Strong syllables and
weak syllables
In English some syllables are long, loud and clear. The others are short, quiet and often hard to hear. This pattern of strong and weak syllables is what we call rhythm. It has a large effect on how clear you sound.
These syllables are long and have a clear vowel. They carry the meaning, so they are what a listener follows.
These words are short and quiet, and their vowel usually changes to /ə/. They are still pronounced, but they do not take a beat.
nine syllables, four beats
Why English rhythm feels unfamiliar
Spanish and Catalan give each syllable about the same length, so a sentence keeps a fairly steady pace. English makes the stressed syllables longer and shortens everything in between. Most of the difficulty students have with English rhythm starts here.
Spanish: nine syllables, nine beats. Spanish has stress too, and NI, MI and PAN are louder than the rest. But a louder syllable does not make its neighbours shorter, and every vowel keeps its full quality.
English: eight syllables, three beats. The five unstressed syllables share the time between the beats, and their vowels reduce to /ə/.
An advantage for Catalan speakers
Eastern Catalan already reduces unstressed a and e to /ə/, which is the vowel you hear in pare, casa and dona. You already produce the schwa, so the thing to learn is where English puts it, not how to make it. Spanish has no reduction of this kind, and Western Catalan, towards Lleida and the Ebre, does not reduce vowels in the same way.
A habit that comes from Spanish
Spanish words do not begin with sp-, st- or sk-, so a vowel often appears in front of them: espeak, estudent, Espanish. This adds a syllable that the English rhythm has no room for.
How many syllables a word really has
A syllable is built around a vowel sound, which is not the same as a vowel letter. English spelling often shows syllables that are not pronounced, and this is usually why students count too many.
Four syllables, which is exactly right in Spanish.
Two in English, because the middle vowel disappears completely: /ˈtʃɒklət/
comfortable /ˈkʌmftəbəl/ — three, not four
vegetable /ˈvedʒtəbəl/ — three, not four
interesting /ˈɪntrəstɪŋ/ — three, not four
Wednesday /ˈwenzdeɪ/ — two, not three
business /ˈbɪznəs/ — two, not three
The -ed ending is worth special attention
Adds no syllable after most sounds
walked /wɔːkt/ — one
played /pleɪd/ — one
finished /ˈfɪnɪʃt/ — two
Adds a syllable only after /t/ or /d/
wanted /ˈwɒntɪd/ — two
decided /dɪˈsaɪdɪd/ — three
Why it matters
An extra syllable pushes the beat out of position. The listener then has to re-time the sentence before they can follow it.
Which syllable carries the stress
Any English word with more than one syllable has one syllable that is stronger than the rest. Spanish and Catalan mark stress with a written accent when it is needed. English does not mark it at all, so you have to learn the stress together with the word.
the stressed vowel is always full, and many of the others reduce to /ə/
Stress can change the part of speech
In a large group of two-syllable words, the noun is stressed on the first syllable and the verb on the second.
a REcord · to reCORD
a PREsent · to preSENT
an INcrease · to inCREASE
an EXport · to exPORT
Compound nouns are stressed on the first part
a GREENhouse — a building for plants
a green HOUSE — a house painted green
Each pair uses the same two words with different meanings, and the stress is what separates them. The same applies to a BLACKbird and a black BIRD.
Count the syllables
Decide how many syllables each word has when it is said normally. Say the word to yourself before you choose, and ignore the spelling.
Which words are stressed in a sentence
In a sentence, English treats words in two different ways. One group of words takes a beat. The other does not.
nouns · main verbs · adjectives · adverbs · question words · negatives (not, never, -n't) · demonstratives (this, that)
These words tell the listener what you are talking about. Remove them and the message is lost.
articles (a, the) · prepositions (of, at, for) · auxiliary verbs (have, was, can) · pronouns (he, them) · conjunctions (and, but) · to
These words hold the sentence together. A listener can usually predict them, so English spends very little time on them.
Keep only the stressed words and you have TRAIN · LONDON · CANCELLED · AGAIN. That is still understandable, and it is how telegrams used to be written. Keep only the unstressed words and you have the, to, has and been, which means nothing.
Squeeze the sentence
The sentence gets longer at each stage, but it keeps the same three beats. Say the next version aloud before you press the button, and see whether you can fit it in.
