Emphatic Stress | English Language for JAMB PDF Download

What Is Emphatic Stress?

The speaker utilizes emphatic stress to highlight the significance or importance of a specific piece of information in their statement. The emphasis is placed on the most crucial element, drawing attention through a heightened intensity or pitch change in the particular word. If we examine the origins of emphatic stress, we find that the term is a combination of two separate words: "emphatic" and "stress." Let's briefly explore these two words. "Emphatic" refers to speaking with emphasis, while "stress" refers to placing special emphasis on something or the relative prominence of a syllable or musical note, particularly concerning stress or pitch. Consequently, it can be concluded that an emphatic expression is one that is delivered with emphasis and stress to convey importance.

Emphatic Stress Questions In Exam

You are likely to encounter emphatic stress questions when taking any of the O'level Exams (such as WAEC, NECO, or NABTEB, including their respective GCE) or JAMB's Use of English exam. This is because understanding the concept of emphasis is crucial for students. When responding to stress questions, there are two key steps you must take to arrive at the correct answer:

• Recognize the word in the question that is stressed.
• Identify the options that do not contain the stressed word you have identified.

How To Identify the Stress Word in the Question

When you are able to correctly identify the stressed word in an emphatic stress question, you are half way getting the correct answer to that question, there are three(3) tricks you can use to recognize the stressed word;
The stressed word may be CAPITALIZED, bolded, or Italicized.

The Stress word may CAPITALIZED (The most Common)

The word that receives emphasis or carries emphatic stress is typically written in capital letters. To illustrate, consider the following statement:

Bukola's UNCLE is a Strict teacher

Now, in the given statement, the word "UNCLE" is the one that carries the stress. How can we determine this? It's actually quite straightforward. In the sentence provided, "UNCLE" is the capitalized word. Therefore, when encountering an emphatic stress question, any word that is CAPITALIZED, just like "Uncle" in the example above, is the stressed word. It's a simple and easy rule to follow.

The Stress Word Could be Bolded

The word carrying the emphasis can also be bold, In situations where you can’t find any word capitalize in the sentence but bold then that should identify the stress word for you, take a look at the example below…

My mother bought a bicycle yesterday 

From the above example, bicycle carries the stress. why because, bicycle is bold word in the sentence above.

The Stress Word can be Italicized

The emphasized word can also be both italicized and bolded, although this is uncommon. However, there are instances where you may encounter questions presented in this format. Take a look at the following example:

Musa is staying in Enugu

The stress word here is staying, simply because it is the word Italicized and bold.

Now, haven been able to identify the stressed word in a given sentence, we will now move to the next phase, which is “Identifying the options that do not carry the stress word”

How To Identify the Answer

Now, let's get to the crux of the matter. When responding to emphatic stress questions, the correct answer is the option that does not include the "stressed word." Let's examine some examples below:

Q1: John's watch is made of GOLD.
(a) Is John's watch made of silver?
(b) Whose watch is made of gold?
(c) What is made of gold?
(d) Is John's necklace made of gold?
Ans: (c)
In this question, the stressed word is "GOLD." The correct answer is option (c) "What is made of gold?" as it does not contain the stressed word.

Q2: The bed is in the room.
(a) What is in the room?
(b) Where is the bed?
(c) Is the bed in the parlour?
(d) What is in the parlour?
Ans: (b)
The stressed word in this question is "bed." The correct answer is option (b) "Where is the bed?" as it does not contain the stressed word.

Q3: The cat DEVOURED the rat?
(a) Did the rat devour the cat?
(b) What devoured the cat?
(c) Did the cat pet the rat?
(d) Is this the rat that the cat devoured?
Ans: (c)
The stressed word in this question is "DEVOURED." The correct answer is option (c) "Did the cat pet the rat?" as it does not contain the stressed word.

Q4: She WORKS at the hospital.
(a) Who works at the hospital?
(b) Where does she work?
(c) Does she work at the hospital?
(d) What does she do at the hospital?
Ans: (d)
The stressed word in this question is "WORKS." The correct answer is option (d) "What does she do at the hospital?" as it does not contain the stressed word.