The stress-timed rhythm of English

English is a stress-timed language. In a stress-timed language, there is a tendency for

stressed syllables to occur at regular intervals. The amount of time it takes to say a
sentence in a stress-timed language depends on the number of syllables that receive
stress, either major or minor, not on the total number of syllables. Unlike English, many
languages of the world are syllable-timed. This means that the amount of time required to
say a sentence depends on the number of syllables, not on the number of stresses.

The stress-timed nature of English can be illustrated by the sentences below:

When you say each of these sentences, the same three syllables are stressed—‘birds’,
‘eat’, and ‘worms’. Although the sentences become increasingly longer in terms of the
number of syllables, it takes approximately the same amount of time to say them. You
can test this yourself. Use your index finger to tap out a regular rhythm on the edge of a
table, keeping the beats constant, at about one beat per second. Say the sentences above, so
that the three stresses in each sentence coincide with a tap. In doing this, you should notice
that the unstressed words are greatly reduced in comparison to the stressed ones. It is as
though the unstressed words must be sandwiched together in order to allow the stressed
syllables to recur at regular intervals.
In the examples above, all the vowels in the unstressed syllables are pronounced as schwa.
As it is a reduced vowel, it takes much less time to pronounce than a full vowel. It is the
reduction associated with the schwa that is in large part responsible for the characteristic
rhythm of English.
Languages such as Spanish, French, and Polish are syllable-timed languages. ESL students
who speak a syllable-timed language will often assign equal weight to each syllable in
English sentences, regardless of whether the syllable is stressed or unstressed, which
may affect the intelligibility of their English.

From Teaching American Pronunciation

Oxford Handbooks for Language Teachers
Lic. Marián Vallejos

Prof. Mónica Terluk

Let´s practise and have fun!!

Three Blind Mice Three blind mice,

Three blind mice.
See how they run,
See how they run.
They all ran after the farmer’s wife,
Who cut off their tails with a carving knife,
Did you ever see such a sight in your life,
As three blind mice?