This is the All Ears English Podcast.
Stress your words and join our student community.
Welcome to the All Ears English Podcast.
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Are you feeling stuck with your English?
We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection.
With your American hosts, Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer and Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl, coming to you from Colorado and New York City, USA.
In today's episode, find out how to use correct word stress so that you sound in command and so the people understand you.
Plus, learn about a special offer on our B2 English Fluency Course this week only.
How do you know when you finally hit the advanced English level?
You can not only have interesting conversations in English, but also be interesting in English.
You can make an astute observation, ask good questions, speak with a confident pitch.
To do this, you need a special method and a clear study plan.
Join our brand new B2 English Fluency Course.
It's 100 % based on interesting, spontaneous, unrehearsed video interviews with native speakers.
Real English. Save up to $100 before September 22nd and get a free bonus.
Go to allearsenglish .com slash B2.
That's allearsenglish .com slash letter B number two.
Hello, Michelle. How's it going today?
Good. How are you? Michelle, everything okay over there?
Knock, knock. Yes, everything's fine.
I'm actually kind of bored already talking to you, so I'm just going to hang up the phone now.
All right, goodbye.
That was a great episode.
No, guys. Lindsey, would you say that as podcasters, we really have to use a lot of emotion or feeling in our voice?
Of course, 100 % because that's how we're connecting with our listeners.
That's also how we're teaching our listeners English is with emotion, with emphasis.
Yes. So how did I just sound to you when I started?
Really boring, unengaging.
Actually, you sounded kind of tired to me.
Did you not sleep well?
I didn't, but I still...
So today, we're going to talk about a really useful way to sound more interesting and to be understood in an easier way.
So the trick that we're talking about today, this deals with word stress.
And the word I would use to describe how I was speaking was, yeah, boring.
Also that word monotonous.
That's a great word.
What does that mean?
It means repetitive.
So monotonous is something that's the same all the time.
If you break it down, it's mono, which is one, and tone.
So one tone. So not many variations.
We've talked about it a little bit on the show before, but not many variations or it's...
And especially, I think, in English, it's very important.
Not in all languages.
Not all languages have this way of using stress.
And so Lindsay, why is it a problem to be monotonous when speaking English?
I think we just put so much emphasis on verbal expression, especially in American culture.
It's all about what you say.
Unfortunately, I disagree with this, but it's not always about how well you listen, although you should listen well.
I think misguidedly, we place more emphasis on verbal expression, what you say.
And so... Well, number one, for people to really understand you, because we're not going to become perfect at pronunciation as adult learners.
It's just not going to happen.
There's always going to be, I think, there's always going to be a slight detection of an accent.
It's just it's the reality if we're learning a language as an adult.
And that's totally okay.
And people love that, actually.
As long as you can deliver clearly and they can understand you.
So that's where breaking up the monotony comes in, the monotone.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely, guys.
This is huge. So this is...
Word stress, it's not only about this feeling of sounding fun.
It's not just that.
It also can actually make words sound different.
It can make the meaning different.
Everything can change.
So that's why it's important to use this as a strategy to make sure that you are understood.
So Lindsay, when we stress a word, what do we do?
What does that even mean?
What are we doing to the word?
I think to stress a word means to emphasize it.
To either say it a little louder, maybe slower.
It means you're saying, this is the most important word I'm going to say now.
Right? Exactly. The one I want you to hear.
Yeah, exactly. So I'm just going to say it's a teeny tiny sentence.
And you tell me which word I'm stressing just to give an idea of what stress sounds like.
So okay, here we go.
It's easy. Sounds like you're stressing easy.
But if I say it's easy.
Yeah, you're stressing the it's.
So it sounds a little odd.
It sounds a little odd because I don't know what you're saying, but clearly you could be saying two very different things if we extend the conversation here, put it into context, right?
Yeah, yes. Yeah, exactly.
So but the idea is that we stress the most important words.
So when we think about, okay, how are we going to choose now?
It can always be different.
Like that's the thing is there's it's really an art.
You again, we've talked about so much on the show learning the learning the basics and getting that down and then changing things up.
So it can be based on so many different things, your your mood, what you're trying to emphasize, things like that.
But the basic thing that we want to stress is the most important word.
So this can be multiple words in the sentence.
And we it's these information words.
So what would you call like an information word, Lindsay?
What would I call an information?
What is an information?
Sorry, okay, yeah. So it tends to be nouns, verbs, adjectives.
