Updated 23 October 2026

Written and checked by The Sada Team · How we check

Sentence stress: which words to make strong

Sentence stress is the pattern of strong and weak words in an English sentence: the words that carry the meaning (nouns, main verbs, adjectives) are said longer and louder, and small words such as a, the, of and to are said weak and fast. In a contrast, “not X, but Y”, the two words that differ get the strongest stress. Arabic speakers often read every word with the same weight, which makes a line slow and flat.

Practise one line with a contrast now

Open the sentence stress exercise

The exercise opens on one line from Bill Gates’s talk at 0:59: “Not missiles, but microbes.” Two words carry it, “missiles” and “microbes”; “not” and “but” only link them. Listen to it, record your version, then open Compare and play your take beside the original.

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What Sada can and cannot tell you

Sada checks which of your words came across and how your timing compares with the speaker. It does not grade individual sounds, stress or pitch, and it does not tell you which words you made strong. What it can show is the effect: if you give every word the same weight, you take longer than the speaker, and the timing comparison shows you falling behind. That is the part of rhythm Sada measures.

Comparing side by side by ear is the check for which words stand out: play your take next to the speaker and listen for the words that are longer, louder and higher in their voice and in yours. For sound-by-sound grading you need a teacher or a tool that scores individual sounds.

Content words and function words

In an English sentence, the words that carry the meaning are said strong: longer, louder, with a clear vowel. The small words that hold the sentence together are said weak and fast, and their vowels often shrink to a short “uh”, the schwa. The strong words tend to come at fairly regular beats, and the weak words in between are squeezed to fit, which is why a long stretch of small words can go by in a moment. This is a tendency of English rhythm, not strict timing.

Kind of word	Examples	Usually
Content words: nouns, main verbs, adjectives, adverbs	missiles, microbes, follow, lead, major, emotional	Strong
Negatives and question words	not, never, isn’t; what, who, where	Usually strong
Function words: articles, prepositions, pronouns, auxiliaries, conjunctions	a, the, of, for, to, it, they, is, can, and, but	Weak and fast

The weak words also change their sound. In a sentence they usually take their weak forms:

Word	Weak form in a sentence
a	“uh”
the	“thuh” before a consonant
to	“tuh”
of	“uv”
and	“un” or “n”
can	“kun”
for	“fuh” (British) or “fer” (American)

A weak word becomes strong when it matters: at the end of a sentence (“What are you looking at?”), or when it carries a contrast (“not for them, but for ourselves”).

Contrast decides the stress

When a speaker sets two things against each other, “not X, but Y” or “it isn’t X, it’s Y”, the stress goes to the two words that differ, because they carry the point. Everything else in the line gets quieter. This is contrastive stress, and it is the easiest kind to hear, which is why every practice line below has a contrast in it. In the first line, “Not missiles, but microbes”, the point is missiles against microbes.

The same words can be stressed differently to mean different things. “I didn’t say he took it” (someone else did) is not “I didn’t say he took it” (he borrowed it). In your own speech, stress the word you would underline if you wrote it.

20 sentence stress examples

Capitals mark the words usually said strong when the sentence is said plainly. A speaker can move the stress to make a point, which is what the last group shows. Read each one aloud: say only the capitals first, in rhythm, then fit the small words in between without slowing down. These are example sentences to read; the real lines to record and compare with a speaker are in the next section.

Content words strong, function words weak (8)

Nouns, main verbs, adjectives, adverbs and negatives carry the beat; a, the, to, of, my and the auxiliaries are hurried between them.

Sentence	What to hear
I WANT to BUY a NEW CAR.	four beats; “to” and “a” are almost lost
She LIVES in a SMALL TOWN near the SEA.	“in a” and “near the” are squeezed between the beats
We’re GOING to the PARK after LUNCH.	“to the” goes by as “tuh thuh”
Could you HELP me with my HOMEWORK?	“could you” and “me with my” are weak and fast
WHERE did you PUT my KEYS?	the question word is strong; “did you” is hurried
It’s going to RAIN TOMORROW.	“it’s going to” runs together before the first strong word
My BROTHER PLAYS FOOTBALL on SATURDAYS.	four content words in a row, with “on” weak
I DON’T LIKE COFFEE.	the negative is strong, so “don’t” keeps its full vowel

A small word at the end becomes strong (3)

A preposition or auxiliary that ends the sentence keeps its full sound, because nothing follows it.

Sentence	What to hear
WHAT are you LOOKING AT?	“at” is full, not “ut”
WHO did you GO WITH?	“with” is full at the end
YES, I CAN.	in a short answer “can” is strong, not “kun”

Contrast: the two words that differ (5)

When two things are set against each other, the words that differ get the strongest stress, and the rest of the line gets quieter.

Sentence	What to hear
I said TUESDAY, not THURSDAY.	the two days carry the line
She wants to SING, not DANCE.	“wants to” is weak; the two verbs are strong
I’d like TEA, not COFFEE.	two drinks against each other
It’s not MY phone, it’s YOURS.	two small words made strong by the contrast; “phone” goes quiet
The GIRLS want a PICNIC, but the BOYS want a PARTY.	two pairs in one line: girls and boys, picnic and party

Same words, different meaning (4)

Put the strongest stress on a different word and the sentence says something else. The capitals mark the one word made strongest.

