English Rhythm

Put down that textbook and learn to feel the rhythm of English!

Many English learners focus on improving their vocabulary and grammar without thinking much about rhythm—even though this is important for improving your English pronunciation!

Below you will find some practical pronunciation exercises that will help you identify and reproduce natural English stress-timing and rhythm.

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What Is English Rhythm?

Rhythm is defined as “a strong pattern of sounds, words [] or musical notes… used in music, poetry [] and dancing.” The rhythm of English language depends on two types of stress. 

When we say “stress” here, we mean that we emphasize or say a syllable or word more strongly than the other parts of the word or sentence, which makes those “stressed” syllables and words stand out and become more noticeable.

English has two basic types of stress:

1. Syllable stress

2. Word stress

The best way to understand these types of stress is to hear them used in context. For example, you can watch short films, movies, TV shows and other video content that features native English speakers. Not only will you hear what the words sound like, but if you watch the speakers closely, you can see how they pronounce the words. You can also listen to English songs for more practice. 

Pay attention to how sentences and individual words are stressed in different types of scenarios. You might notice, for example, that a news anchor uses different stress from the more natural flow of a vlogger. Replay sentences and try to shadow them (that is, say them together with the speakers in the video). Try to match your stress on each word and entire sentences to the videos you’re watching.

Luckily, the internet is a vast resource of English videos. You can find these on places like YouTube, Netflix and FluentU.

Now, we will take a closer look at the two different types of stress.

Syllable stress

Syllable stress refers to a syllable (or segment of a word) that is stressed more than other syllables in the word.

While native English speakers find this intuitive (natural), English learners need to refer to patterns that will help them remember which parts of the words to stress.

Syllable stress patterns in English are not as regular as in some languages, and memorizing the rules for syllable stress requires patience—and a lot of listening practice! Knowing how to read the phonetic version of a word (found in dictionaries or pronunciation guides) is also very useful for English learners, as the phonetic pronunciation guide will also indicate which syllable is stressed.

Here is an example of syllable stress, with the stressed part in bold:

Happy birthday!

English student

identification

explain

In each of these cases, speakers say the parts in bold noticeably louder and with more emphasis. If you put the stress on the wrong syllable—for example, if you say “Happy birthday!“—there is still a good chance people will understand you, but they will definitely notice that something strange is going on with your pronunciation.

Word stress

Word stress refers to a word (or parts of a word) that is stressed more than others in a sentence.

Certain words are stressed for many different reasons. Sometimes it is because they are important to the meaning of the sentence, because they are a question word or because they clarify or distinguish something. Here are examples of word stress in a sentence:

What time is it?

I am going to a birthday party.

Would you like coffee or tea?

Learning the rules for word stress can be challenging. For now, we will simply focus on practicing stress-timing for more natural English rhythm. If you would like to practice more, here are some additional resources:

• To see examples of these basic types of stress, there is a great interactive video that explains the basics of English syllable and word stress. The video is a good introduction for anyone who would like a better understanding of the fundamentals.

• If you are interested in a more in-depth exploration of different types of English stress, have a look at this more advanced article.

What Is a Stress-timed Language?

You may have noticed that I mentioned “stress-timing” earlier, but you may not know what that means. English is a stress-timed language, and knowing about and practicing stress-timing will help you improve your English rhythm.

In English, some words are pronounced louder, higher and longer, while other words are very short and quiet. You have probably noticed this when watching an English movie with subtitles. Even though you might see a certain word (like “for” or “the”) in the subtitles, when you listen, it seems like the actor never said it. That is because some words are quiet and quick, making them hard to hear.

That is because English is a stress-timed (or stress-based) language. This basically means that when someone says a sentence in English, they will emphasize certain words (or parts of words) according to how important they are in the sentence. Stress-timed languages contrast with syllable-timed languages (like Japanese), where the word stress in a sentence follows a regular, predictable pattern.

Perhaps the best way to understand this concept is with an example. Look at these two sentences:

1. I looked in the car but I didn’t see my keys.

2. I don’t like tea unless it has milk.

The sentences are of different lengths. In other words, the first one is longer and has more words than the second one. However, because English is a stress-timed language, both of these sentences will take about the same amount of time for a native speaker to say.

This is because both sentences have the same number of important or “content” words. These content words give meaning or critical information in the sentence. Content words include verbs, nouns, negatives (not, don’t), question words (who, why, etc.) and more, depending on the sentence and what is important.

Using the same examples, now notice the content words (in bold):

1. I looked in the car but I didn’t see my keys.

2. I don’t like tea unless it has milk.

There are four content words in each sentence. The content words are stressed: they are pronounced higher, louder and longer. The other words are “de-stressed”: they are pronounced quieter, shorter and lower.

Now it is time to practice these concepts with a few simple exercises.

Improve Your English Rhythm with 3 Pronunciation Exercises

These exercises are designed to be simple, fun and engaging! Since you will be pronouncing words and sentences out loud, you might prefer to find a quiet room. You do not need to have perfect pronunciation in these exercises—just try to relax so you can start to feel a more natural rhythm as you speak in English.

1. Echo activity

This activity works well with a partner but you can do it alone, too. This activity uses rhyming patterns to help you become familiar with word stress within a sentence.

First, you read a word with a stressed syllable. Emphasize the stressed syllable as much as possible—it is good to  exaggerate (to make it bigger or louder than it really is) for the purposes of this exercise. Make sure the stressed syllable is loud, with a higher tone. Then, you will “echo” the word with a sentence that has a similar sound and a similar stress pattern.

Remember that, because the two columns have the same stress pattern, they should take roughly the same amount of time to pronounce. Try to say the sentences as quickly as you say the words. If you are practicing with a partner, one person says the Word, and the other partner responds with the Echo. After you finish, switch parts and do the activity again.

Word	Echo
interruption	Let's have lunch now.
interruption	He's my uncle.
interruption	I said, "under."
interact	It's a fact.
interact	Here's your hat.
interact	Where's my snack?
committee	She's pretty.
committee	It's tricky.
committee	He's witty.
entertain	I've been paid.
entertain	That's insane!
entertain	Let me explain.

2. Movement activity

Rhythm is not just something you say—it is something you feel. Add movement to your stress practice activity to help you physically feel and remember the rhythm of English.

Say these sentences out loud. When you arrive at a stressed part, stand up quickly as you say it, then sit back down. You can also do this activity by raising both hands above your head, clapping your hands or tapping the table with both hands as you say the stressed parts.

Try to get through the list quickly. Do not worry about perfect pronunciation—just focus on stressing the correct part of the sentence.

Here we go! Stand, tap, clap or raise your hands when you pronounce the bolded parts.

• I love coffee.
• It’s in my office.
• I come here often.
• Do you read much?
• I don’t see it.
• Try this pizza!
• I didn’t check.
• He hurt his neck.
• We haven’t met.

3. Bouncing ball activity

Here is a fun way to practice rhythm: find a ball (like a basketball) that you can bounce on the ground. Before you begin, practice bouncing the ball on the ground (in English, this action is called dribbling , by the way) in a consistent, even rhythm.

For this activity, as you say a sentence, you need to continue bouncing the ball without speeding up, slowing down or stopping. When you have found a steady pattern, try saying these longer sentences while you continue bouncing the ball.

The ball is your guide for stress-timing: you should be saying a stressed part of the sentence every time the ball hits the ground. Repeat each sentence at least three times for practice. You will have to say some words very quickly and some words more slowly in order to match your sentence with the steady rhythm of the bouncing ball.

• The weather’s been so lovely lately!
• If I finish all my work, I think I can go to the movies tonight.
• I’m going to the store to buy eggs, milk, bananas and bread.
• My English class is really fun. Do you go to English class, too?
• I wanted to go out of town for the weekend, but the traffic on the highway was insane!

Ready for more? For additional practice, try these rhythm exercises.

Once you are comfortable with this, you can create your own sentences! Introduce yourself or say a sentence about what you like to do as you continue to bounce the ball.

 

As I mentioned before, this is the kind of thing that takes a lot of practice. But the more you practice listening to English and working on word and syllable stress, the better your English rhythm and pronunciation will be!

Do you feel the rhythm now?

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)