The three rhythm rules, the pronunciation track, the general vocabulary bank, and every grammar term by name so you can look it up yourself.
| Stressed (content) | Squeezed (function) |
|---|
| nouns · main verbs · adjectives · adverbs · question words · numbers |
articles · prepositions · pronouns · auxiliary verbs · conjunctions |
| client, ticket, invoice, curtain · push, deploy, finish · ready, blocked, urgent · quickly, today, already · what, when, why · three, thirty |
a, an, the · for, to, at, about, on · I, you, he, it, we · am, is, have, will, do · and, but, because, so |
| Term | What it means | Example | Learned |
|---|
| noun | Names a person, thing or idea. | client, curtain, deadline | 003 |
| main verb | The action verb that carries the meaning. | push, send, deploy | 003 |
| adjective | Describes a noun. | ready, blocked, urgent | 003 |
| adverb | Describes how or when something happens. | quickly, already, today | 003 |
| pronoun | Replaces a noun. | I, you, it, we | 003 |
| preposition | Shows a relationship of place, time or direction. | for, to, at, about, on | 003 |
| article | a, an, the before a noun. | a ticket, the client | 003 |
| indefinite article | a / an — the listener does not know which one yet. | I'll send you a mock-up. | 004 |
| definite article | the — only one exists, or it is already mentioned. | The price list on every page. | 004 |
| countable noun | Can be counted, so it takes a / an in the singular. | a page, a category | 004 |
| conjunction | Joins two ideas. | and, but, because, so | 003 |
| word class (part of speech) | The family a word belongs to. | quickly is an adverb | 003 |
| content word | Meaning word — it gets stressed. | CALLing, WEBsite | 003 |
| function word | Grammar word — it gets squeezed. | about, the, for | 003 |
| auxiliary verb | Helper verb that carries the grammar. | have in I've finished | 002 |
| past simple | Finished action at a stated time. | I finished it yesterday. | 002 |
| present perfect | have + past participle, no time stated. | I've finished the page. | 002 |
| present perfect continuous | have been + -ing; started then, still going. | I've been working since Monday. | 003 |
| past participle | Third form of a verb, used after have. | finished, pushed, gone | 002 |
| base form | Dictionary form; used after didn't and to. | didn't finish, to send | 002 |
| contraction | Two words written and spoken as one. | I've, he's, haven't | 002 |
| tense | When the action happens, marked on the verb. | present, past, future | 002 |
| gerund | The -ing form used as a noun. | Testing takes time. | coming |
| infinitive | to + base form. | to deploy, to test | coming |
| modal verb | can, could, should, will, would — possibility and politeness. | Could you send it? | coming |
| conditional | An if-sentence. | If you do that, it takes two more days. | coming |
| relative clause | A describing clause with who, that or which. | the page that has the price list | coming |
| passive voice | The action matters, not the doer. | The site was deployed on Friday. | coming |
| Term | What it means | Example | Learned |
|---|
| syllable | One beat of a word, built on one vowel sound. | BLOCK-er (two), SCOPE (one) | 002 |
| word stress | The one syllable in a word that is longer and louder. | DEADline, dePLOY | 002 |
| sentence stress | The words in a sentence that get hit. | CALLing…WEBsite | 003 |
| stress-timed | English rhythm: stressed syllables land at even intervals. | “im CALLing abou-the ZAIRA WEBsite” | 003 |
| syllable-timed | Every syllable roughly equal — Hindi and Indian English. | “AA-bout THE ZAI-ra WEB-site” | 003 |
| weak form | A function word said with a reduced vowel. | for → fer | 003 |
| schwa /ə/ | The lazy “uh” — the most common sound in English. | the a in about | 003 |
| linking | Joining the end of one word to the start of the next. | call it → callit | 003 |
| glide (/j/, /w/) | A small y or w grown between two vowel sounds. | you at → you-w-at | 003 |
| flap T | American quick tap for t between two vowels. | better → bedder | 003 |
| elision | A sound that disappears in fast speech. | next week → nex week | 003 |
| minimal pair | Two words differing in exactly one sound. | very / well, video / widow | 001 |
| accent | How a whole variety of English sounds. | Indian English, American English | 003 |
| native-like | The features that make speech land the first time. | rhythm, weak forms, linking | 003 |
| aspiration | The puff of air after p, t, k at the start of a stressed syllable — and never after /s/. | page, price, code · but not scope, stop, staging | 004 |
| allophone | A sound variant that does not change a word's meaning in that language. | aspiration is allophonic in English, contrastive in Hindi | 004 |
| intonation | The music of a sentence — rising or falling. | Is this a good time? (rising) | coming |
| vowel length | Short versus long vowel pairs. | ship / sheep, full / fool | coming |
Bring this to the next session. The last column and the “hardest sentence” notes decide lesson 005.