English Speaking Practice: Compound Nouns and Descriptive Phrases

One of the keys to sounding more natural in your spoken English is mastering the rhythm of the language. There are patterns for pronouncing certain types of words and phrases. Learning these can really help you in perfecting your fluency and flow. In this lesson, we'll practice speaking compound nouns and descriptive phrases- two very common combinations!

Key takeaways:

1) Your rhythm, the words you choose to emphasize and those you let fall to the background, is key to sounding mo natural in your spoken English. Certain types of words and phrases follow patterns and it's helpful to know these.

2) With compound nouns like airplane, ice cream, and six-pack, you always want to emphasize the first word.

3) In descriptive phrases with one adjective describing a noun, like red dress and cute puppy, your emphasis falls on the noun. If you have 2 adjectives describing a noun, like big old house, you make what I call a "stress sandwich," with emphasis on the first adjective and the noun.