Unit 33. That Could be the Man.
Unstressed Words
Unit 33; Part A
All of the sentences below have three syllables with this stress pattern: OoO. The middle word in each sentence is unstressed because it is not as important as the other two words. Listen.
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Unit 33; Part B
These are the kinds of words which are not normally stressed, with example words from the sentences in A above. pronouns (your) the verb be (was) auxiliary verbs (can) articles (the) conjunctions (and, or) prepositions (to) Note: Negative auxiliary verbs (can't, don't, hasn't, etc.) are usually stressed. See Unit 32. | |||
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Note: Speakers can choose to put stress on words which are normally unstressed. They do this for emphasis or contrast. (See Unit 49.) |
Exercises
| Unit 32 Unit 33 Unit 34 |