What I mean is this: some words are stressed or emphasized. Other words are not.

Most English pronunciation textbooks refer to stressed words as content words. Content words are typically key nouns, verbs and adjectives.

Unstressed words are referred to as function words. Function words are typically articles, conjunctions and prepositions.

Here are a few short lessons on sentence stress in American English that you can read. The lessons contain a couple of practice activities.

Using sentence stress correctly will help you speak English with a better melody!

To read related information on American English pronunciation click on the links below. The 0 means closed for comments.

Many non-native English speakers have never learned to use thought groups when they speak English. For some people this causes their speech too sound too fast for American listeners to understand. For other people the lack of thought groups causes their speech to sound very choppy to American listeners.

There are no solid rules for dividing longer sentences into thought groups. It really depends on the idea that you are trying to convey.

You will learn all about thought groups in spoken English in Judy Gilbert’s book, Clear Speech from the Start

Cambridge English Language Teaching offers some FREE downloadable books for teaching English pronunciation and listening skills.

One of these free books is Judy Gilbert’s book: Teaching Pronunciation: Using the Prosody Pyramid. This is a great resource for teachers of American English pronunciation because it explains the importance of teaching students how to use word stress, sentence stress and intonation to improve their communication skills.

Click here to read more tips for teaching pronunciation.

The words in a thought group receive different types of stress. The function words, such as articles and prepositions, are usually unstressed. The content words, usually nouns and verbs, are stressed. In each thought group there is also a very important word called the focus word. When we speak we give the most emphasis to the focus word.

We pause briefly between each thought group. This brief pause gives the listener a bit of time to process what we are saying.

Many non-native American English speakers have never learned to use thought groups when they speak English. For some people this causes their speech too sound too fast for American listeners to understand. For other people the lack of thought groups causes their speech to sound very choppy to American listeners.

There are no solid rules for dividing longer sentences into thought groups. It really depends on the idea that you are trying to convey. Using thought groups when you speak will help people to understand you more easily.

Judy Gilbert (one of the best known pronunciation teachers in the USA) teaches you how to use thought groups in spoken English in her book Clear Speech. You can look at the details by clicking on the link below.

Clear Speech from the Start Student’s Book with Audio CD: Basic Pronunciation and Listening Comprehension in North American English

How much you improve will depend on these factors:

1. Your ability to target the speech features that are contributing to your accent
2. Your motivation to improve
3. Your ability to practice daily

Learning to improve your spoken American English does not mean simply learning the 44 vowel and consonant sounds. You must also learn the key factor to speaking English like an American. That means learning to use the correct stress patterns in words and thought groups.

You will not change your accent overnight but with focused practice and commitment you can speak English more confidently and clearly!

If you are not sure which sounds and patterns you need to change to reduce your accent you may want to consider an Accent Assessment. This is a very valuable and affordable way to start your personal accent reduction program!

One way that non-native English speakers can improve their accent is to learn to use the rhythms of spoken English. In my accent reduction classes and coaching sessions I spend significant time working with stress and rhythm because these features of English are key to comprehensibility.

Here are a few tips to remember:

In every word with two or more syllables, one syllable is stressed or emphasized.

1. The vowels in stressed syllables are pronounced with a higher pitch and longer duration than the other vowels in a word.
2. The vowel sounds in unstressed syllables often have a schwa sound.
3. The stressed syllables of content and focus words create stress within a phrase or thought group.

If you are interested in learning more about my accent reduction classes click on the Contact Me tab above and send me a question.

Here is some more information and a syllable stress practice activity.

Click here to watch a 6 minute video where Rachel of Rachel’s English describes content words in American English.

That’s because nursery rhymes can be used to model the syllable stress, sentence stress and intonation patterns of spoken English. The repetitive nature of rhymes can help adults learn the rhythm of the language that is so important for a natural sounding accent. Rhymes also provide short phrases that can be used to demonstrate linking and reductions.

Dr. Olle Kjellin, a neurologist and language teacher from Sweden says that students must repeat a phrase 50-100 times in order to get a phonological “feel” for it. If that’s true, the repetitive nature of rhymes can be used to achieve this in a fun way.

Here is the popular nursery rhyme Jack & Jill marked with sentence stress. The CONTENT and FOCUS words are highlighted.

JACK and JILL went UP the HILL,
To FETCH a pail of WAter;
JACK fell DOWN and BROKE his CROWN,
And JILL came tumbling AFter.

Here it is again marked with sentence stress + the schwa vowel sound in reduced syllables.

JACK ən JILL went UP thə HILL

tə FETCH ə pail əf WAter

JACK fell DOWN ən BROKE his CROWN

ən JILL came tumbling AFter

American children learn the rhythmic aspects of English using rhymes, songs and poems. These should work for adult learners too. You can get nursery rhyme CDs at a bookstore or at a public library.

Click on the link above to read my complete article on how Americans use sentence stress.

You must practice listening to these patterns in order to use them like American English speakers do.

Learning to use syllable stress, sentence stress and intonation patterns will make your speech sound more natural and easy to listen to. 

A great site you can use to practice listening is Randall’s new ESL video clips. Randall’s voice is very clear and it’s easy to hear his syllable stress and sentence stress patterns. The videos are short with comprehension questions you can answer as well. Click on the link below to get started.

Listen to American English pronunciation patterns.