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Speaker 1: Sentence stress. It's not the kind of stress that keeps

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you up at night, and in fact, it's not anything

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bad at all. It's an essential part of English. So

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let's dive right in.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to you from

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New York City. And here's your English teacher, Michael.

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Speaker 1: All right, thank you John, and thanks everyone. It's Michael

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here from Happy English and I help people speak English better.

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This is Happy English Podcast, Episode eight fifty five, Speaking

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Naturally sentence stress and emphasis. Hello and welcome, Thanks for

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tuning in. Today we're going to look at another part

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of speaking naturally in English, something native speakers do all

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the time, but many learners never get taught in class,

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and that is sentence stress. And when I say sentence stress,

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I'm not talking about being stressed out about learning grammar.

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I'm talking about how we say certain words louder, longer,

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or more clearly, and how that changes the feeling and

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sometimes even the meaning of what we're saying. Okay, let's

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jump in first. What is sentence stress anyway? Well, in English,

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we don't stress every word the same that would sound robotic. Instead,

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we naturally stress the important words, the words that carry meaning.

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So what kinds of words get stressed? Well, in most cases,

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it's the verbs and nouns because they carry the meaning.

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Think of the verb as the action and the noun

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as the thing doing or receiving the action. Like in

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the sentence I bought a computer at the store, the

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action is bought and the things involved are computer and store.

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So these are the words that get stressed. The little

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words like I uh at are not as important for

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the meaning, so they stay unstressed. We don't say I

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bought a computer at the store with all the words stress.

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We say I bought a computer at the store, bought

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computer store. The keywords are bought, computer and store, and

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those are the keywords that make up the thought groups.

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I talked about those in episode eight fifty three, so

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if you missed it, I'd suggest you check that out.

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I bought a computer at the store. So why does

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all of this matter? Because stress gives rhythm to English,

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and when you understand sentence stress, you'll sound more natural,

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understand native speakers more easily, and you can even change

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the meaning of a sentence by shifting the stress. Let

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me show you how. Let's try this sentence. I don't

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think she's the prettiest girl here. It's eight words, and

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it has eight different meanings depending on which word you stress.

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Here we go. I don't think she's the prettiest girl here,

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not me. Maybe someone else thinks that, but I don't.

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I don't think she's the prettiest girl here. I don't

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think so. I disagree with that idea. I don't think

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she's the prettiest girl here. I don't think so. I'm

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not sure. Maybe she is, or maybe she's not. I

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don't think she's the prettiest girl here, not her. Maybe

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someone else is prettier. I don't think she's the prettiest

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girl here. I mean she's not the prettiest. Maybe she's

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one of the prettiest, but not the prettiest girl girl here.

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I don't think she's the prettiest girl here. Maybe she's

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the smartest or the most talented, but not the prettiest.

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I don't think she's the prettiest girl here. Maybe someone else,

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not necessarily a girl stands out more. And finally, I

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don't think she's the prettiest girl here. Maybe she's the

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prettiest somewhere else, but certainly not here in this place.

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So you see how that works. It's the same sentence

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eight totally different feelings and meanings just by shifting the

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stress from one word to the next. So how can

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you practice this? Here are a few ideas. First of all,

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record yourself reading a sentence and emphasize different words. Try

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it with this sentence, she told me to call him yesterday.

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Emphasize she then me. Then call then yesterday and hear

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the difference. She told me to call him yesterday. She

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told me to call him yesterday. She told me to

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call him yesterday. She told me to call him yesterday.

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See you hear the difference there. The next thing you

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can do is shadowing. Shadow native speakers repeat after them

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and match the rhythm and the stress. Don't just repeat

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the words, repeat the music, repeat the rhythm, repeat the stress,

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and read with intention. Read with intention. Choose one sentence

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and decide what's the most important word in this sentence.

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Stress that one and de emphasize the rest. Okay, and

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here's a mini challenge for you. Try this sentence, we

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can meet after lunch if you want. Now say in

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a few different ways, emphasize we we can meet after

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lunch if you want. Maybe it's not them, it's us.

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Emphasize meet. We can meet after lunch if you want,

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not call, not message meet, emphasize after lunch. We can

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meet after lunch if you want, not before lunch, not

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after breakfast. Right, emphasize if you want maybe it's optional. Right,

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we can meet after lunch if you want. Okay. So

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each version changes the feel of the sentence, and that's

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exactly what native speakers do without thinking. Okay, let's reach.

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English has sentence stress. We stress content words like verbs

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and nouns. Changing the stress can actually change the meaning

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to sound more natural. Practice rhythm, not speed, shadowing, and

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repetition help build this skill. So remember, fluency isn't about

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speaking faster, It's about sounding natural, and sentence stress is

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a huge part of that. If you try this out,

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let me know how it goes. Come find me on

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Instagram at Happy English and Why, or leave a comment

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here on the blog. Thanks for hanging out with me

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today and until next time, keep practicing, keep stressing the

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right words, and keep it cool. And if you really

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want to get more practice using your English, well, you

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should join my podcast Learner's Study Group. There you can

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make new international friends. Join us for live group lessons

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every week where we practice these podcast lessons together. Plus

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you get access to the PDF, transcript and audio download

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for every Happy English podcast in the past and in

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the future. And on top of that, each episode has

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exercises where you can practice this English point with speaking

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and writing checked by me. To learn more, just visit

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Myhappy English dot com and choose podcast lesson eight fifty five. Remember,

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learning another language is not easy, but it's not impossible,

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and I'm here to help you on your journey.

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Speaker 2: This podcast is brought to you by Happy English. Please

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visit Myhappy English dot com show your support for Happy

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