Welcome to the InFluency Podcast. I’m Hadar, and this is episode number 132. And today we’re going to talk about stress shift. Stress shift.

Hey everyone, welcome back. Thank you so much for tuning in for another episode of the InFluency Podcast. I’m so happy that you’re here, and I hope the intro did not stress you out, cause I talked about stress. Get it? It’s a joke. Anyway, today I want to talk about stress shift and, in particular, how the focus word of a phrase changes based on the function or the position of that phrase.

But before that, let’s define what a focus word is. A focus word is a word that sticks out the most, the most dominant word, the word that gets the main stress in a phrase or a thought group, or a chunk – whatever you want to call it – in a small unit that conveys a part of a thought, but it’s rather complete. And within that chunk or thought group, there is one word that is most dominant, that gets the main stress of that group.

For example: “I thought about it”. “thought” is the focus word. “I thought about it”. And yes, focus words are usually content words: nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

“I’m going to go there.” What was the focus word? go. “I’m going to go there.” “It’s a great idea.” What was the focus word here? “It’s a great idea.” idea. Now, how do we stress the focus word? We say it a little longer, a little higher in pitch, a little louder. And all of these three components together, they make that word stick out more.

I like to call it the primary stress of the phrase. Like we have a primary stress for words, like “computer”, the ‘pu’ is the primary stress. And if we think of the phrase: “I told you”, then ‘told’ would be the primary stress of the phrase or the focus word.

Now, in phrases, mostly composed of let’s say adjectives and nouns, the stress usually falls on the noun, if we’re talking about neutral intonation. For example: “the red car”, “the blue chicken”, “the big house”. Notice how the stress falls on that last word – ‘house’. Now, of course I could say “the big house”, but that would suggest that I’m comparing it to something that you and I both know that I’m talking about the big house cause there’s also a small house in the picture, and I’m specifically talking about the big house. Then I would stress the adjective, adjectives describe the nouns, the things we talk about. “The big house” versus “the small house”.

But in a more neutral way of saying it, or, you know, the most common way to say this phrase would be “the big house”. “The tall woman”, “the smart kid”. “She’s so old fashioned“. Right? The stress was on ‘fashioned’. “She’s so old fashioned“. And I hope you’re practicing with me as I’m saying the words. I want you to say them with me and nod your head when you get to that stress word. So you’ll feel like you’re stressing it and you won’t be stressing other words without paying attention. So, “she’s so old fashioned” or “she’s really old fashioned“: stress on ‘fashioned’.

But what happens when I take “old fashioned” and I turn it into an adjective, for example: “it’s an old-fashioned book”, or “it’s an old-fashioned dress”. Have you noticed what happened to the stress here? “This dress is so old-fashioned” – the stress is on ‘fashioned’. And you need to make a face when you’re saying it, cause you’re like, “Uh! I can’t believe you’re thinking about wearing it.”

“This dress is so old-fashioned”. But, “it’s an old-fashioned dress”, “old-fashioned dress”. I turned the phrase “old fashioned” and that entire phrase, I turned it into an adjective. So we connect it together, and by the way, on the paper, it has a hyphen when it becomes an adjective.

If I were to write “an old-fashioned dress”, between ‘old’ and ‘fashioned’ you’ll see a small hyphen, the small little dash that connects between the words. And then the stress, this is how you indicate that you have turned that entire phrase into an adjective – something that describes something else, the noun. The stress shifts as well. It’s like we signal this hyphen with our intonation: “an old-fashioned dress”. “old fashioned” – “old-fashioned dress”.

“He’s so good looking”. Good looking. Stress on ‘looking’: “so good looking“. “He’s a good-looking boy”. good-looking, good-looking. “good-looking boy”. Right? Not “good looking boy”. So alone, it would be “good looking“. When it becomes the adjective and it’s hyphenated – “good-looking boy”. We signal with our voice the written punctuation. That’s the beauty of intonation, really. Or maybe it’s the other way around – speaking came first. Maybe the stress came before, and then the hyphen was a way to indicate that stress shift.

In general, English doesn’t really like it when there are a lot of stresses one after the other, like if I were to say “good-looking boy” – looking, boy – stress, stress. So maybe that’s part of the reason why that happened …once upon a time a thousand years ago.

