SENTENCE STRESS :

Content words include nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Negative words such as not or never also get stressed because they affect the meaning of the sentence. Modals, too, can change the meaning of a sentence. Yes, no, and auxiliary verbs in short answers, quantifiers, Wh-Question words also get stressed.

Some words don’t carry a lot of importance in an English sentence. Short words such as articles, prepositions, and conjunctions don’t take stress. Pronouns don’t usually get stressed either because the context often makes it clear who we’re talking about. The Be verb and all auxiliary verbs don’t carry much meaning—only the main verb does. Here is a list of words that shouldn’t be stressed in an English sentence:

+ articles (a, an, the)

+ prepositions (to, in, at, on, for, from, etc.)

+ conjunctions (and, or, so, but, etc.)

+ personal pronouns (I, you, he, she, etc.)

+ possessive adjectives (my, your, his, her, etc.)

+ Be verb (am, is, are, was, were, etc.)

+ auxiliary verbs (be, have, do in two-part verbs or questions)

+ the modals will and be going to (because they’re common, and the future tense is often clear from context)

+ the modal can (because it’s so common)

INTONATION:

The most common types of Intonation we have in English are the following:

- Falling intonation

This is when the pitch of the voice falls at the end of a sentence. We commonly use them in statements, commands, WH-questions, confirmatory question tags, and exclamations.

+ In statements, we say:

Pleased to meet ↓you.

+ In commands, we say:

Show me the way to the ↓hospital.

+ In WH-questions, we say:

What fruit do you ↓want?

+ In question tags, we use the rules of falling intonation only when we seek confirmation or invite agreement.

She’s the one you invited to the party, isn’t ↓she?

+ In exclamations:

How nice of ↓you!

- Rising intonation

This is when the pitch of the voice rises at the end of the sentence. It is commonly used in yes or no questions, and question tags that show uncertainty.

+ In question tags showing uncertainty:

The rules were changed, weren’t ↑they?

+ In yes or no questions:

Do you like your new ↑shirt?

- Falling–rising intonation

It is often used when the speaker is uncertain of an answer to a question or shows reluctance.

For example:

Should we ↓re↑port this incident?

- Rising–falling intonation

+ In stating a list, use rising intonation in the first series of items. Then, use a falling intonation on the last item to indicate that the list has ended. For instance:

She bought some ↑bread, ↑meat, ↑oranges, and ↓apples.

+ When used in choices, we say:

Would you like to have ↑Pepsi or ↓Coca-cola?