Cover of the textbook Speakout Advanced Plus - Students' Book

The key answer of exercise 4

The key to exercise solutions in chapter 3.1 - Ready or not for the textbook Speakout Advanced Plus - Students' Book with authors Frances Eales and Steve Oakes from Pearson Education

Question

In each phrase in Exercise 3B, mark the word with the main stress. Listen and check. What pattern do you notice?

Answer

*Bold indicates man stress; underlining indicates secondary stress.

  1. I can't think straight.
  2. You needn't bother.
  3. That must have been annoying.
  4. I might have guessed!
  5. Sorry, I've got to go now.
  6. You might as well come in.
  7. It may not be ready.

The pattern is that generally the main or primary stress is on the main content word, here the main verb or (if be) the complement / adjective, and the secondary stress is on the modal verb.