Strong, and weak forms

Definition : The weak form of a word is a form that may be used when the word has no stress, and which is phonemically distinct from the strong form, used when the word is stressed. The strong form serves as the citation form or the isolation form when a word is mentioned standing alone. A weak form is a word as an unstressed syllable. In some contexts, the strong form may be used even where the word is unstressed. Strong syllables are stressed and weak syllables unstressed

When we talk about weak forms in the phonetics of English this regards a series of words which have one pronunciation (strong) when isolated, and another (weak) when not stressed within a phrase, e.g. The vowel in a weak form is usually the schwa (). Weak forms are pronounced more quickly and at lower volume in comparison to the stressed syllables

The weak forms are present in words which are necessary to construct a phrase yet, at the same time, do not communicate a large quantity of information, in other words, they are not content words. For example in the following phrase: I went to the hotel and booked a room for two nights for my father and his best friend. the most important words, those that are central to the message, can be emphasised: I went to the hotel and booked a room for two nights for my father and his best friend. The words which we emphasised would bear the stress, while many of those which we eliminated would become weak forms, simply because they are less important in the conveyance of the message. Look at the sentence in transcription: /a went t h tel n bkt ru:m f tu: nats f ma f:r n hz best frend/ You will notice that most of the unstressed words are pronounced with the sound // (schwa): prepositions such as to and for, articles a, an and the, and the conjunction and. Auxiliary verbs frequently have weak forms. Remember that a word can have a weak form only when it is unstressed.

While comparing the weak syllables containing vowels with strong syllables, it is obeserved that vowel in a weak syllable tends to be shorter, of lower intensity and different in quality.For example, in the other word " father /f : the second syllable , which is weak is shorter than the first, is less loud and has a vowel that cannot occur in strong vowels.In a word like " bottle" /btl/ the weak second syllable contains no vowel at all, but consists entirely of the consonant.We call this a syllabic consonant.

Common Weak - Strong Words a / am / an / and / are / as / at be / been / but can / could do / does for / from had / has / have / he / her / him / his is must not of / our shall / she / should / some than / that / the / them / there / to us was / we / were / who / would / will you / your

another example: The word and has strong form [nd] and weak forms [nd], [n], [nd], [n]. The word to has strong form [tu], weak form [t] I am French (strong form) I'm French (weak form)

But usually there is no change of spelling, only the pronunciation is different: But strong form: /bt/ weak form: /bt/ strong forms /hm/ /tu:/ weak form: /tel m t g/

Tell him to go

As you can see, the grammatical words "him" and "to" are unstressed and have a weak form when pronounced inside a sentence.