Hello and a very well warm welcome back to the easy english podcast, the best place to practice your english listening skills, all while learning new vocabulary and discussing interesting topics in easy, simple english.
I'm your host oliver, and we have another great topic, and one that I think will be very helpful to almost everyone listening.
We're unlocking, we're looking at, I guess, what we could call a secret code of English and of most languages, to be honest.
You see, English isn't just about vocabulary and grammar, in a way it's about music.
Most languages have what we call rhythm.
I guess we can say you know, have you ever said something that you know is perfectly correct, but someone hasn't understood what you're saying?
Sometimes it might be your accent, but a lot of the times and in most cases, if you say something correct, it's not your accent.
It can sometimes be the rhythm, the intonation, the stress, all of the signs of English.
Intonation and stress, don't worry if you don't know what these are.
We will look at the definitions in just a moment.
They are very important, almost invisible tools that we use in English.
We use this to change the meaning of what we're saying, to express emotion and to signal exactly what you want to say, sometimes with not exactly saying it.
So today we're going to look at some of the main features of this and how you can master the music of English.
So thank you for joining me.
And we're going to look at our key vocabulary for the episode.
But first I want to say that I've been looking at the statistics for this podcast.
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It really helps the podcast to grow.
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It really helps.
Okay, let's look at our key vocabulary for this episode.
And these are five key words that I want you to listen out for in today's episode.
They're five words that we're going to use to become masters of English rhythm.
And the first of these words is stress, stress.
Now I'm not talking about when you're stressed at work or when you have a lot of things going on and you feel stressed.
In this case, stress is a noun and it is the extra force, that extra, let me say power, that we are giving a syllable in a word that sound in the word.
Or it can be stress on a word in a sentence.
And it makes that word or that syllable, that sound sound louder, maybe a little bit longer, and often higher in pitch.
So that stress, you can think of it like a focus on.
So when we talk about stress in words or sentences, it's a focus on one part.
It will become more clear a little bit later.
Our next word for today is intonation intonation intonation, i guess intonation and this is a noun too and your intonation is the rise and fall of your voice when you're speaking, and it can show the meaning of what you're saying, Not just not what the words mean but, for example, whether you are say you're speaking with a question or a statement.
You're just saying something or you're asking something.
Intonation shows this.
The third word for today is syllable, syllable.
And a syllable is what we said is a sound, a single unit of sound in a word.
For example, career.
So we talked about careers and jobs in another episode.
The word career, career, has two syllables, career.
Those are two main sounds in that word.
Two syllables.
Okay, we have two more words to go.
I know these words are a little bit harder today, but don't worry.
You are going to hear all of these words in context as we go.
And it will become a lot more clear.
Our fourth word today is pitch.
Pitch.
And this is also a noun.
So all of our words today are nouns.
And pitch is the highness or lowness of your voice.
For example, let me say, hi.
Low.
Hi.
Low.
So that is the pitch of my voice changing from high to low.
And our final word for today is emphasis.
Emphasis.
And the emphasis is a special force or importance given to a word to show that it is important.
So I would say more emphasis is a focus, right?
When we focus on a word.
If we place emphasis on a word in the sentence, we focus on that word a little bit more to show that it is important.
Oh, okay.
That was a hard key vocabulary section today.
So we will now go on to our main topic.
And in the process of working through these sections that I have made for you today, I will try my best to explain each of these things now in context.
Each of these words, rather.
So let's start with word stress.
Word stress.
Every word with more than one syllable has a drumbeat, right?
So we can think of it like a sound, a rhythm.
And one syllable often gets the loudest sound, the loudest hit.
Yeah, let's imagine we're playing the drums.
So, dum-da-dum-da-dum-dum.
And each word has a series of drums.
Dum-dum-dum, okay.
And then one of these we have to hit louder than the rest, let's say the final drum.
So dum dum dum, okay.
So the word stress is on that final drum, that final sound.
If you hit the wrong drum, the word can sound strange.
