Secret #1: LEARN ABOUT WORD STRESS
Word Stress is golden key number one for speaking and understanding English. Word Stress is *very important*. You can try to learn about Word Stress. This is one of the *best* ways for you to understand spoken English - especially English spoken fast.
What is Word Stress?
Take 3 words: photograph, photographer and photographic, for example. Do they sound the same when spoken? No! They sound different, because *one* syllable in each word is "stressed" (stronger than the others).
PHOtograph
phoTOgrapher
photoGRAPHic
This happens in ALL words with 2 or more syllables: TEACHer, JaPAN, CHINa, aBOVE, converSAtion, INteresting, imPORtant, deMAND, etCETera, etCETera, etCETera
The syllables that are not stressed are 'weak' or 'small' or 'quiet'. Native speakers of English listen for the stressed syllables, not the weak syllables. If you use Word Stress in your speech, you will instantly and automatically improve your pronunciation andyour comprehension.
If you have an English teacher, ask her to help you understand Word Stress. Try to hear the stress in words each time you listen to English - on the radio, or in films for example. Your first step is to *hear* and recognise it. After that, you can *use* it!
Secret #2: SENTENCE STRESS
Sentence Stress is golden key number two for speaking and understanding English. With Sentence Stress, some *words* in a sentence are "stressed" (loud) and other words are weak (quiet). Look at the following sentence:
We want to go.
Do we say every word with the same stress or force? No! We make the important words *big* and the unimportant words small. What are the important words in this sentence? Yes, you're right: WANT and GO.
We WANT to GO.
We WANT to GO to WORK.
We DON'T WANT to GO to WORK.
We DON'T WANT to GO to WORK at NIGHT.
It's impossible to explain everything about Sentence Stress in this email. The important thing for you is that you know it exists and try to learn about it. Sentence Stress is *very important*!