The keywords that carry carry the information.
Right, Michelle? Yeah, exactly.
So you're not necessarily going to be stressing on prepositions, things like that.
I would say unless you're trying to say something different.
Like let's take this first example here, right?
So Lindsay lives in Denver, right?
So if you're just objectively saying that and saying nothing more than that, we're stressing Lindsay lives Denver.
But what if you and I are thinking, doesn't she live in the suburbs?
Doesn't she live outside the city?
No, no, no, no, she lives in Denver.
Yeah, she lives in Denver.
So sometimes we do stress those positions.
It just depends on what we're saying.
And we're saying something totally different.
It's so true. So this is this is really high level stuff, guys.
But you guys are ready for it.
I know that and this will help you get to the next level.
Well, this is I was gonna say, Michelle, this is really what does get us you know, pass that into the B two level.
We find this at that B two level.
And in just a minute, after we give you guys a little more information, we're going to talk about our live live what's going on this week, a special offer on our B two course where we're going to go deeper into this.
But Michelle, what would be another example here?
Okay, all right. So I need to buy a cake for the party.
So I need to buy a cake for the party.
So a need buy cake party.
It's almost if you wanted to if you took out every other part of you took out the two for the even I and you just said need buy cake party.
Yeah, that's right.
sound like a caveman.
But I was gonna say caveman English.
Yes, yes. But it could still that is the important stuff.
You could get what I'm trying to say.
So that's a little do not recommending you talk like that.
But when you think about what to stress, that's usually going to do it if you can still understand that sentence, right?
Yeah, I was just gonna say I have a family member, unfortunately, that text in caveman English, it's really funny.
I don't know what happened or how this person didn't get the memo that it's okay to write out prepositions in text messages.
That's hilarious. We'll come back to that another day.
Okay, Michelle, we're to now we're to yeah, so again, just quickly, you know, how would this sound without the stress?
I mean, so it would just be Lindsay lives in Denver, right?
It would all be sounds robotic sounds like ai actually sounds a little bit like Alexa.
My Alexa Yeah, right.
So I mean, again, this is something that we go over extensively in our B course.
I mean, Lindsay to course, yeah, sorry.
B2 B2. Come on, Michelle.
Okay, B2 course. Okay, Lindsay, tell us more about this course.
And yeah, you know, the some of the most exciting or the biggest benefits of it.
Yeah, I mean, this is a brand new course.
And when we introduced it last spring, we had an incredible response.
Because this is what you guys need.
The majority of you guys are at this B1 B2 level.
And it represents challenging yourself pushing yourself to see if you can actually get beyond B2 approaching C1.
So it's an opportunity.
And what's cool about all of our courses now and it also is included in the B2 course is how many opportunities you now have to speak, we have fluency parties, open conversation club, Q &A, if you join the personal coach level, you have a robot, we have a robust community where people are connecting
with each other, arranging their own speaking opportunities.
Michelle, what do you think about this transformation we've made with our courses with all the speaking we're doing now?
Oh, well, it's huge.
I mean, it's so interactive.
Now, I've been on open conversation, I'll sometimes pop into them.
Yeah, you do. So yeah, and it's so fun, because, you know, we'll having a really good conversation, then people might get into groups, might talk as a whole group, so many different ways to interact.
And then you can even meet people who are taking the course as well.
So there's just, it's just kind of endless opportunities, it's really what you make of it.
And we really give you as many chances as possible to really get that speaking and that feedback.
100%. And then we keep the rooms open at the end, so you can stay longer if you want to stay and talk with someone else who also has time for two hours, you can do that.
So tons of practice opportunities.
And now we want to let you know about the offer that's only available this week, we only make this offer available a few times a year.
And again, it's a brand new course.
So we recommend you join now.
So what is the offer Michelle that we're offering this week only?
Okay, so this is great.
So this week only, you can save up to $100 off the B2 fluency course.
And on top of that, you're going to get a free bonus, which is how to be polite in English, very important.
Yeah. Yeah. And that bonus is a $49 value.
So you're saving up to $149, depending on which plan you choose.
So guys, the only thing you need to know though, is that this offer does end on September 22nd at midnight US time.
So you do have to act on this right away.
So Michelle, where can they go to join the course?
All right, guys, head on over to all ears English .com slash B2.
You got it guys go over there join it.
Now we want to meet you at an open conversation club or a party I'm loving meeting our students.
Me too. Put things into action that they're learning in the courses.
Right. It is really great.