So instead of dum dum dum, it might sound like and sound a bit strange, right.
Even if you're saying the right word.
And with some words, it can even change its meaning.
So you might not even be saying exactly what you want to say.
So there's an amazing teacher's trick with English.
And in English we have words that are spelled the same but have different meanings based on the stress.
If the stress is on the first syllable, so that first drumbeat at the start of the word.
It's often a noun.
Let's think about the word present, for example.
Present.
Present.
That stress is on the start of the word.
Present.
If the stress is on the second syllable, so that latter, later sound in the word, it's often a verb.
So let's take the same word, but change it.
So we're going for present.
Present.
Present present, present.
You hear the difference, and to, of course, to present something is to give a speech or to show something.
Let's take another one.
So it's good to practice the difference.
You can look up these online.
So words that are the same, spelt the same, but they have different uh stress on a different syllable.
So let's think of another one.
What can we use?
Let's take the word contract.
Contract.
That has the stress on con.
Contract.
So let's say the businessman signed the contract and then we change the stress again.
Contract.
Contract.
Contract, so the stress on tracked, this is the verb for to get smaller.
Our budget this year contracted, it got smaller, so the pitch and the volume are much higher, in this case on the stressed syllable, the stressed part of the word, And your ear really needs to listen for that drumbeat.
Yeah, so that stress on the syllables to understand the word correctly.
Of course we can understand the words from context, but having the correct stress allows it to make sense a lot faster for our brains, for the people listening.
Okay, so now for intonation. intonation.
And this really is the music of a sentence.
It's the rise and the fall of your voice.
And it tells the listener whether you're finished talking or whether you're asking them a question.
So whether you're asking a question or you're making a statement.
So when we have falling intonation, that's when your voice falls at the end.
It goes down.
We use this often for regular statements.
So just when you're stating something, you're saying something.
It's not a question, but we also often use it for WH questions.
So questions using who, what, where, and why.
We often have a falling intonation at the end of these.
And the pitch of your voice falls at the end.
And I'll give you some examples.
But this signals, it shows finality, that you're finishing.
And it also shows confidence.
So let's look at some examples.
If we're doing a statement.
So, my name is Oliver.
You can hear my voice going down at the end.
It's not raising.
My name is Oliver.
And let's do a WH question.
So like who, what, where.
Let's go for where.
Where are you going?
My voice does not raise at the end.
If I raised it, it would be like, where are you going?
See, that sounds strange, right?
It doesn't sound right.
And now let's look at the other intonation that we can use.
And this is what we use in general for yes and no questions.
So when someone will answer yes or no.
And when we ask these questions, the pitch of your voice rises at the end. it will raise at the end.
And this shows that you're looking for like a confirmation or a yes or no answer.
For example, are you ready?
Would you like to go?
Can you hear me?
All of those have that rise at the end. because we are expecting a yes or no.
We want to hear that answer back.
But here's a little bit of magic and something you might not have thought about.
But you can use that same rising intonation and you can listen for it with native speakers, to hear surprise or to show surprise if you would like to.
And it can show that you're maybe interested in something or you're surprised.
Let's say, for example, if I simply said like he's coming, or let me say like he's coming to see us.
Right.
So I've said it normally.
I haven't raised my intonation.
It's fallen at the end.
He's coming to see us.
I say that same sentence with a rising intonation.
He's coming to see us.
He's coming to see us.
It sounds in English like I'm surprised or I'm interested.
Like what?
What?
I didn't know that perhaps.
I'm surprised.
So I'm rising the intonation at the end.
It's a great trick to just change the meaning of what you're saying with one simple sound difference.
Okay, let's take a break from this for a second.
We're going to go to our listener spotlight, which is one of my favorite sections of the show.
But first, of course, if you are not a Patreon supporter, I want to thank first all of my Patreon subscribers and if you would like to have full transcripts, vocabulary lists with PDFs, as well as bonus episodes every week for the Easy English Show, make sure that you head over and subscribe and join the Easy English Patreon.
