Say this sentence aloud and count how many seconds it takes.

大聲的朗讀這個句子，看看你花了多長時間:
The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance.

Time required? Probably about 5 seconds. Now, try speaking this sentence aloud.

多久？5秒鐘？現(xiàn)在試著大聲朗讀這個句子：

He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the evening.

Time required? Probably about 5 seconds.
多少時間？大約5秒鐘.

可是第一個句子比第二個句子短哦。

This simple exercise makes a very important point about how we speak and use English. Namely, English is considered a stressed language while many other languages are considered syllabic. What does that mean? It means that, in English, we give stress to certain words while other words are quickly spoken (some students say eaten!). In other languages, such as French or Italian, each syllable receives equal importance (there is stress, but each syllable has its own length).

這個簡單的例子說明了我們是怎樣說和使用英語的。在英語中，一些詞讀的很快，一些詞會重讀。在法語和意大利語中，每一個音節(jié)都同樣重要，沒有輕重之分，但是每個音節(jié)長度不同。

Many speakers of syllabic languages don't understand why we quickly speak, or swallow, a number of words in a sentence. In syllabic languages each syllable has equal importance, and therefore equal time is needed. English however, spends more time on specific stressed words while quickly gliding over the other, less important, words.

講這些語言的人就不明白一個句子中的一些詞為什么需要快讀，或者慢下來。對這類語言來說，每個音節(jié)都同樣重要，所以需要同樣的時間。但是，英語在一些特別的需要重讀的詞上花的時間多些，一些不重要的詞就快速略過。

Let's look at a simple example: the modal verb "can". When we use the positive form of "can" we quickly glide over the can and it is hardly pronounced.

On the other hand, when we use the negative form "can't" we tend to stress the fact that it is the negative form by also stressing "can't".

As you can see from the above example the sentence, "They can't come on Friday" is longer than "They can come on Friday" because both the modal "can't" and the verb "come" are stressed.

舉一個簡單的例子。情態(tài)動詞can。在我們需要強調(diào)can的肯定意義的時候就會快速略過，發(fā)音不明顯。可是，當(dāng)你要用can的否定形式的時候，我們就會重點強調(diào)"不能"這個事實，也就是"can't"

So, what does this mean for my speaking skills?

Well, first of all, you need to understand which words we generally stress and which we do not stress. Basically, stress words are considered CONTENT WORDSsuch as
? Nouns e.g. kitchen, Peter
? (most) principal verbs e.g. visit, construct
? Adjectives e.g. beautiful, interesting
? Adverbs e.g. often, carefully

Non-stressed words are considered FUNCTION WORDSsuch as
? Determiners e.g. the, a, some, a few
? Auxiliary verbs e.g. don't, am, can, were
? Prepositions e.g. before, next to, opposite
? Conjunctions e.g. but, while, as
? Pronouns e.g. they, she, us

那么，什么詞需要重讀 ，什么詞不需要呢？對于英語聽力來說，你能正確的說出來的時候才會聽的比較準(zhǔn)確。
一般名詞，主要的動詞，形容詞，副詞需要重讀。

不需要重讀的詞有：冠詞，助動詞，介詞，連詞，代詞。

Even though the second sentence is approximately 30% longer than the first, the sentences take the same time to speak. This is because there are 5 stressedwords in each sentence. From this example, you can see that you needn't worry about pronouncing every word clearly to be understood (we native speakers certainly don't). You should however, concentrate on pronouncing the stressed words clearly.

現(xiàn)在回到我們最初的那個例子。盡管第二個句子比第一個長大約30%，但是讀起來卻花了同樣的時間。因為在這2個句子中都有5個重音。從這個例子中你可以看出，你不需要把每個單詞都發(fā)音準(zhǔn)確。把重音發(fā)音清楚就可以了。

Now, do some listening comprehension or go speak to your native English speaking friends and listen to how we concentrate on the stressed words rather than giving importance to each syllable. You will soon find that you can understand and communicate more because you begin to listen for (and use in speaking) stressed words. All those words that you thought you didn't understand are really not crucial for understanding the sense or making yourself understood. Stressed words are the key to excellent pronunciation and understanding of English.

現(xiàn)在，回到聽力上，做一些聽力理解或者和你的語言學(xué)習(xí)伙伴聊天，聽他們是如何強調(diào)重音。你很快就會發(fā)現(xiàn)你更容易聽懂和交流因為你已經(jīng)開始留意重音了。

重音是發(fā)音優(yōu)美，理解，聽懂英語的重要因素。