Phonetics________________2nd

Year LMD Teacher: Mr.Aounali . W

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Exercise one: Skim through the transcribed sentence and supply it with the orthographic version

Exercise two: This time, transcribe this sentence (grammatical words are likely to use weak form

PRACTICE ON SENTENCE STRESS PATTERNS

Phonetics________________2nd

Year LMD Teacher: Mr.Aounali . W

Page 2 of 4

Exercise three: Here is a simple exercise to help you develop the art of using emphatic stress

Sentence with emphatic (contrastive) stress Transcription & Suggested meaning I didn’t say he stole the money …………………..……………………………. I didn’t say he stole the money …………………..……………………………. I didn’t say he stole the money …………………..……………………………. I didn’t say he stole the money …………………..……………………………. I didn’t say he stole the money …………………..……………………………. I didn’t say he stole the money …………………..…………………………….

This time, read the following sentence aloud using emphatic stress then match it to its suggested meaning:

1. I said she might consider a new haircut 7→a) Not just a haircut.

2. I said she might consider a new haircut 4→b) It’s just a possibility.

3. I said she might consider a new haircut 1→c) It was my idea.

4. I said she might consider a new haircut 7→d) Not something else.

5. I said she might consider a new haircut 2→e) Don’t you understand me?

6. I said she might consider a new haircut 3→f) Not another person.

7. I said she might consider a new haircut 6→g) She should have think about it, it’s a good idea.

Exercise four: Transcribe the following short passage and mark the primary stress when necessary

1- I can1 do it. Can

1 you? / kæn│ kæn ju /

2- What are you looking at2? / wt æt /

3- What did you do1 that

3 for

2 ? / wt ðæt /

4- Where does he come from2? / d i /

5- What were you dreaming of 2 ? / wt w j /

6- She’s5 coming to

1 Birmingham not form

1 Birmingham.

/ / 7- Jane went to Oxford and to Cambridge.

/ went t ə ənd tə /

8- As long as you study seriously, you won’t4 fail in any subject.

/ əz ləz jəstdi │ jə fel eni /

9- What’s5 his

6 name? His name is John. / wts nem │ hz nem z /

1 CAN in this context is contrastively/emphatically stressed /kæn/ .

2 AT is pronounced with strong form /æt/ when it comes in final position though it remains unstressed.

3 THAT is always unstressed wherein we use the strong form /ðæt/ as a demonstrative but weak form /ðət/ as a conjunction.

4 WON’T auxiliary verbs and modals are used in strong form when they’re negative contracted form (isn’t, aren’t, wasn’t,

weren’t, can’t, couldn’t, wouldn’t, don’t, haven’t, hasn’t, mustn’t, shan’t, shouldn’t) 5 SHE’S in contractions we use the strong form and weak forms ( We’re, I’ll, he’ll, she’ll, there’ll, I’ve, you’ve, I’d, we’d, who’s)

6 HIS here the initial /h/ is usually dropped (his, he, her, has, have, who) but /h/ is kept at the beginning of a sentence or emphatic

Phonetics________________2nd

Year LMD Teacher: Mr.Aounali . W

Page 3 of 4

Solution of exercise one:

Phonetics________________2nd

Year LMD Teacher: Mr.Aounali . W

Page 4 of 4

Solution of exercise two: