Word Stress

[coffeecup]

Along those lines, I remember a sentence from a book we read in class when I was 12. It simply stated that "You can play cricket", but notice the differences in meaning when the following words are stressed:

YOU can play cricket. (It's something that singles you out of everyone)
You CAN play cricket. (It's emphasising that you can, that it's possible)
You can PLAY cricket. (Has implications that cricket is nothing more than a game)
You can play CRICKET. (Makes cricket seem like the sport to end all sports)

Maybe that would be a good thing to show her because it gives many meanings to one sentence, depending solely on the stress. Hope it helps.

[Luna Azul]

Originally Posted by coffeecup

Along those lines, I remember a sentence from a book we read in class when I was 12. It simply stated that "You can play cricket", but notice the differences in meaning when the following words are stressed:

YOU can play cricket. (It's something that singles you out of everyone)
You CAN play cricket. (It's emphasising that you can, that it's possible)
You can PLAY cricket. (Has implications that cricket is nothing more than a game)
You can play CRICKET. (Makes cricket seem like the sport to end all sports)

Maybe that would be a good thing to show her because it gives many meanings to one sentence, depending solely on the stress. Hope it helps.

Great post. That's exactly the way it works with sentences...

The problem is when someone doesn't recognize what part of the word is stressed. . No matter what, it sounds like a hearing problem to me... or something worse. I don't know..