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Languages are classified into two groups: 1. syllable-timed languages (e.g. Japanese, Indonesian, etc.) 2. stress-timed languages (e.g. English, German, Russian). In a stress-timed language, the stressed syllables are said at approximately regular intervals, and unstressed syllables shorten to fit this rhythm. Words that should be pronounced with stress are content words, namely nouns, verbs (except for "be"), adjectives, adverbs, negative contractions and demonstrative (this, that, etc.). Other words are called grammatical words, and these words are not pronounced with strong stress at all. Moreover, they are made weakened by being pronounced with a schwa or other weak vowels. Such words are called "weak forms". In Indonesia, people speak English with strong forms only and treat English as if it were a syllable-timed language. For native speakers of English, it is tiring to listen to an Indonesian speak English since they need much energy and patience during listening.
Oh my gosh!!!! Thanks a lot about your great lesson my amazing teacher keep up the good work!!!! Muna improve my level up coz i wanna understand even angels when speaking English
Dear madam, When to use English Strong forms properly? Do BBC English News Channel News readers use only strong forms in news reading? Should we use only strong forms while explaining English text or lessons? From Prateek Mudagal India
Thanks a lot about your great lesson my amazing teacher keep up the good work!!!! You have been helping us more Munna supprise the people when speaking English
I just discovered you on your web site, and I was impressed, since you come across as being a spontaneous speaker, sounding natural with your warm conversational manner. As you speak and explain, you show no competitive spirit and you don't try to compare yourself with others. That's a remarkable character trait, which is why you sound so natural and modest. Your pronunciation is smooth and effortless. I can tell you this because in my early years I was trained and coached by a native speaker of English who sounded so smoothly that I was motivated to pick up his accent. He was a commander in the US military and he educated me like a father. May god bless you and keep up your marvelous work.
Hi Billie, Thanks for your video, it’s well-presented and super clear to understand! Just a question about the weak form of the word ‘’to’’: Is it always reduced to /tə/ when unstressed, irrespectively of whether the following word begins with a vowel sound? Because according to the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, the reduction to a schwa sound occurs before vowels, otherwise the weak form of ‘’to’’ is /tu/. What do you think? Can you please elaborate on this?
Good question! I had a look into this and to my understanding & hearing 'to' is reduced before consonant sounds as well, e.g. in 'I've got a lot of stuff to do' - the 'to' is before 'do' starting with the consonant /d/ but nevertheless 'to' would certainly be reduced because it's not stressed. I hope this helps!
I have a question on the sentence "I picked them up at the school", and the question is, should the /l/ of school be a dark /l/? As it is in a postvocalic position! I am a non-native English speaker and I do have a few problems with this things! However, thank you for the wonderful video :)
Hello Saul! A good question! Yes, the /l/ in school is a dark /l/. You can find out more about light & dark /l/ in this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-rL49Q6wYMSI.html I hope this is of help :-) Thanks for watching!
The huge number of schwas makes it hard to understand quickly spoken English for non natives. For me as a Germann nativ it sounds like a porridge of sounds. A stream of schwas.
The topic of strong forms vs weak forms can also be found in Dutch and German. For example, Willeke Albertie in 1965 sang a Dutch song "De Winter Was Lang". In the last line she sang: "De winter was lang, eenzaam en [ən] koud". Instead of saying [ɛn] with a strong form for "en" (=and), she used the weak form [ən]. The weak form to "en" can also be found in counting numbers, such as: "vierenveertig" (44). The "en" there is pronounced with a schwa, thus: [ˈfiːrənfeːrtəx]. In German, there is only one word that has a weak form. It is "es". When being strong form, it is pronounced [ɛs]. When pronounced in its weak form, it is pronounced [əs] and even [s] as in a common expression for greeting someone: "Wie geht es [ˈɡeːtəs] Ihnen?" "Wie geht's [ˈɡeːts] dir?" Once, I tuned in to the German programme of Deutsche Welle on shortwave. The newsreader said like this: "Es [ɛs] ist dreiundzwanziɡ Uhr Weltzeit. In Deutschland ist_es [ɪstəs] ein Uhr."
You can find online teachers on platforms like Preply or Itaki. Or you could try an AI pronunciation app like ELSA to train you and give you feedback. Have a look at the pinned comment in this video for more information about this app :-)
Hello! It could lead to confusion. If you stress 'some' it highlights the word, indicating to the listener that there is important information in this word (when there probably isn't). For example, a conversation at a party: 'They have some snacks' Usually 'some' would not be stressed - the info is just 'there are snacks'. However, if you stress 'some' and use the full form, you indicate that there are JUST SOME, as in 'not many' and it would sound critical (= they really should have more as good hosts but they don't!). I hope this helps!
Dear Madam, I am writing this email to ask for your permission to use your video on you tube as my study material. I have a big assignment coming up for my teacher, he asked us to use it. I searched on the internet and found your video, i like it very much, its content is very interesting, so can i use it for my exercise? I look forward to hearing from you. Your sincerely, Khue
Thank you for your comment! I'm glad you find my video helpful 😊 I think I received the same message from some of your classmates. You are welcome to watch all my videos. What do you mean by using it?
Hello! I responded to you - but I don't remember where! ;-) You posted in several places and I responded in one of them. It was your question about strong vs. weak froms & also contracted forms, right? Here is my answer again: When speaking naturally, we use weak forms. This happens naturally because it helps us to speak faster (so weak forms occur, as well as linking, assimilation, elision etc). We also use contracted forms when we speak. we only use full forms when we speak in formal situations or maybe in the news. This week and next I am posting 2 new videos on contracted forms where I talk a bit more about that. I hope this helps! Thank you for watching :-)
Hi I'm sorry I have a question. For this sentence "That bill has gone viral, right?", are 'that' and 'has' the only weak forms presence and the others are full forms and must be stressed?
Hello! Thank you for your question 😊 Yes, 'that' and 'has' are definitely unstressed and would be in a weak form. It depends a bit how you say the sentence and on what context. The 2 words with the main stress are 'bill' and 'viral'. 'Gone' and 'right' will also be stressed but maybe not as much. I hope this helps!
@@BillieEnglish Thank you for your reply 🙏 I have a presentation about connected speech next week and your videos helped me big time in understanding every concepts ❤️
