TONGUE TWISTER:

Betty Botta, bought a bit of butter,

But, said she, “This butter is bitter,
If I put it in my batter
It will make my batter bitter;
But a bit of better butter;
Will make my batter better.”
So she bought a bit of butter
Better than the bitter butter
And it made her bitter butter better
Exercise to correct lip laziness

1. The twins twisted the twine with tweezers.

2. Twenty birds tweeted among the twigs,
while the howling winds whoozed through the
trees.
3. The wily wench whispered and wheedled
until the wizard granted her wims.
 Objectives:

▰ 1. Define word stress;

▰ 2. Match the given words with their stress patterns;
▰ 3. Give your opinions/ideas as to the importance of
word stress;
▰ 4. Determine the different levels and rules of word
stress;
▰ 5. Perform drills/exercises on word stress
3
ACTIVITY:
WHERE IS
MY WORD?
English
Rhythm: WORD
STRESS
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7
8
 FOUR LEVELS OF STRESS

1. Primary stress - the strongest stress

2. Secondary Stress – less stressed than the
primary
3. Tertiary Stress – is the medium stress
4. Unstressed syllable – the part of the word where
no emphasis is given
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E.g. indivisibility

Primary bi
Stress
Secondary in
Stress
Tertiary vi
Stress
Unstressed di si li ty
Syllables
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E.g. suprasegmental
Primary
Stress ? men
Secondary
Stress ? su
Tertiary
Stress ? seg
Unstressed
Syllables ? pra tal
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RULES OF
WORD
STRESS
RULES OF
WORD
STRESS
SAMples
CARton
TIny
HONest 14
15
16
17
18
GROUP ACTIVITY:
DRILLS/
EXERCISES
 GROUP 1
WORDS ACCENTED ON THE FIRST
SYLLABLE

ACcess CEMetery HONorable

Amiable DELuge MAINtenance
BAPtism FORfeit PAtron

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 WORDS ACCENTED ON THE FIRST SYLLABLE
Sentences:
1. Most Asians place their honorable
ancestors on pedestals.
2. The admirable senator declined to argue
with his insolent adversary.
3. A lunatic can be a menace to the
populace.
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 GROUP 2
TWO-SYLLABLE WORDS –PRIMARY
ACCENT ON THE SECOND SYLLABLE
AND NO SECONDARY ACCENT

cuiSINE chamPAGNE reCRUIT

caSHIER guiTAR dicTATE

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 TWO-SYLLABLE WORDS –PRIMARY
ACCENT ON THE SECOND SYLLABLE AND
NO SECONDARY ACCENT
Sentences:
1. Chinese cuisine is one of his favorites.
2. His uncle is the cashier in that hotel.
3. Please dictate and translate the
paragraph.
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 GROUP 3
FOUR-SYLLABLE WORDS WITH THE
PRIMARY ACCENT ON THE SECOND
SYLLABLE AND THE SECONDARY
ACCENT ON THE FIRST SYLLABLE

sigNIficance preDIcament perSOnify

pluRAlity uNAnimous acCESsory

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 FOUR-SYLLABLE WORDS WITH THE
PRIMARY ACCENT ON THE SECOND SYLLABLE AND
THE SECONDARY ACCENT ON THE FIRST SYLLABLE
Sentences:
1. The chart showed an illustrative study of human
life.
2. He won the election not only by plurality but by a
unanimous vote.
3. His predicament came about when he
personified a practitioner in court.
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Rubric:
  5 4 3 2 1

Speech is
relatively
Speech is
Smooth and smooth but is
Smooth and frequently Speech is slow
fluid speech; characterized
fluid speech; hesitant and and exceedingly
few to no by some
few hesitations; jerky, with hesitant and
hesitations; no hesitation and
Fluency attempts to
a slight search
for words;
unevenness
some strained; difficult to
sentences left perceive continuity
search for caused by
inaudible word uncompleted; in utterances;
words; volume rephrasing and
or two volume very inaudible
is excellent searching for
soft
words; volume
wavers

Pronunciation Pronunciation Pronunciation is

Pronunciation
Pronunciation is excellent; Pronunciation is good; Some is okay; no lacking and hard to
is good; good effort at accent, effort towards understand; No
and accent good effort at
effort at accent but is definitely an English effort towards an
accent 26
non-native accent English accent
Directions: Identify the syllable which has the primary stress in
each number by capitalizing the syllable of your answer.
E.g. begin - beGIN
1. Can you pass me a plastic knife?
2. I want to be a photographer.
3. Which photograph do you like best?
4. He was born in China.
5. Whose computer is this?
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.
6. I can't decide which book to borrow.
7. Couldn't you understand what she was saying?
8. Voting in elections is your most important duty.
9. We had a really interesting conversation.
10. How do you pronounce this word?

28
Directions: Identify the syllable which has the primary stress in
each number by capitalizing the syllable of your answer.
E.g. begin - beGIN
1. Can you pass me a plastic knife? PLAStic
2. I want to be a photographer. phoTographer
3. Which photograph do you like best? PHOtograph
4. He was born in China. CHIna
5. Whose computer is this? comPUter
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. deCIDE
6. I can't decide which book to borrow.
7. Couldn'tunderSTAND
you understand what she was saying?
8. Voting in elections is your most important duty.
9. We hadimPORtant
a really interesting conversation.

converSAtion
10. How do you pronounce this word?
30
proNOUNCe
Assignment:

Read in advance about sentence

stress.

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