The link is in the description below.
You're always welcome.
So let's look at our listener spotlight.
So I have two comments to read today.
And this was from our episode about jobs.
We were talking about jobs.
You know a product from creation through to someone buying it and some of the jobs related to that and i asked you guys what your dream job is.
What would you love to do?
I have two comments that I want to read.
So the first was from Jervin.
And they said my dream job is being a cabin crew because I love traveling, exploring new places and culture.
I love helping people.
It makes me feel like a good person every day.
That's a great comment Jervin, and i think that's a really great reason to be a cabin crew member because, of course, you get to travel all over the world.
So excellent choice and very well explained.
The next comment is from lou, and she said first i would like you to become an english teacher full time.
Thank you lou, and for me, my dream job would be to save animals, Build sanctuaries for the animals that are suffering.
My dream job would be to save them.
I think that's a lovely dream job.
I do think that people that work with animals, especially if they love them, they must get so much satisfaction from their job.
Because of course, I think animals are wonderful too.
Great job.
Okay.
So today's question, today's listener spotlight, I would like you to comment below, so comment wherever you're listening, what the hardest part of English grammar is for you.
What do you find the hardest?
For example, do you find verbs very difficult, the different verb forms?
Do you find tenses difficult?
Do you find it can even be like spelling or things like that, right?
So I want to know what is the hardest part of English grammar for you.
Perfect.
Now let's go back and look at our last little bit of the sound of English.
So our final bit is sentence stress.
And we're looking at the stress or the focus in a sentence.
And in a sentence, when we say things, we don't focus on every word.
Of course, that would be strange.
For example.
Let me say, actually we'll wait on an example, because I want to show you maybe one sentence with a different focus on different parts of that sentence.
So we stress content words in a sentence, and those are the words that carry the most meaning.
For example, the nouns, the main verbs and perhaps the adjectives and adverbs as well.
The very small words, the words you know like prepositions and things like the, a, is, was.
We say these words quite quickly and quite quietly as well.
There's not a big focus on those words.
But in English you can change the emphasis of the entire sentence that you're saying by focusing and placing the stress on a different word.
And it can almost really change your emotions or the meaning of what you're saying.
So let's listen to how the meaning changes with the sentence.
I bought the blue car.
So if I just said, I bought the blue car.
It really means it was me, not someone else that bought it.
So I'm just saying it.
That's the meaning.
I bought the blue car with the stress on I, right?
I bought the blue car.
It's me that bought it.
Now let's say that same sentence, but instead of placing the stress on I, we want to say we want to place the stress on bought it.
I bought the blue car.
I bought the blue car.
So that's saying, you know, I bought it, but I didn't rent it.
So you're almost highlighting the fact that I bought it.
I own it.
You're showing that you actually purchased it.
I might also say now with the stress on blue in this sentence.
So I bought the blue car.
So I'm trying to show it's the blue one.
It's not the red one.
It's the blue one.
Okay, so I'm going to read through those again so you can hear the difference in the stress.
I bought the blue car.
You hear each of those sentences sound so different.
And the stress on each one changes really the meaning and the emotion from that sentence.
And this is why people think in English that there's a lot of unspoken communication.
Because there is, a lot of it is, it is spoken, but it's with sound.
So today you've learned a little bit more about the rhythm of English, the sound of English as well about word stress emphasis intonation, all these great words which can help you to speak English a little bit more like a native speaker and also to understand some more of the hidden meanings or different meanings behind words and phrases, sentences and communications that you may hear anywhere really, where you're hearing English speech.
So thank you so much for listening to the Easy English Podcast.
Remember, if you enjoyed this episode, share it with someone else who's learning English.
And if you haven't yet, make sure to subscribe or follow the podcast.
You can check out the bonus episodes through Patreon and you can check out my book as well in the link in the description below.
I hope to see you in the next episode and I also hope that you have a wonderful rest of your day.
Goodbye.
