
 Education
 Politics
 Wake up
 Consequently
 Shotgun

5. Let´s think of words which we often mispronounce and let’s discuss why
that might be so.