Let’s look at another example. “She came at the last minute”. What was the focus word here? What was the stressed word? “She came at the last minute”. Minute, minute: length, pitch, volume. “She came at the last minute“. But when I want to say something like, “It was a last-minute decision”, I would put the stress on ‘last’. “It was a LAST-minute decision”. Not “last minute decision”. “It was a last-minute decision”.

“Some people are narrow minded”: stress on ‘minded’. “Some people are narrow minded“. But if I were to say, “I don’t like narrow-minded people”, the stress shifts from ‘minded’ to ‘narrow’. “I don’t like narrow-minded people”. “Narrow minded” – “narrow-minded people”. But it has to be connected to something right after, because it’s an adjective that describes that noun right after.

“This car is brand new, and I like it”. “This car is brand new“, stress on ‘new’. “Hey, it’s a brand-new car. Congratulations!” Brand-new car. Also notice that the focus is also on the noun right after. So, “this car is brand new” – stress on ‘new’ – last content word of that phrase. “It’s a brand-new car”: here the keyword is ‘car’. ‘brand’ gets a secondary stress: brand-new car. But the main focus is on that last content word again.

Now here’s something else that is really interesting. And you probably know this, but I’m just going to show you how it all plays together. “The ride took us three hours.” “The ride took us three hours”: stress on ‘hours’, right, on that noun. But if I take ‘three hours’ and I want to turn it into an adjective to describe the ride, I’d say, “It was a three-hour ride”. So here, what happens is that not only we have that stress shift, the plural form was taken away, and I’m only using the singular form. “It was a three-hour ride”, not “three hours ride”. “Three-hour ride”.

“My daughter is five years old”. “I have a five-year-old daughter”. “five years old” – stress on ‘old’, years in plural. “Five-year-old daughter”: so now ‘daughter’ is the keyword, ‘five’ is the secondary stress – “five-year-old daughter”. “Five years old” – “five-year-old daughter”, not “five-years-old daughter”. This one is tricky, and probably important.

Another example with numbers: “This book has 300 pages. I’m never going to finish it by tomorrow.” “It’s a 300-page book. I’m never going to finish it by tomorrow.” “This book has 300 pages. I’m never going to finish it.” It’s a 300-page book.” Have you noticed the difference? ‘300 pages’ – ‘300-page book’. Okay. Let’s look at a few more examples without numbers.

“The room was brightly lit.” “The room was brightly lit”, stress on ‘lit’. “This brightly-lit room is so beautiful.” “This brightly-lit room is so beautiful.”

“I worked there part-time.” “It’s a part-time job.” “I work there part time. It’s a part-time job” – ta-ta-DA. “This tea is ice cold.” “It’s an ice-cold tea. It’s an ice-cold tea.”

“This rest was much needed. This rest was much needed.” “It was a much-needed rest. It was a much-needed rest.”

Okay. That’s the end of the lesson, my friend. But what I want you to do is to simply pay attention. Of course, practice with me like you did. You can even play it again and then just practice those phrases again and again. And focus on the rhythm, like try to go against maybe what you think should be, or maybe what your intuition pulls you towards if it’s not exactly what… how I described it here. And see what happens.

Changing rhythm is not always easy. But it’s rewarding to become aware of it, and for it to be in your control. So, pay attention and start noticing these phrases because people use them all the time and I’m sure that you use them as well. But just pay attention to the rhythm patterns and see how that plays out.

And here’s the thing, when you start paying attention to one thing – and especially when it comes to rhythm – when you hear other things that you haven’t noticed before, all of a sudden you start noticing them as well. So you’ll notice other patterns as well. It might not be exactly the same, but it would be around stress because you’ve already tuned your ears to pay attention to these things.

That’s how you develop awareness, attention, and that’s how you grow, and change, and improve. And when you improve your listening, it improves your speaking, and it all becomes this one big clarity party, that you’re all invited.

Okay, I hope you enjoyed this short lesson. And if you have, please consider subscribing, and even rating and reviewing the podcast, if you’re listening to it on your podcast platform. And subscribe, if you haven’t yet.

Thank you so so much for being here. I hope you stay safe and stay healthy and stay aware. And I will see you in the next episode. Bye.