Lessons · Unit 4, lesson 7

Long words & the weak vowel: banana, photography

The hardest band: longer words where most syllables collapse into the weak ə. Find the stressed syllable on the sheet first, say it strong, and let everything else go small and grey: buh-NA-nuh. Compare photograph and photography — the stress moves, and every vowel changes with it.

Now say it yourself

Read each word from its sheet, out loud, three times. Where there's a play button, listen first and copy what you hear. Slow is fine — clear beats fast.

You just read the hardest words in the course. Everything left is about sentences, not words — rhythm, weak forms, and flow.