Accent Reduction Classroom

When Americans talk they stress the CONTENT and FOCUS words in a sentence or phrase because these words are integral to the meaning of the sentence.

Americans reduce the sounds of function words in a sentence because these words are not key to meaning.

In spoken American English each sentence or phrase contains:
A Focus word-the most important word
Content words-very important for meaning
Function words-not important for meaning

Content Words and Focus Words
The most important words in English sentences are CONTENT words and FOCUS words. Content and focus words are pronounced louder and with a higher pitch than the other words in a sentence.

CONTENT words are usually nouns, main verbs, adjectives, adverbs, question words, negatives and numbers.

The FOCUS word is usually the last content word in a phrase or sentence.

In the sentences below notice the CONTENT and FOCUS words. Americans will pronounce these words with more emphasis than the other less important words.

1. SUSAN is HAPPY in her new POSITION.

2. She conducts her MEETINGS in the BOARDROOM.

In longer sentences, there is a focus word in each phrase or thought group.

1. If you PLAN to become a DOCTOR, you need to study ANATOMY.

Function Words
The unstressed words are called function words. Function words are important to the grammatical structure of a sentence but they don’t convey much meaning. Function words are pronounced quickly with a low pitch so when Americans pronounce them they are difficult to hear.

Stressing Function Words
In certain situations, speakers may choose to stress a function word rather than a content or focus word. For example, when someone gives you a choice and you want to choose both items your should stress the structure word.

Mother: Would you like CAKE or ICE CREAM?
Child: I’d like cake AND ice cream!

Using content, focus and function words correctly is important because the emphasis and reductions create a speech rhythm that is familiar to Americans listeners. If you don’t use sentence stress correctly your speech will sound flat and uninteresting.

You will learn how to apply sentence stress using content, focus and function words in my video lesson called INTRODUCTION TO SENTENCE STRESS & INTONATION.