Learn English – How do i know if the word is stressed in English

connected-speechpronunciationword-stress

Yesterday I had a lesson about stressed words.

My question is how do i know if the word is stressed or not without listening to the pronunciation?

Examples

  1. He wants a job that lets them travel. How do i know the words that are stressed?
  2. An accountant is someone who is good at numbers. How do i know the words that are stressed?

I am looking forward to the answer and I appreciate your effort and time

Best Answer

You can stress any word, and it will give a slightly different meaning on what you're saying. The most natural stress for example one is on the word travel, and for number two it's accountant. I'm going to list out the different stresses for the first example, then tell you what they mean:


He wants a job that lets them travel.

(For these examples, I'll pretend that them refers to his family)

Someone else wants him to have a different job. Maybe his wife wants him to have a job that earns a lot of money, but he wants a job for the reason above.

He wants a job that lets them travel.

He already has a job doing something else, but he wants a different one.

He wants a job that lets them travel.

He doesn't want more than one job. Sounds a bit clumsy, if that's what you're trying to say then you'd say "He wants a single job that lets them travel."

He wants a job that lets them travel.

He probably already has the means to let his family travel, maybe he has a lot of money saved up, but he wants a job to be his new means of paying for his travel.

He wants a job that lets them travel.

Doesn't add any meaning to the sentence, you'd never add stress here unless someone didn't hear you say that the first time.

He wants a job that lets them travel.

He doesn't want a job that forces his family to travel.

He wants a job that lets them travel.

He cares more about letting his family travel than himself travel

He wants a job that lets them travel.

His family doesn't travel yet, he wants a job so that they will be able to.

(Without any context, this is the most neutral place to put a stress on a word)


So in summary, whenever you add stress on to a word imagine what the sentence could be if you swapped the word with something else. That will tell you what information you're really trying to get across to the listener:

"She is my girlfriend" -> You probably thought someone else was my girlfriend

"She is my girlfriend" -> You don't believe she's my girlfriend, but she is

"She is my girlfriend" -> You might have thought she was someone else's girlfriend

"She is my girlfriend" -> Maybe you thought we were brother and sister

Related Topic