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Stress and Intonation

britdam007

britdam007

India

“Practice intonation untill you are quite comfortable with it.”


In the above sentence, the stress should fall on “quite ” or “comfortable”? 


Should we stress the adverb or the adjective? Please advise?


11:37 AM Jan 05 2013 |

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Teacher AmySuper Member!

United States

This is similar to the question you had about adverbs. You’d either stress both equally, or, for added emphasis, but a bit more stress on “quite.”


Best,


Amy

04:28 AM Jan 06 2013 |

britdam007

britdam007

India

What you are saying is right. Now regarding voice and accent I follow a particular website caleed www.americanaccent.com that says we can reduce the “them” sound if it happens to be in the final position of a sentence.


e.g. DOGS eat BONES   DOGS and BONES are stressed because they are nouns.


       they EAT them or they EAT’m   here EAT is stressed and them reduces to ‘m.



what’s your take on that? Does the same rule apply for “him”? Please advise…...


04:47 AM Jan 07 2013 |

Teacher AmySuper Member!

United States

Aha, I see what you’re asking. Yes, in terms of pronunciation, you can sometimes shorten them to ”’em”. It’s not an “official” contraction, just an informal speech pattern.


For “him,” you would not do this kind of shortening. You’d pronounce the whole word.


Does that clarify?


—Amy

11:17 PM Jan 07 2013 |

britdam007

britdam007

India

So “Send him in” will be “send him in” without any changes and “Send them in” will be “send’em in”? even though “them” is not in final position?

11:10 AM Jan 08 2013 |

Teacher AmySuper Member!

United States

Just to clarify, we’re speaking about spoken, not written English, right?


What you wrote above is correct—though it would be quite informal to say “Send ‘em in.” In a more formal setting, you’d definitely say “Send them in.”


Best,


Amy

03:15 AM Jan 09 2013 |

britdam007

britdam007

India

Yes I am talking about spoken English here.

08:04 AM Jan 09 2013 |