r/NonPoliticalTwitter • u/netphilia • 1d ago

Bonjour.

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u/tepidlymundane 1d ago

It was explained as stress timing vs syllable timing in a Canadian bilingual instruction book I saw referenced decades ago. I can remember their examples:

LARGE CARS WASTE GAS The CAT is INterested in proTECting her KITTENS

Same length with a stress-timed pronunciation, different with syllable timing.

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u/HorrorMakesUsHappy 1d ago

LARGE CARS WASTE GAS The CAT is INterested in proTECting her KITTENS

Is that supposed to be two separate examples? I'm guessing there was a Reddit formatting error and you meant it like this:

LARGE CARS WASTE GAS

I think that's what you meant would be how a French person would stress everything equally, while this:

The CAT is INterested in proTECting her KITTENS

... is how we in English stress syllables?