De-stressed Function Words | Practice | Part 3
De-stressed Function Words
Part 3
English Pronunciation Lesson
Series on Stress and Rhythm in English
Introduction
My students often tell me that Americans speak too fast, and that makes us difficult to understand.
But actually, it’s not so much our speed that can make us difficult to understand; it’s how we de-stress our function words and transform sounds with connected speech.
This change in sound is the major difference between written English and spoken English.
Example
We would not say:
•. “I went to the store” [ɑiY WɛNT TUW ðʌ STOWR].
But we stress our content words and de-stress our function words to say:
•. [ɑiy WɛNT təðə STOWR]
•. “to the” → [təðə]
The Music of English 🎶
The music of English 🎶 comes from:
stressing + de-stressing:
• syllables and
• words.
We stress content words, which carry the meaning of the sentence; and
We de-stress function words, which provide the sentence’s grammar and structure, but do not carry much meaning.
To de-stress means we say function words:
• weaker and
• shorter, many times with a schwa, an [ə].
Function Words
The five types of functions words that we de-stress are:
articles (a, an, the)
conjunctions (and, but, so)
auxiliary verbs (can, am, is)
pronouns (he, she, one)
prepositions (to, for)
Commonly de-stressed function words include the following:
“to” → [tə]
“for” → [fɚr]
“at” → [ət]
“and” → [ən]
“or” → [ɚr]
“you” → [yə]
“him” → [əm] (Also see the lesson on h-deletion).
“have” → [əv]
“can” → [kɪn] (Also see the lesson Can vs. Can’t)
“do” → [də]
Got it?
Let’s practice.
Notice how I lengthen my content words–such as nouns and verbs–and say my function words quickly.
Listen and Repeat
(De-stressed function words are underlined).
“I’m going to the store. Do you want anything?” [təðə] [dəyə]
“Do you want to drive to the game?” [wɑnə] [təðə]
(Notice how I transformed the verb “want to” → *”wanna”)
“I’ll get a watch for him.” [fərɪm]
(Notice how I deleted the “h”)
“She has to meet us there.” [hæstə]
“I can completely understand what you’re saying.” [ɑiykɪn] [yɚr]
(Note that sometimes the [t] + [y] in “what your” causes [t] + [y] → “ch” [tʃ])
Remember, you don’t always have to speak this way in order to be understood. However, de-stressing function words, in addition to stressing content words, is an important part of creating the music of English in your speech. Learning these rules can also help you understand native English speakers.
Series on Stress and Rhythm in English
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