More on word stress and groups of meaning

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  • Reading time:4 mins read

In a previous post I shared with you the 4 elements that make for what we call an accent. Today I would like to go back to word stress and resume from there.

All words, even when they don’t take an accent mark, carry stress in one syllable. Take a look at this list of words. Notice the syllable in bold.

  • certezas
  • ausencia
  • reconoció
  • fiscal
  • ante
  • respuesta
  • periodista
  • pregunta

“Ante la pregunta del periodista, el fiscal reconoció la ausencia de certezas.”

So far so good? Great. Let’s go with another, a bit more twisted, example:

“Ante la pregunta del periodista, el fiscal, claramente incómodado por la pregunta, reconoció la ausencia de certezas y manifestó que la investigación recién comienza.”

This sentence above supplies us with the following groups of meaning:

Under what circumstance – ante la pregunta del periodista

Who – el fiscal

How did he look – claramente incomodado

Why – por la pregunta

What he did – reconoció la ausencia de certezas y manifestó

What he stated – que la investigación recién comienza

We have 5 chunks now:

Antelapreguntadelperiodista, elfiscal, claramenteincomodado, reconociólausenciadecertezasymanifestó quelainvestigaciónreciéncomienza.

Too much too soon? Try and read the resulting sentence observing the stressed syllable and with a falling intonation after each chunk:

Antelapreguntadelperiodista ↓, elfiscal↓, claramenteincomodado↓, reconociólausenciadecertezas↓ ymanifestó↓ quelainvestigación↓reciéncomienza↓.

It’s very important to keep this concept in mind and exercise in this way every time you read something.

Anyway, let me know if I can be of help in any way. I’ll be happy to hear from you!

Happy Spanish learning!

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