| Sentence Stress
English has a distinctiverhythm because certain syllables are stressed within a sentence and not just within a word. Those syllables are louder, longer and higher. The stress comes on the most important word or words in a sentence. These are usually nouns and verbs but also sometimes adjectives and adverbs, other little words like "on", "a","for", and "and:" can almost disappear.
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The meaning can be changed in a sentence by stressing those syllables that we want to make more important than the others. If we want to emphasise something, or to express surprise or to correct what someone else has said.
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| "Thank you for the wonderful present" (stress on "wonderful")
"Is it true you were born in a taxi" (stress on "true" and "taxi")
"No, I don't come from Dalian. I come from Harbin. (stress on "Dalian" and "Harbin")
Here is an example of how the meaning changes when the sentencestress changes
"I saw Han Junwei teaching in the library." (not the classroom)
"I saw Han Junmei teaching in the library."(usually I see Gong Yuanshu teaching in the library)
"I saw Han Junwei teaching in the library."(she usually just tidies up the books)
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