Professional English - Intermediate - Complaints

Dealing with difficult customers might be difficult. That's why we must be as clear as possible when dealing with this situation. To do so, we have to use the correct sentence stress when dealing with a complaint.

Take a look at the sentence on the right. It would be unnatural if we pronunced all the words the same way. After this slide, listen to an example of the WRONG way of saying it.

That's not the right way of saying it. To make it more natural, we must stress (give emphasis) the right words.

To pronounce it correctly, we have to find the words that carry meaning. These are called 'meaning words'. We have to separate these from words that don't carry meaning. They are called 'grammar words'. Grammar words are there only to connect words of because of grammar rules.

Look at the sentence on the right and analyize it. Look at it. What are the words that carry meaning? Think about it for a minute.

So, as you could see, the words that really carry meaning are 'solution' and 'problem'. Probably, if you simply say to your client - 'solution' and 'problem', they will probably understand what you are saying.

So, now, we can see that the most important words are stressed. We have to give emphasis to this words. Listen to the CORRECT PRONUNCIATION of this sentence, now with the right intonation.

Much better, right? Now that you are aware of it, let's check some sentences. Which are the content words that must be stressed?

We hope you continue enjoying your course. See you!