An Introduction to French Pronunciation

Stress 51
9.5.4 An utterance such as c’est impossible! can therefore,
in terms of emphatic stress, be pronounced (even not allowing
for cases where the consonant is not lengthened) in at least
three ways, viz. [sεt h'p:bsibl], [sεt 'ʔhpbsibl], [sε't:hpbsibl].
9.5.5 It should be noted that the use of an emphatic stress
is not something exceptional: a high proportion of rhythmic
groups have one in ordinary speech. Furthermore, the emphatic
stress is appreciably stronger than the normal stress
which, as we have seen (9.4.1), is relatively weak in French as
compared with English and many other languages. Consequently,
it is emphatic stress rather than normal stress that
a foreigner – especially if he or she has a relatively strong
normal stress in his or her own language – is particularly
likely to notice when listening to French.
9.6 Contrastive Stress in French
9.6.1 The simplest type of contrastive stress (which we also
indicate by [']) is that in which there is an explicit contrast
between syllables, each of which is stressed, e.g.:
Il n’arrive pas mardi, il arrive jeudi.
/il nariv pa 'mardi, il ariv 'ʒødi/
Vous avez dit ‘réception’ ou ‘déception’?
/vuz ave di 'resεpsjf u 'desεpsjf/
In the case of final syllables of a rhythmic group, this means
giving added stress to the normally stressed syllable, e.g.:
Il est francophile | plutôt que francophobe.
/il ε freko'fil | plyto k freko'fbb/.
9.6.2 Where there is no overt phonetic contrast (as in the
cases dealt with in 9.6.1) but a contrast between two phonetically
unrelated words or, rather, between the ideas they
express, this is often indicated by intensifying the stress on
the normally stressed syllable, e.g.: