You say a word with every sound correct, and still the listener looks puzzled. Very often the problem is stress. In English, one syllable in each longer word is stronger than the others, and if you put the beat in the wrong place, the word can become hard to recognise. In this episode: • Word families move the stress • The same word as noun and verb • Compound nouns and endings that pull stress • British stress that differs from american • An invented scene • Practice • Self-check questions with answers Key phrases from this episode: photograph (FOH-tuh-grahf) — a picture taken with a camera photography (fuh-TOG-ruh-fee) — the hobby or skill photographic (foh-tuh-GRAF-ik) — connected with photos photographer (fuh-TOG-ruh-fuh) — the person who takes them a record (REK-awd) — I found an old record in the loft to record (ri-KAWD) — Can you record the match for me? a present (PREZ-unt) — a birthday present for Nan to present (pri-ZENT) — She'll present her project on Monday a project (PROJ-ekt) — a school project about rivers to project (pruh-JEKT) — to show a picture on a wall a greenhouse (GREEN-hows) — a glass building for growing plants a green house (green HOWS) — a house that is painted green the washing machine (WOSH-ing muh-sheen) — it's finished, can you empty it? the bus stop (BUS stop) — I'll meet you at the bus stop a toothbrush (TOOTH-brush) — your toothbrush is by the sink the dishwasher (DISH-wosh-uh) — load the dishwasher, please the car park (KAH-pahk) — the car park at the supermarket is full a bedroom (BED-room) — go and tidy your bedroom Real British English: the complete spoken course for learners worldwide — modern British accent, everyday grammar, phrasal verbs, idioms, slang, he/she/it for things, and real conversations at home. Listen, repeat out loud, then take the 52-question quiz. Audio voiced with AI from an original script by Dr. Rashmi R Nair.