Which feature of sentence stress indicates what the speaker regards as important in a sentence by making it longer, higher, or louder?

• A. Prominence
• B. Stress
• C. Intonation
• D. Rhythm

Answer: (A)

Focusing on prominence is how we show what’s important in a sentence. When we want a listener to notice a particular idea, we give that word extra salience by making it longer, raising its pitch, and/or speaking it louder. That combination creates a standout point in the sentence—that standout point is called prominence.

Intonation is about the overall pitch movement across an utterance, not specifically marking which word is most important. Rhythm is the pattern of timing and stress across the sentence, giving the beat or flow, but not the act of signaling importance by length, height, or volume. Stress refers to emphasis in general, but the specific feature that indicates importance through noticeable emphasis on a word is prominence.