 Hello, I'm John Russell. Do you follow sports? Or perhaps you prefer books? Both of these topics can teach you a lot about pronunciation in American English. I'll explain. In grammar, we talk about compound nouns, two words that come together to carry one meaning. In many cases, the compound noun consists of two nouns, like this. Book is a noun, shelf is a noun. When you put the two together, you get a compound noun, bookshelf, bookshelf. Or consider this example from sports. Foot is a noun, ball is a noun. When you put the two together, you get football, football. You might be asking yourself what this discussion has to do with pronunciation. The answer comes down to stress, saying something louder or in a higher pitch. Americans often stressed the first part, or word, of a compound noun. Like this, bookcase, bookmark, bookstore. Or like this, baseball, ballpark, basketball. Now there are compound nouns that are not spelled as one word. For example, credit card. Still, the same general idea holds true. We stress the first word, credit, credit card. That's all for today. Keep up the good work.