Content words are important words in a sentence which convey meaning. We normally stress content word when speaking.

Function words are the unimportant words in a sentence. We normally don't stress function words when speaking.

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Possible pronunciation problems

You may be giving too much or equal stress to unimportant or "function" words. For example:

• "I'm in the HOUSE." would sound like "I'm IN THE house."

• "He's at the STORE." would sound like "HE'S AT THE STORE."

Stressing a specific words can convey a special meaning which it wouldn't have in the written form. The speaker can stress a word to call attention to it. The word that receives the stress depends on the personal motive of the speaker.

For example: "I BOUGHT ten pizzas" means I wasn't given ten pizzas, I bought them.

Or, "I bought ten PIZZAS" means I didn't buy burgers, I bought pizzas.

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Possible pronunciation problems

Distort your intended meaning of the sentence. For example:

• "They OWN a small home" (they don't rent) can sound like "They own a SMALL home" (the house is not big).

Words that describe nouns (people, places, or things) are called adjectives. When you use adjective/noun combinations, the noun normally receives greater stress.

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For example: big DOG, good BOOK, pretty DRESS, nice HOUSE.

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By mistakenly stressing the adjective, you could accidentaly say a compound noun with a completely different meaning.

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For example: You will say "GREENhouse" (invernadero, in Spanish) instead of "green HOUSE" (a house that is painted with the color green).

Or, you will say "BLUEbird" (a specific type of bird) instead of "blue BIRD" (a bird that is the color blue).

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Possible pronunciation problems

You may place the stress on the wrong word and change the meaning of your statement. For example:

• "It's in the dark ROOM" would sound like "It's in the DARKroom." (cuarto de revelado, in Spanish).