It's great. All right, now let's do, should we do a role play?
What do you think? Sure.
All right. Sure. Let's go for it.
So here, Lindsey and I, we are neighbors planning a block party.
Yes. All right. Great.
All right. Okay, here we go.
Okay. I ordered seven pizzas.
Thanks. I need to order the dessert.
The cake? Yes. And the pie.
Oh, sounds delicious.
Which would you rather have cake or pie, Michelle?
Are you a cake person pie person?
I know you're a cookies person.
Don't take cookies.
Don't take cookies.
I won't say ice cream.
I won't say. Okay. Um, cake is more frequent when, but I want it when there's, I recently went to a party and there was a peach pie.
And when I tell you that I was excited, it was it's an understatement.
Peach is like my favorite fruit because it is so good in August.
Yes. So good. Yeah.
So I don't know. I'm going to go pie.
What about you? I'm going to do pie too.
At our wedding, we did pie instead of cake.
And it was like, Oh, that's, I love that.
What kind of pie we did strawberry rhubarb.
I think we had a, actually had a cherry pie, which by the way, if it's made well, it can be really good.
It's very commonplace cherry pie.
Like the chief thinks in the grocery store, but it was a good cherry pie.
A good cherry pie is killer.
Killer. So I love, I love how that we toss our dog about pie.
Oh great. Cherry pie and the B2 fluency course.
All right Michelle, let's, let's go into what we did here with our intonation because it matters so that we could be understood.
And again, in the B2 fluency course, there's an entire lesson or a few lessons where we go deeper into this.
Right? Michelle. Yep.
Yep. Yep. All right.
So here we go. I said I, okay, I ordered seven pizzas and really I'm stressing all of those words or ordered seven pizzas.
Right. I ordered seven pizzas.
Right. And again, if I said, did you order five pizzas?
No, I ordered seven pizzas.
Seven pizzas. Then we are having a little bit of a different conversation, right?
Yes. Exactly. And then I said, thanks, I need to order the dessert.
So each need, each of these words need order dessert.
We're all stressed and it's really spacing out your words nicely too.
Yes. Yes. Exactly. And then I said the cake.
So cake is certainly the most important word.
Yeah. Making sure it's cake that you're getting.
Yes. And the pie. I might also, in this case, depending on how I want to say it, you might stress and and as well as pie and the pie.
Don't forget the pie.
Right. Exactly. Yeah.
So again, this is, you know, we gave you some basic rules, but there's so much to play with here.
So definitely, definitely when you are in one of our open conversation clubs, getting that speaking practice, that's something you can really try and practice as well.
And using the connection method, which we use in all of our courses, you're actually going to learn from interviews with real native speakers.
That's what our courses have.
So you're going to see how native speakers do this, right?
In our conversations, that is your learning material in the B2 Fluency course.
Super cool. Yeah. Right.
And then I said, ooh, it sounds delicious.
So delicious is definitely important.
You could say it, I mean, sounds is also, so again, a lot to play with here.
I mean, the takeaway for today is it's, not always cut and dry as far as the rules go, but we gave you some basics.
Just avoid being monotonous and try and think about what words am I stressing?
Try and really think about those content words as much as you can and give that a practice.
And you'll notice that you get, you'll get a good response from that.
Yeah. And I think a good way to practice too, beyond the course, the course is your first step, but then you could also go and look at speeches.
Now, speech language is going to be a little different.
It's going to be a little more intentional.
When someone's on a stage, they're going to punch certain words a bit more.
You don't want to be that person that goes to a party and acts like they're on stage.
But it's interesting as you're exaggerating when you're first learning to see what is emphasized and why, and just to understand how powerful that could be when you need to do it.
Okay. Yeah, really good.
Guys, remember to head on over to all ears English .com slash B two to get this amazing offer.
And this ends on September 22nd at midnight.
Yes. It's going back up.
So, you know, again, we only offer it at this special price a few times a year.
It's a brand new course.
Come join our live speaking events.
Join the course. You will be in the community.
And I'm telling you, Michelle, it's really cool to feel that sense of community among our students these days.
It's very cool. Oh, it's the greatest.
So I'm glad we have lots of opportunities for interaction with you guys.
And yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing you at some of these live speaking events and hearing your word stress.
Yes, we will be listening for that.
All right, Michelle, you have a good day.
I'll see you very soon.
Thanks. You too. Bye, Lindsay.
Bye. Thanks for listening to all ears English.
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