Word Stress: Sentence Position -- American English Pronunciation

Today I'm going to go over something I find quite interesting about American English.

今天我打算複習某件我覺得相當有趣，而且跟美語有關的事

And that is, how different the same word can sound depending on where it falls in a sentence.

那就是：同一個字聽起來會有很大的差異， 這取決於它落在句子中的位置

I've been noticing recently, some of my students from certain countries have the tendency to

我最近一直察覺到，我一些來自某些國家的學生， 往往會強調句子中的最後一個字

accent the last word in the sentence. And in general, American English goes down in

一般來說，美語整個句子的音高走向是往下降的

pitch throughout a sentence. So actually the words at the end of a sentence should be lower

因此，「位在句尾的字」實際上應該念： 低音一點、小聲一點、輕聲一點

in pitch, lower in volume, more unstressed than the same word would be if it came earlier

而不是同一個字如果出現在句子前面一點位置時的正常念法

in the sentence. Let's take for example the word 'home' in the sentences 'I'll be home

我們就以這些句子裡的單字「home」為例： 「我 3 點以前會到家。」、「昨晚我開車回家。」

by three,' 'Last night I drove the car home.' Let's hear the word 'home' in the first sentence,

我們來聽一下在第 1 句「我 3 點以前會到家。」中這個單字「home」

'I'll be home by three,' repeated on a loop a few times to get it into our ear. I'll be

它會被反覆重播多次，好讓我們的耳朵聽清楚

我 3 點以前會到家。家、家、家、家。 接下來第 2 句「昨晚我開車回家。」

home by three. Home, home, home, home. And now the second sentence, 'Last night I drove

the car home.' Last night I drove the car home. Home, home, home, home. And now let's

昨晚我開車回家。家、家、家、家

接著我們做個比較，來回地切換( 2 個音)。「家」x 10次 很明顯地，它們 2 個的音高不同，音量也不同

compare, switching back and forth. [Home x8] Clearly they are at two different pitches,

two different volumes. Here I'm using the software program Pratt to view both sentences

在這裡我用軟體程式「Pratt」同時查看 2 個句子， 及 2 個單字「home」的反覆重播

and the loops of the word 'home'. The first sentence, I'll be home by three. And the loop

第 1 句：「我 3 點以前會到家。」

接著是該句中的單字「home」的反覆重播：家、家、家

for the word home in that sentence: home, home, home. You can see that the volume is

你可以看到（此處的）音量比較大， 與第 2 句中的單字「home」：家、家、家形成一個對比

greater compared to the word home in the second sentence: home, home, home. And down here

接著在下面這邊，我們看一下「音高」。 這 2 個句子都有往下的趨勢

we see the pitch. Both of these sentences have the downward trend, the second one ending

第 2 句的結尾在下面這裡的這個小點， 跟英文中大部分直述句的結尾一樣

with this little dot down here, as most statements in English do. The word 'home' in the first

第 1 句中的單字「home」，在這裡，相當高的音， 第 2 句中的單字「home」，在這裡，相當低的音。

sentence, here, quite high in pitch, the word home in the second sentence, here, quite low

in pitch. Home. This section up here is the M, sort of just a grumble in the voice. It

上面這裡的這段是「M」，有點像是發「哼」的聲音，家、家

sort of stops sounding like speech at this point, doesn't it? Home, home, home. It's

它聽起來是不是有點像是說話停在這個點上？家、家、家

so low in pitch, so low in volume, so -- uhh -- far down in the throat. Yet, when you

非常低的音，非常的小聲，非常的 --- 嗯--- 在喉嚨深處

然而，當你在句子的前後文中聽到它（home）時，「昨晚我開車回家。」 你一定能聽出它就是單字「home」

hear it in the context of the sentence, you do identify it as the word 'home.' Let's listen

我們再聽一次這個反覆重播，此處我們會交互聽 2 個句子中的單字「home」。「家」x 10次

one more time to the loop, where we alternate the word 'home' from the two sentences. [Home x 8]

所以，請將此觀念牢記心中： 當你在說話時，當你在大聲練習朗讀時，

So keep this in mind when you're speaking, when you're practicing reading out loud. Make

sure you're not stressing the last word of a sentence by bringing it up in pitch or making

要確定你不會強調句子的最後一個字， 不要把該字的音提高，或是加大它的音量，

it louder because in English it's actually the opposite. The words at the end of the

因為英語正好相反。 「在句尾的字」應該低音一點及輕音一點

sentence will be lower in pitch and also softer. The final word in a sentence can sometimes

「句子裡最後的字」有時會念得非常低及非常輕

be very low and very soft. That's it, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.

就這樣，非常感謝使用 Rachel 的英文