American English Pronunciation Lesson 12: Sentence Stress
American English Pronunciation Lesson 12: Sentence Stress is the twelfth lesson of a free online pronunciation course, built around listening and imitation. It reviews word stress patterns in long grouped word lists, shows how a sentence can carry the same stress pattern as a single word, and uses two poems to make the beat audible. Audio and homework close it.
100% Free (unlimited): Open to anyone with no account and no payment. The lesson, the grouped stress-pattern word lists, the audio recordings, the poems and the two homework tasks are all on the page, alongside the rest of the course.
How It Helps Your Business English
The lesson opens with imitation practice, then reviews word stress through eleven groups of words sorted by pattern, from two syllables to five. It then shows that a sentence can take the same pattern as a single long word, and gives five short sentences to judge. Two poems follow, one by Tennyson and one by Masefield, read aloud so the beats can be counted.
Stop the audio after each sentence and repeat it before moving on, slowing the playback if you need to. In the word lists, say a whole group aloud in one go so the shared pattern becomes audible rather than theoretical. With the poems, count the stresses in each line first, then read them yourself at a steady beat. The homework gives you thirty seconds of audio to transcribe.
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