American English Word Stress Unstressed vs Reduced syllables
I want to very briefly introduce the
concept of a reduced syllable a reduced
syllable is always an accented or
unstressed and the thing that makes it
different from an unaccented or
unstressed syllable is that one of the
sounds is either not heard or has
changed let’s take for example the
sentence he doesn’t know I got it for
her
the word he he doesn’t know I got it for
her is unaccented it is lower in pitch
and it is faster than the accented words
but both of the sounds are there the H
consonant sound and the e isn’t she he
doesn’t know what got it for her the
word for he doesn’t know why got it fur
fur is pronounced with the schwa sound
fur instead of with the Oh as in no
diphthong for that change in sound means
that this word is reduced because
something changes as I said before
reduced is always unaccented so it’s
always going to be lower in pitch and
quicker he doesn’t know I got it for her
one more example she wants peppers and
onions peppers and onions are the
stressed words here the nouns she and
wants are both unaccented but they’re
not reduced because all of the sounds
are there she wants peppers and onions
the word and however is reduced
basically you just hear the n sound
peppers and peppers and onions she wants
peppers and onions to review a reduced
syllable is an unaccented or unstressed
syllable in which one of the sounds is
either left out or changes
you