CONTENT WORDS AND LINKING SENTENCES

KEY POINTS FOR SOUND STRESS

STRUCTURE WORDS
Words with a full meaning of their own; nouns, main verbs (ie not auxiliary or modal verbs), adjectives and many adverbs. Contrasted with structure words.
Linking in English When we say a sentence in English, we join or "link" words to each other. Because of this linking, the words in a sentence do not always sound the same as when we say them individually. Linking is very important in English. If you recognize and use linking, two things will happen: 1. You will understand other people more easily 2. Other people will understand you more easily

There are basically two types of linking:

consonant > vowel We link words ending with a consonant sound to words beginning with a vowel sound

vowel > vowel

We link words ending with a vowel sound to words beginning with a vowel sound In this lesson we look at:

Understanding Vowels & Consonants for Linking

To understand linking, it is important to know the difference between vowel sounds and consonant sounds. Here is a table of English vowels and consonants: 1. Vowels - a e i o u 2. consonants bcd fgh jklmn pqrst vwxyz. But the important thing in linking is the sound, not the letter. Often the letter and the sound are the same, but not always.

For example, the word "pay" ends with: the consonant letter "y" the vowel sound "a"

Here are some more examples: though ends with the letter ends with the sound h o uniform know w o honest

begins with the letter begins with the sound

u y

h o

Linking Consonant to Vowel

When a word ends in a consonant sound, we often move the consonant sound to the beginning of the next word if it starts with a vowel sound. For example, in the phrase "turn off": We write it like this: We say it like this: turn tur off noff

Remember that it's the sound that matters. In the next example, "have" ends with:
The letter "e" (vowel) The sound "v" (consonant) So we link "have" to the next word "a" which begins with a vowel sound: We write it like this We say it like this: :Can I have a bit of egg? Ca-nI-ha-va-bi-to-fegg?

Linking Vowel to Vowel

When one word ends with a vowel sound and the next word begins with a vowel sound, we link the words with a sort of W or Y sound. If our lips are round at the end of the first word, we insert a W sound: We write it like this: We say it like this: too often so I tooWoften soWI who is do all whoWis doWall

If our lips are wide at the end of the first word, we insert a Y sound: We write it like this: I am
the end We say it like this: IYam theYend

Kay is
she asked KayYis sheYasked

Understanding Syllables To understand word stress, it helps to understand syllables. Every word is made from syllables. Each word has one, two, three or more syllables.

word dog green dog green

number of syllables 1 1

quite
quiet orange table expensive interesting realistic unexceptional

quite
qui-et or-ange ta-ble ex-pen-sive in-ter-est-ing re-al-is-tic un-ex-cep-tion-al

1
2 2 2 3 4 4 5

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 and your comprehension. Try to hear the stress in individual 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! There are two very important rules about word stress: One word, one stress. (One word cannot have two stresses. So if you hear two stresses, you have heard two words, not one word.) The stress is always on a vowel.