What happens to the unstressed words
Unstressed function words do not just become quieter. Their vowel changes as well, nearly always to /ə/. This sound is called the schwa, and it is the most common sound in spoken English.
| Word | Strong | Weak form |
|---|---|---|
| a | /eɪ/ | /ə/ |
| the | /ðiː/ | /ðə/ before a consonant /ði/ before a vowel |
| of | /ɒv/ | /ə/ before a consonant /əv/ before a vowel |
| to | /tuː/ | /tə/ |
| and | /ænd/ | /ən/ or just /n/ |
| for | /fɔː/ | /fə/ |
| Word | Strong | Weak form |
|---|---|---|
| can | /kæn/ | /kən/ |
| was | /wɒz/ | /wəz/ |
| were | /wɜː/ | /wə/ |
| have | /hæv/ | /həv/ or /əv/ |
| them | /ðem/ | /ðəm/ |
| you | /juː/ | /jə/ |
a CUP of TEA · FISH and CHIPS · NICE to MEET you
/ə ˈkʌp ə ˈtiː/ · /ˈfɪʃ ən ˈtʃɪps/ · /ˈnaɪs tə ˈmiːt jə/
Strong or weak?
Decide how the coloured word is said in each sentence. Where the word sits in the clause matters as much as which word it is.
How sounds change between words
The unstressed parts of a sentence are said quickly, so sounds at the edges of words run together, drop out or change. This is not careless speech. It is how the language normally sounds at conversational speed.
Linking
A consonant at the end of one word joins onto a vowel at the start of the next. The gap between the two words disappears.
an‿apple pick‿it‿up far‿away
/əˈnæpl/ · /pɪkɪˈtʌp/ · /fɑːrəˈweɪ/
In far away a British speaker pronounces the r that would otherwise be silent, because a vowel follows it.
Elision — a sound disappears
/t/ and /d/ are the sounds most often lost, usually when they are caught between two other consonants.
next day
sandwich
must be
/ˈneks deɪ/ · /ˈsænwɪdʒ/ · /məs ˈbi/
Assimilation — a sound changes
A sound changes so that it is easier to say next to the one that follows it.
ten boys → /tem bɔɪz/
good girl → /ɡʊɡ ɡɜːl/
would you → /ˈwʊdʒə/
The last pattern also gives did you and last year. Students miss this one most often when they are listening.
Chunks and the main stress
We speak in short chunks rather than in whole sentences. Each chunk has one syllable that stands out more than the others, and that is where the listener's attention goes. If you move it, the meaning changes.
When I arRIVED | the door was Open.
There are two chunks here, each with its own beats and one syllable stronger than the rest. Nothing is being emphasised. This is how the sentence sounds when no special meaning is attached to it.
I didn't say she stole it.
Someone else said it.
I didn't say SHE stole it.
I said somebody else did.
I didn't say she STOLE it.
She borrowed it, perhaps.
the same six words, with the stress in a different place
Rhythm in poetry
English and Spanish poetry count different things when they measure a line of verse. The difference between them shows the two rhythms at work.
English counts stresses. The opening line of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 has ten syllables arranged as five weak–strong pairs: de‑DUM de‑DUM de‑DUM de‑DUM de‑DUM. English alternates strong and weak syllables naturally, so the metre follows the language.
Spanish counts syllables. This line from Jorge Manrique's Coplas (1476) is an octosílabo, a line of eight syllables. Spanish metres are named after a number because each syllable takes about the same time to say. Catalan verse counts syllables as well, although it stops counting at the last stressed one.
Four beats, with the weak syllables fitted in between them. Children pick up English rhythm from rhymes like this long before they learn any grammar. That is a fair argument for using chants and songs with adults too.
How accurate is this model?
English is usually described as stress-timed and Spanish as syllable-timed, as though the beats in English fell at regular intervals like a metronome. When phoneticians measured this, they did not find that regularity.
What the measurements showed
The intervals between stressed syllables in English are not equal when you time them. The strict form of the theory was tested in the 1980s and was not supported. Languages are now usually placed along a continuum instead of in two separate categories.
The real differences
Two differences are real and measurable. English reduces its unstressed vowels heavily and Spanish does not reduce them at all. English also allows much more crowded consonant clusters, so its syllables vary far more in length.
Together these two facts produce the impression of a regular beat.
The six layers together
1 · Syllables
Count the vowel sounds you say, not the letters you see. Chocolate has two.
2 · Word stress
One syllable in each word is the strong one. English does not mark it in writing, so it has to be learnt with the word.
3 · Content and function words
The beat falls on the words that carry meaning. The grammar words do not get one.
4 · Weak forms and the schwa
Unstressed words change their vowel to /ə/, unless they come at the end of a clause.
5 · Connected speech
At conversational speed, sounds link, drop and change across word boundaries. This matters mostly for listening.
6 · Tone units
Speech comes in chunks, each with one main stress, and moving that stress changes the meaning.
1. Take a sentence you have written and mark only the words that carry meaning, then say it with a beat on those words and on nothing else.
2. Collect five weak forms from a song or a podcast and write down what they sound like rather than how they are spelt.
3. Say a long word slowly and then at speed, and notice which vowel disappears first. It is almost always the one next to the stressed syllable.