Bits and pieces

• Meaning: Small individual things

• E.g. Then there are all the other bits and pieces involved in a wedding:
invitations, photos, and car hire.
By and large

• Meaning: Mostly, generally; with few exceptions

• E.g. It was, by and large, an unexceptional presentation.
Give or take

• Meaning: Approximately; plus or minus some unknown amount.

• E.g. He was six feet tall, give or take.
Hustle and bustle

• Meaning: A large amount of activity and work, usually in a noisy

surrounding.
• E.g. He moved to his parents’ farm to have a break from the hustle
and bustle of the big city.
More or less

• Meaning: Mostly/ approximately/ almost

• E.g. There are a hundred people in the room, more or less.
Sentence Stress
What is stress?
Stress means to pronounce some syllables and words more strongly
than others.
More loudly
More clearly
A bit slowly
Where to stress?
• Content = information, meaning
• Function/Grammar = necessary words for grammar

• In other words, content words give us the most important

information while function words are used to stitch those words
together.
Content Word Types

• Content words are usually nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

• Noun = person, place or thing
• Verb = action, state
• Adjective = describes an object, person, place or thing
• Adverb = tells us how, where or when something happens
Function Word Types
• Function words help us connect important information. Function
words are important for understanding, but they add little meaning
beyond defining the relationship between two words.
• Auxiliary verbs = do, be, have (help with conjugation of tense)
• Prepositions = show relationships in time and space
• Articles = used to indicate specific or non-specific nouns
• Conjunctions = words that connect
• Pronouns = refer to other nouns
Read the sentence
How about we go for coffee this afternoon?
Identify the content words and grammar
words
How about we go for coffee this afternoon?

Content words- we, go, coffee, afternoon

Grammar words- how about, for, this

continues

How about we go for coffee this afternoon?

Poll
• Stress means to pronounce some syllables and words more strongly
than others.
• True
• False
continues

My phone is broken so I am going to buy a new one.

Content words: Phone, Broken, buy, new, one
Grammar words: My, is, so, I am, to going, a
Is it correct?
My phone is broken so I am going to buy a
new one.

Content words: Phone, Broken, buy, new, one

Grammar words: My, is, so, I am, to going, a

Practice makes Perfect

Could you get some bread from the bakery on your way home?
Words in Red are:
A. Content Words
B. Grammar Words
continues

I heard that the weather’s going to be bad tomorrow.

continues
He has no idea what he wants to do after he graduates.
Syllable
A syllable is defined as a single unit of speech which usually contain a vowel, it may consist of a whole word or
one or more parts of a word. For example:
 ‘Car’ has one syllable as a whole word
 ‘Water’ has two syllables- ‘Wa’ & ‘Ter’
 ‘Content’ has two syllables- ‘Con’ and ‘Tent’
 Beautiful
 Wonderful
Rules about Syllable Stress
1. Most two-syllable nouns have stress on the first syllable- EXport,
CHIna, TAble
2. Most two-syllable adjectives have stress on first syllable- CLEver,
HUNGry, ANGry
3. Most two-syllable verbs have stress on second syllable- conTENT,
deCIDE, beGIN
4. Words ending in -ic, -sion and -tion have stress on the second syllable
from the end- geOLOGic, teleVIsion, retardation, conTROversy
1. Words ending is -cy, -ty, -phy, -gy and -al have stress on the third
syllable from the end- deMOcracy, phoTOgraphy, geOLogy
2. Compound nouns have stress on the first part- WHITEhouse,
DOGhouse
3. Compound adjectives have stress on the second part- ill-MANnered,
out-DAted
4. Compound verbs have stress on the second part- understand,
overFLOW
Read the words loudly and clearly after learning the concept
of syllable stress.
nouns verbs adjectives
1st syllable 2nd syllable 1st syllable
address address address
compact compact compact
compound compound compound
conscript conscript conscript
contract contract contract
convict convict convict
discount discount discount
dispatch dispatch dispatch
object object object
perfect perfect perfect
permit permit permit
present present present
produce produce produce
project project project
protest protest protest
rebel rebel rebel
recall recall recall
record record record
refund refund refund
reject reject reject
relay relay relay
survey survey survey
transfer transfer transfer