To master English pronunciation you'll need to develop a feeling for prosody -- the rhythm, melody, stress, and intonation that together communicate a sense of meaning to listeners. Learn how to make your English "listener friendly" with the tips in this article!
English has a very distinct sound. When it is spoken as a second language, sometimes the speaker will sound very foreign to him or herself. When we think we sound silly, it’s uncomfortable and can hinder or even stop learners from speaking freely. It’s important to remember that the goal of English study is not to sound just like a native speaker, but to practice enough to be understood clearly and to understand other English speakers as well. In this article, we will look at ways to make words and thoughts in English easy to follow.
The prosody pyramid is a visual description of the related parts of English pronunciation. English uses tonal or musical signals to show meaning. The word prosody means the rhythm, melody, stress, and intonation that help a listener follow the meaning of what is being said. More simply, prosody is the pattern of sounds that make a statement “listener friendly”. Prosody includes all aspects of pronunciation together, and these are represented by the pyramid below.
Thought Group
A thought group is a single idea. Generally, there are pauses between each thought group in any English expression. These are easy to see if you take the punctuation out of a sentence and then mark where the separate ideas are located. Take this sentence:
- There’s no chance anybody will agree to the deal.
We might show the thought groups this way:
- There’s no chance / anybody will agree / to the deal
Think of thought groups as chunks of meaning with one focus or idea in each one. Each idea is pronounced with clarity and emphasis followed by a drop in vocal pitch and a pause at the end.
Focus Words
Within each thought group is a word that carries most of the content or meaning of the idea. Continuing with the example above, the focus words in order might be:
- chance / anybody / deal
or
- no / agree / deal
Which words hold the focus depends on what the speaker is trying to say. If the speaker is in favor of the deal, he or she may use the first example. If against the deal, she or he may favor the second. You can tell how the person feels about the deal by how they say the focus words, but this varies from person to person and by context. The important point is to try to follow the pauses of the thought groups and the emphasis of the focus words by listening -- and to practice them when speaking.
Stress
English is a stress-timed language, which means some syllables will be longer and some will be shorter than others. Many learners think that in order to be understood, they must pronounce each syllable fully and evenly, but in English, content words or focus words need more rounded, fuller emphasis. By contrast, less important words in the thought group are diminished or unstressed. Consider this example:
- I’m going to the store.
When spoken, the words “to the” are diminished, and “store” is likely to receive the stress. Either “going” or “store” will be the focus word of the thought group (depending on the speaker’s meaning), and so it will be spoken more loudly, longer, and so with more clarity and emphasis than any other word in the sentence. Very often, stressed words are nouns, verbs, adjectives, or adverbs, and they hold the most important meaning of the thought group.
Peak Syllable
The most important syllable in the most important word in the thought group is the peak syllable. This word is the most emphasized syllable in the focus word and it gets the most stress. It is important to learn the stress pattern of words in order to be able to recognize the spoken form or use them as focus words.
In the peak syllable, the emphasized sound is loud and clear with a lengthy and clear vowel. It very often announces new information in the conversation and is marked by a pitch change. In the following examples, the stress syllable is in bold:
- so’fa = sofa
- ba’na’na = banana
- lem’on = lemon
In more examples below, we’ve bolded the stressed syllables this way:
There is no way anybody will agree to the deal.
There is no way anybody will agree to the deal.
I’m going to the store.
I’m going to the store.
I’m going to the store.
Not many adults enjoy pronunciation drilling or parroting in class, but in English, a great deal of meaning is expressed through rhythm and melody. Just like learning music, practice is very important with both speaking and listening in English, but it is not an exact science. It’s important to find ways to enjoy practicing word stress: perhaps shadow reading in time with a Tedtalk video, trying to create different types of meaning with stress and intonation from a single written sentence, or beating out the stress patterns in rhythm to the spoken words you hear. If pronunciation is not being studied in your classes, then parrot movies or Youtube videos or even asking your tutor or teacher can all lead to helpful avenues of improvement.
Listen to different English speakers and see if you can identify the thought groups as separate ideas in each expression. Then practice finding the focus word in each thought group. Ask yourself what the most important word that carries the most meaning is in the thought group. Once you have found the focus word, you can remember or learn the stress pattern of it. Finally, compare the learned stress pattern to sentences you hear with different meanings.
At first, just see if you can notice these parts of pronunciation at work in real language. Hold a loose and interested attention toward word emphasis as it changes meaning. Word stress and spoken emphasis can bring more meaning to your expression in English. The best and most fun way to practice all aspects of pronunciation is to start a conversation. So go talk to an English speaking person today!
Hero image by Joshua Ness (CC0 1.0)