译林英语七下

Stress in sentences

When we speak English, we often stress important words, e.g. nouns, main verbs, adjectives and adverbs. We do not usually stress less important words, e.g. articles, prepositions, pronouns or conjunctions.

• My aunt is a teacher in a middle school.
• Mr Lin is going to visit the USA next month.

However, the words are not equally important. We can stress some of the words to show that they are more important information.

• Mr Li owns a four-bedroom flat. (It is Mr Li that owns a four-bedroom flat)
• Mr Li owns a four-bedroom flat. (He does not rent the flat from others.)
• Mr Li owns a four-bedroom flat. (It is a four-bedroom flat, not another kind of flat.)
• Mr Li owns a four-bedroom flat. (It is a flat, not a house.)