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Stress and Intonation

britdam007

britdam007

India

I have a pretty major food allergy.



Should we stress the Adverb(pretty) or the Adjective(major)?


Can you provide a set of rules for the parts of speech in English? coz for us non-native speakers, we get confused everytime we see them in a speech or a sentence , if you know what I mean?

11:25 AM Feb 19 2013 |

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Teacher AmySuper Member!

United States

As I have mentioned before, in most cases you give the adverb and adjective the same stress. You would only stress one more if you wanted to emphasize that aspect of the meaning. If someone had mentioned they had a minor food allergy, you might say, “Well, I have a pretty MAJOR food allergy.” If someone asked how major your allergy was, you might say, “Well, it’s PRETTY major.”


—Amy

06:09 PM Feb 20 2013 |