Word and sentence stress

Trainee

Lead-in: one line, nine readings Watch twice

Nine actors, one line from Hamlet, and a disagreement about where the stress goes. First time through, tick the word each one lands on. Second time, in pairs: what does the line mean each time, and which reading would you choose?

From Shakespeare Live! From the RSC (BBC Two, 23 April 2016). If the frame stays black, watch it on YouTube; the RSC's own short cut has the ending.

What the sketch does

Each actor is handed a different word and a different reading: a contrast, a doubt, a question of identity. The Prince of Wales ends it by landing on question, the one word nobody else had used. One line, nine meanings, and the stress did all the work. That is the whole of this session: in English, where the weight falls is part of what you mean.

rhythm

The rhythm of English Say it aloud

Say each line below out loud. However many extra words you pack in, try to keep the beat exactly the same length, like a drumbeat with more or fewer notes squeezed between the same four hits.

COOK BAKE FRY ROAST

COOK and BAKE and FRY and ROAST

COOK and then BAKE and then FRY and then ROAST

COOK and then it's BAKE and then it's FRY and then it's ROAST

Click to reveal: why does the rhythm stay the same?

English is a stress-timed language — the stressed words fall at roughly equal intervals of time, no matter how many extra words are squeezed in between. The stressed words here (cook, bake, fry, roast) are content words. The words that get squashed to keep the rhythm even (and, then, it's) are grammar words. This is one reason natural English speech sounds so different from reading each word separately.

Word stress: primary and secondary Click each word

Say each word to yourself first. Where do you think the strongest stress falls? Some longer words also have a lighter, secondary stress somewhere else. Click each word to check.

primary stress secondary stress unstressed

Contrastive stress: one sentence, seven meanings Say it seven ways

Say the sentence below seven times, stressing a different word each time. Before you check, ask yourself: what does stressing that word seem to imply?

Attitudinal stress: is she driving to Lisbon on Friday? Decide, then reveal

The same question, asked five times, but each time the answer corrects something different. Read each exchange and decide which word in the question is being stressed before you reveal it.

Noun or verb? Choose the stress Quiz

Some words are spelled the same whether they're a noun or a verb, but the stress moves. For each sentence, pick which syllable you think is stressed.

Trainer notes Tutor only

Before

Sound for the Hamlet sketch (4 minutes; it is a fan upload, so check it still plays, and the RSC’s own short cut is the fallback link under the frame). Nothing to print; the chant and the balloons sentence are on screen.

Running it

Stage	What you do
Lead-in	Watch once: tick the word each actor lands on. Watch again in pairs: what does the line mean each time, which would you choose. Then the reveal. If you want a word-by-word key for the nine, add it after one viewing; the page does not claim one.
Rhythm	Clap the four beats and say the four lines over them, faster each time. The reveal names stress timing.
Word stress	Sixteen countries; say each before clicking. Pakistan and Montreal carry a secondary stress; make them hear it.
Contrastive	The balloons sentence seven ways, round the room, one word each. Reveal the implication after each.
Attitudinal	Five Lisbon exchanges in pairs: which word, before revealing.
Noun or verb	Eight quiz items individually. Then two more pairs of their own (import, present, record, object, contract, conduct).

The key

On the page for every task. Primary stress: aus-TRA-lia, HUN-ga-ry, bra-ZIL, ja-PAN, IT-a-ly, LON-don, pak-i-STAN (secondary on pak), GER-ma-ny, chi-CA-go, mon-tre-AL (secondary on mon), tor-QUAY, TUR-key, IN-di-a, SWIT-zer-land, a-MER-i-ca, slo-VA-ki-a.

Watch for

Stress shown by volume alone. Length and pitch carry it too; the chant is where they feel that.
Trainees who mark every word. One stress per thought group; contrastive stress moves it.

Sources. The film is Shakespeare Live! From the RSC (BBC and the Royal Shakespeare Company, 2016). The rhythm chant, the contrastive stress sentence and the question exchanges are made up for this session; the word list and the noun-or-verb quiz are the tutor's own.