Talking about monosyllables is nothing new for you, is it? Yes, because as you know, monosyllables are those many words that exist in the Portuguese language made up of only one syllable.
But in addition to this feature, there is one that refers to the intensity by which we pronounce monosyllables, which can be more intense or weaker. So, depending on that form, they rank in unstressed monosyllables and stressed monosyllables. So let's get to know about the characteristics of each one of them, so that we can become more and more real experts in our mother tongue, ok?
Monosyllables are classified into unstressed and tonic
Let's start with tonics first. They, in turn, do not depend on anyone (in a good way, of course). When we say that they are like that, it is because they don't need to rely on any other word to reveal their phonetic value. Just remembering that when it comes to “phonetic” we soon have the idea of dealing with the sound they present, right? Therefore, when we meet them, we remember those little rules of accent, since they are represented as follows:
Those ending in:
-a(s): tea, man, there, here...
-e (s): reverse, faith, foot, see, believe...
-o(s): knot, pity, only, we, dust...
The unstressed monosyllables are not so independent anymore, as they need another little word to support them. So, when that happens, we perceive its sound more than the sound of the monosyllable word itself. Let's meet some of them?
The(s), the(s), me, te, if, him, us, of, in, that, etc.
To make it even clearer, let's see how they present themselves within the prayer:
you are sad for what?
O what I made for you leave it like that?
We notice that in the first example there is a monosyllable that is presented as a tonic (what). In the second, we have two unstressed monosyllables, as "that" and "you" seem to be linked to the verbs "I did" and “let” because when we say the prayer in its entirety, the sound we hear most is exactly theirs, do you agree? Well, that's why they are classified as such.
By Vânia Duarte
Graduated in Letters