Understanding the Rhythm of English

​By Jennie Parker

This blog post first appeared in English Unraveled on the Service Speak, LLC site on October 11, 2017.

rhythm (n.): an ordered recurrent alternation of strong and weak elements in the flow of sound and silence in speech (Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

We all know something about rhythm - the rhythm of music, of nature, of daily life. And when we speak, our words follow a rhythm, too. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines this type of rhythm as ordered and recurrent, and it relates to the strong and weak elements of speech.  If you are familiar with word stress, the strong and weak elements of a word, you will see a parallel between it and the rhythm of speech.  For a native English speaker, the rhythm of English comes naturally. Luckily for non-native English speakers, however, rhythm in English is somewhat predictable, and, thus, can be learned.

First, it is useful to understand that English is generally considered a stress-timed language, whereas many languages are considered syllable-timed (though some would argue that all languages are stress-timed but to varying degrees). To the English language learner, however, I think that understanding the concept of stress-timed is helpful; it is not necessary to debate the degree to which English rhythm is similar or dissimilar to the rhythm of other languages.

In stress-timed languages, such as English, the amount of time it takes one to say a sentence, for example, depends not on how many syllables are in the sentence but on how many stressed syllables are in the sentence. Let's take the following group of sentences as an example:

1. CHILdren PLAY outSIDE. (Listen)

2. The CHILdren PLAY outSIDE. (Listen)

3. The CHILdren should PLAY outSIDE. (Listen)

4. The CHILdren should have PLAYed outSIDE. (Listen)

5. The CHILdren will PLAY outSIDE. (Listen)

6. The CHILdren will be PLAYing outSIDE. (Listen)

In each of these sentences, only three syllables are prominently stressed. I have highlighted the stressed syllables in all caps. A stressed syllable is louder, longer, and higher in pitch than the other syllables. Because English is a stress-timed language, it should take the speaker roughly the same amount of time to say each sentence because each sentence has three stressed syllables, despite the fact that the sixth sentence, for example, has nine syllables, and the first has only five.

As a result, many of the unstressed syllables get smooshed (my very scientific way of describing the phenomenon).  Take, for example, the fourth sentence. A native speaker does not clearly articulate "should have" but says, "should-ə"  or "should-əv." In the fifth sentence, "children will" becomes "children'll."  In the sixth, "playing" becomes "playin'."  In general, the unstressed syllables are shortened and weakened. This may explain why many non-native English speakers complain that when they first arrive in the U.S., they feel that Americans slur their speech or speak too quickly.

As I mentioned above, luckily, the stressed words are somewhat predictable.  We call the stressed words content words and the unstressed words function words.  Content words carry most of the meaning of an utterance. They generally include nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, and negative auxiliaries, such as "won't," "didn't," "shouldn't," etc. Function words include most other words, such as articles, prepositions, and positive auxiliaries. As with most aspects of English, there are always exceptions to these rules, but this is a general framework that is useful to understand.

As you might have guessed, rhythm in English is more complex than the difference between content and function words. Other major concepts include thought groups and focus words, as well as reasons to break these general rules. However, the distinction between content words and function words is the best place to start, and future blog posts will address some of these other concepts.

Now what? So, hopefully, you understand what a stress-timed language is and how to distinguish between content and function words. But how do you apply this knowledge? It is not something that will come quickly to you at a dinner party, for example, as you are talking with your friends. However, it is something that you can start to be aware of as you listen to native speakers around you, listen to the radio, and watch television. Start to hone in on the strong and weak elements of their speech.  When you practice rhythm at home, I suggest that you download transcripts of audio material and mark the content words (NPR.org is a good resource for this). Then listen to the audio several times and check to see whether your markings were correct.  Then practice the transcripts. And practice. And practice. You might want to record yourself. You will be surprised by what you catch in your speech when you listen to a recording of it. Slowly, with time and practice, this rhythm pattern will become part of your natural speech.