Sentence stress (zinnadruk) in Dutch is used to highlight the most important or new information in a sentence. In Dutch, the focused word receives stronger stress, higher pitch, and longer duration. Compare: IK ben morgen thuis (I — not someone else — will be home tomorrow) versus Ik ben MORGEN thuis (tomorrow — not today or Friday — is when I will be home) versus Ik ben morgen THUIS (at home — not at work or away — is where I will be tomorrow). The stressed word carries the communicative focus.
Contrastive stress (contrastieve nadruk) is used to explicitly contrast two alternatives. Ik hou van KOFFIE, niet van THEE (I like coffee, not tea — both words stressed). Ze is SLIM maar niet HARD (She is clever but not tough — the contrast between the adjectives). This pattern is natural in Dutch debate, argument, and clarification. Overusing stress on every content word sounds unnatural and childlike — reserve it for genuinely new or contrasted information.
Deaccentuation: once information is established (given), Dutch speakers reduce the stress on it in subsequent mentions. Hij kocht een fiets. Hij reed op DE FIETS naar zijn werk (He bought a bike. He rode the bike to work — de fiets is now given information, stress shifts to the new predicate naar zijn werk). Learning to deaccentuate given information and stress new information is one of the key markers of advanced fluency in Dutch. It is also what makes Dutch discourse follow smoothly and logically.