Sentence	What to hear
I didn’t say HE stole the money.	someone else stole it
I didn’t SAY he stole the money.	I may have suggested it, but I did not say it
I didn’t say he STOLE the money.	he did something else with it, perhaps borrowed it
I didn’t say he stole the MONEY.	he stole something else

Sentence stress practice with real lines

Each line opens in Sada at its place in the talk. Before you record, underline the two sides of the contrast, then listen: are those the words the speaker makes strong?

“Not missiles, but microbes.”
Bill Gates · 0:59 · a contrast in four words: “missiles” against “microbes”; listen for how little time “but” takes · Practise this line →

“It isn't what they do, it's who they are.”
Sir Ken Robinson · 3:46 · “what they do” against “who they are”; listen for the words he makes strong, from a British speaker · Practise this line →

“So the major barrier's not intellectual, it's emotional.”
Josh Kaufman · 18:51 · the contrast falls on two long words, intelLECtual and eMOtional; “it’s” goes by fast · Practise this line →

“Management is not a tree, it's a television set.”
Dan Pink · 13:08 · “a tree” against “a television set”; listen to how quickly “it’s a” goes by · Practise this line →

“We follow those who lead, not for them, but for ourselves.”
Simon Sinek · 17:40 · the contrast is carried by two small words, “them” and “ourselves”, which are usually weak; listen whether he makes them strong · Practise this line →

Line 2 is British English; for more British speakers, see British accent practice. Line 3 has two long words, each with its own word stress; for that, see the word stress practice guide.

Common mistakes of Arabic speakers

Every word the same: careful reading gives each word its full weight, so a line takes longer than the speaker’s and nothing stands out. Say only the strong words first, “missiles … microbes”, then fit the small words in without slowing down.
Small words in full: “to”, “of”, “and”, “can” and “for” said as they are spelled. In a sentence they are usually weak; the table above has their weak forms.
Stressing the wrong side: in “it isn’t what they do, it’s who they are”, putting the weight on “it” and “isn’t” hides the contrast. Find the two things set against each other, and stress those.
A pause after every word: pausing between words breaks the beat, and the timing comparison shows it. Pause at commas, where the speaker pauses, and nowhere else.

How to practise

Open an exercise from this guide. Read the line and underline the two sides of its contrast before you listen: “missiles” and “microbes”.
Say only the underlined words, in rhythm, then fit the small words in between without slowing down: “Not missiles, but microbes.”
Play line 1, then say it with the speaker in Shadow mode, keeping the small words as short as theirs.
Record a take, then open Compare and play your recording and the original. Review words and timing; Sada does not grade individual sounds.
Move through the lines and watch the timing: if you fall behind, you are probably giving the weak words too much time. Listen for the words that stand out in the speaker’s voice, and make the same ones stand out in yours.

Keep going

The other guides in this series, all written for Arabic speakers: P and B pronunciation, TH sound practice: “think” and “this”, -ed endings pronunciation: t, d or id, V and F pronunciation, Word stress practice and Question intonation: rising and falling. All of these problems in order of how much each affects being understood, with one line for each and a short self-check: English pronunciation for Arabic speakers. For more lines to practise, from famous talks: Dan Pink: The Puzzle of Motivation; Steve Jobs: Stanford Commencement Address (2005); Ivan Joseph: The Skill of Self Confidence. For the stressed syllable inside a long word: word stress practice. For weak forms, linking and “gonna”: connected speech practice. For rhythm and melody across whole sentences: how to sound like a native English speaker. To see what Sada checks in every take, read the pronunciation checker.

Sources: weak forms from the Cambridge Dictionary and Weak and strong forms in English; content and function words from Pronuncian; stress timing as a tendency from Isochrony; contrastive stress from Focus (linguistics).

Questions people ask

What is sentence stress in English?

It is the pattern of strong and weak words in a sentence. Content words, such as nouns, main verbs, adjectives and adverbs, are usually said longer and louder; function words, such as a, the, of, to, is and and, are usually said weak and fast.

Which words are stressed in a sentence?

Usually the content words and negatives such as not and never. When a speaker contrasts two things, “not X, but Y”, the two words that differ get the strongest stress, and even a small word like “them” can become strong if it carries the contrast.

What are some examples of sentence stress?

In “I WANT to BUY a NEW CAR” the content words are strong and “to” and “a” are hurried. In “WHAT are you LOOKING AT?” the small word at the end becomes strong. In “I said TUESDAY, not THURSDAY” the contrast takes the stress. And “I didn’t say HE stole the money” (someone else did) means something different from “I didn’t say he stole the MONEY” (he stole something else). The page lists twenty, grouped by these four rules.

Does Sada check my sentence stress?

Not directly. Sada shows which of your words came across and how your timing compares with the speaker; it does not tell you which words you made strong. Equal stress on every word usually shows up as falling behind the speaker, because native speakers hurry through the weak words between the strong ones: say the strong words first, then fit the small words in quickly. The rest you judge by ear, with your take beside the speaker.

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