What Do We Need to Comfirm Stem?

[ReneZ]

Hello Zhe,

as I am sure you know, English does not really work by tones, but by stress.
However, the tones are very much present. They just have a different function, and the tones for one word may change depending on context (place in the sentence), or other factors, which I would describe as 'emotion'.

A very simple example is the English word 'No'. In most cases, this word has a very distinct tone, but it can be any of the four tones in Mandarin Chinese, and in fact even more, depending on the circumstance.
- Rising (low to high) in case it is a question
- Low or low and falling if it is a curt decision
- Low and slightly rising if it is a tentative decision with an element of doubt
- High if it is like a command
- High and falling is like high, but with more stress (e.g. to repeat a previous No).

This is hardly a consolidated list of course.



With the word 'repeat', the stress is on the second syllable, but the first is not unstressed. In 'repeated' the stress is not changed, but the third syllable is completely unstressed. (Except perhaps in Wales).
The tone of the second syllable in 'repeat' can vary between low(-ish), high(-ish) and high and falling (the one you indicated).
It all very much depends on the speaker as well.