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Lecture 7

Weak Forms. Lecture 7. There is a number of words in English (almost all of which belong to the category called function or grammatical words ) which can be pronounced in two different ways, a strong and a weak form. Another important aspect related to stress is that of the “weak forms”.

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Lecture 7

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  1. Weak Forms Lecture 7

  2. There is a number of words in English (almost all of which belong to the category called function or grammatical words) which can be pronounced in two different ways, a strong and a weak form. Another important aspect related to stress is that of the “weak forms”. There are about forty such words and it is important to be aware of their existence as they can provoke misunderstandings. English-speaking people find the strong forms unnatural and learners of English can misunderstand English speakers, who will surely use weak forms.

  3. Examples: • The sentence 'I like that.' is pronounced ai laik ðæt(strong form) • the sentence 'I hope that she will' is pronounced ai haup ðət ʃɪ wil (weak form).

  4. Why is it important to learn how weak forms are used? • most native speakers of English find an ‘all-strong-form’ pronunciation unnatural and foreign-sounding. • speakers who are not familiar with the use of weak forms are likely to have difficulty understanding speakers who do use weak forms; since all speakers of British English use them, learners of English need to learn about these weak forms to help them to understand what they hear.

  5. There are some rules to learn. The strong form will be used when: a) they occur at the end of a sentence, as in “Chips are what I’m fond of”/ɒv/. b) A weak-form word is being contrasted with another word, as in “The letter is from him, not to /tʊ:/ him.” c) A weak-form word is given stress for the purpose of emphasis, as in “You must/mʌst/ give me more/mɔ:/ money.” d) A weak-form is being “cited” or “quoted”, as in “You shouldn’t put “and”/ænd/ at the end of a sentence.”

  6. The most common weak-form words are: • THE • A • AND • BUT • THAT • THAN • AT • FOR • FROM • OF • TO • AS • SOME • CAN, COULD • HAVE, HAS, HAD • SHALL, SHOULD • MUST • DO, DOES • AM, IS, ARE, WAS, WERE

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