Topic-081: Words in Connected Speech Words can have two possible forms weak and strong. In other words, one of the two possible pronunciations fora word in the context of connected speech is strong and the other is weak. The strong form is the result of a word being stressed (e.g., I want bacon and eggs vs. I want bacon and eggs – where the stress is on AND in order to emphasize it. The notion is also used for syntactically conditioned alternatives, such as your book vs. the book is yours. On the other hand, the weak form is that which is the result of a word being unstressed as in the normal pronunciation of OF in cup of tea, and inmost other grammatical (closed form of) words. Several (closed class/function) words in English have more than one weak form (e.g. and [ænd] can bend, n, n, etc.
