You're confusing stresses and tones. I think if you say the phrase "to buffalo" and "a buffalo", you'll pronounce those words in the same way. It's only when p

You're confusing stresses and tones. I think if you say the phrase "to buffalo" and "a buffalo", you'll pronounce those words in the same way. It's only when putting a sentence together that you'll stress them differently to indicate their usage in that sentence. In tonal languages, you always say the word with the given tone, regardless of context.