Spoken English has a rhythm to it. Stressed syllables are said longer, louder, and with higher pitch, and unstressed syllables are shorter, softer, and at a lower pitch. It is this back-and-forth between stressed syllables and unstressed syllables that gives English its unique rhythm and flow.
To get a better feel for the rhythm in spoken English, let’s do a musical activity. I have a metronome app on my phone, and I’ll set it to 90 beats per minute. I’m going to read a variety of sentences while the metronome keeps the beat, and I’ll maintain the same rhythm and beat for each sentence. Only the important words will receive the beat.
TAKE BREAK
TAKE a BREAK
i TAKE a BREAK
i wanna TAKE a BREAK
i’m TAKEing a BREAK
she’s TAKEing a BREAK
CLEAN ROOM
CLEAN your ROOM
please CLEAN your ROOM
would you CLEAN your ROOM
i’m CLEANing your ROOM
he’s CLEANing your ROOM
WALK STORE NOW
WALK to STORE NOW
WALK to the STORE NOW
i’ll WALK to the STORE NOW
i wanna WALK to the STORE NOW
let’s WALK to the STORE right NOW
BAKE GOOD CAKE
BAKE a GOOD CAKE
i BAKE a GOOD CAKE
i’d like to BAKE a GOOD CAKE
he BAKEs a GOOD CAKE
he’s BAKEing a GOOD CAKE
he’s BAKEing a GOOD-tasting CAKE
HELP CLEAN MESS
HELP me CLEAN MESS
HELP me CLEAN this MESS
would you HELP me CLEAN this MESS
you’re HELPing me CLEAN this MESS
you’re HELPing me CLEAN up this MESS
In that exercise, you should have noticed that only the important words received the stress, or the beat. Those words carried the meaning in the sentence, and they are called the content words. Content words include nouns, main verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and Wh-words.
Let’s review the sentences from the first exercise, and I’ll identify the content words in the sentence:
TAKE and BREAK are the content words in these sentences. TAKE is a main verb and BREAK is a noun. And now listen to how I say the sentence without the metronome.
TAKE a BREAK
i TAKE a BREAK
i wanna TAKE a BREAK
i’m TAKEing a BREAK
she’s TAKEing a BREAK
And let’s look at one more of the sentences and identify the content words:
HELP CLEAN MESS - HELP is a main verb, CLEAN is a main verb, and MESS is a noun.
Now listen to how I read these sentences without the metronome.
HELP me CLEAN MESS
HELP me CLEAN this MESS
would you HELP me CLEAN this MESS
you’re HELPing me CLEAN this MESS
you’re HELPing me CLEAN up this MESS
Thanks so much for watching! And I'd love to hear from you - contact me to learn how we can work together to perfect your American English pronunciation!
