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!
- FIre KItchen
- FIre in KItchen
- FIre in the KItchen
- a FIre in the KItchen
- There’s a FIre in the Kitchen
- 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?
- Sorry, but I didn’t hear that.
- Could you say that again?
- The student accounts office is in the CC building.
- Go outside and walk to the library.
- 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.