9 Content Words, Function Words and Stress

Eric Dodson; Luciana Diniz; and Nanci Leiton

CONTENT WORDS, FUNCTION WORDS, AND STRESS

Content Words

Nouns, verb, adjectives and adverbs are usually stressed in sentences.
Prepositions, articles and conjunctions are usually not stressed.

You can usually understand the main ideas if you focus on the content words, too!

In a kitchen, flames are rising from a pan next to a person.
Photo by lasse bergqvist on Unsplash
  • FIre KItchen
  • FIre in KItchen
  • FIre in the KItchen
  • a FIre in the KItchen
  • There’s a FIre in the Kitchen
weather forecast symbol for snow
Image by marcos101 from Pixabay
  • SNOW exPECted FRIday
  • SNOW is exPECted FRIday
  • SNOW is exPECted on FRIday
  • the SNOW is exPECted on FRIday

B. Which words are stressed in these sentences?

  1. Sorry, but I didn’t hear that.
  2. Could you say that again?
  3. The student accounts office is in the CC building.
  4. Go outside and walk to the library.
  5. If you look to the right, you should see the CC building.

Green Tea Intermediate English Communication OER by Eric Dodson; Luciana Diniz; and Nanci Leiton is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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Content Words, Function Words and Stress Copyright © by Eric Dodson; Luciana Diniz; and Nanci Leiton is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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