English Memory Vocabulary and Word Stress

Asked whether she has a good memory, Katie starts with "Er nor bad. Not bad", then talks herself out of it: "I forget silly things." Birthdays are the worst — "I need reminding about twenty seven times". Donnie writes his daily tasks on paper to refresh his memory, and mentions someone from his school who lost everything after a traffic accident. That's the opening of this episode: two people admitting how patchy memory really is, in ordinary, unscripted English.

What you'll hear in this episode

The first conversation is between Katie and Donnie. They cover being absent minded — Katie describes hunting for her things while they were setting up to record — needing to be reminded, and total amnesia after a head injury. Katie says she remembers things that have some personal significance, but facts from an interesting book "just go in one ear and out the other". For an exam she has to revise it "again and again and again…before…it'll stick", and she admits that chanting something in a rhythm helps her, complete with a burst of "de da de da de da" and laughter at her own "think head".

The second listening task is a gap-fill built from short clips with Hannah and Katie. You'll hear one speaker say she has read about many techniques for improving her memory, "but I'll have to write them down otherwise I'll forget them all". Another describes learning times tables by repetition while stuck in a bedroom as a child, and it "did work". There's a memorable near-drowning in a harbour after a few drinks, a mother so forgetful that one of her child's first words was "Where are my keys?", a brain overload at work, and the song Unforgettable, remembered from a nanna's house. One speaker admits she likes to reminisce about Thailand, then adds: "you should just enjoy where you are at that moment in time".

Quick facts

Detail	Information
Episode	3.25 – Memory
Pack	Vocabulary and Pronunciation 3
Level	3
Length	18 minutes 22 seconds
New words and phrases	Fifteen, on memory, remembering and forgetting
Speakers heard	Katie, Donnie and Hannah

What you'll learn

After each conversation there's a meaning and pronunciation task: we ask a question, you answer if you can, then repeat after the beep. The pronunciation points are small and very specific. We don't say the /t/ at the end of absent, so absent minded runs together. The -tion ending in repetition is /ʃən/. The -able ending in memorable and unforgettable is /əbəl/, not "able". Refresh is drilled as /f/ /r/ /fr/ so the consonant cluster doesn't collapse, chant starts with /tʃ/, and revise takes its stress on the second syllable.

The listening work is just as concrete. In Task 2 the target words are replaced by beeps and you guess before hearing the real version — good training for predicting vocabulary from context rather than waiting to catch every syllable. You'll also pick up the natural machinery of unrehearsed speech: self-correction ("no, I'm lying, because I remember talking about this before"), vague fillers, and the way a speaker signals a whole idea with a set phrase like in one ear and out the other or information overload.

Vocabulary from the workbook

The glossary gives all fifteen items with phonetics. A few of them:

absent-minded (adjective) – forgets things easily. Katie uses it about herself twice.
to refresh your memory (phrase) – make someone remember something, help someone remember something. Donnie's paper-and-pencil list.
amnesia (noun) – an illness that makes you forget things, it is often caused by a serious knock on the head.
to revise (verb) – to study something again so that you fully understand it and can remember it, especially for an exam or test.
to chant (verb) – to say, shout or sing a word or phrase many times without a break. The audio notes that football crowds chant a team's name too.
to reminisce (verb) – look back and think about / talk about things from the past that you enjoyed or liked or miss.
to overload – too much information, as in information overload.

Inside the workbook

The workbook for 3.25 has the full transcript of both conversations, including the beeped version and the answers side by side, so you can read exactly what was said and check the words you guessed. Then there are three practice sections. Practice 1 gives five sentences where only one option works, so you have to separate remind from refresh, revise from reminisce, and forgetful from absent minded. Practice 2 is word order: rebuild sentences such as I just need to refresh my memory and Which memory techniques do you use? Practice 3 is pronunciation — sort eleven words into six stress patterns, from ◦ ● for remind to ◦ ◦ ● ◦ ◦ for unforgettable. A full answer key follows, plus the glossary with phonetic transcriptions.

This workbook is part of the Zapp! English all-in-one pack, which collects the workbooks for every episode across all levels for €39.

Get the complete courseAll workbooks and audio — €39

Common questions

Is the audio scripted?

The conversations are unscripted — that's why you get hesitation, laughter and self-correction. The teaching sections that set up the tasks and give the answers are scripted, so the instructions stay clear.

Is the audio free?

Yes. The English conversations and teaching are free to download. The workbook with the practice exercises and answers comes with the paid pack.

What level is this episode?

Level 3, from the Vocabulary and Pronunciation 3 series.

Do I need the workbook to follow along?

No, the audio works on its own — you can answer out loud and repeat after the beep. The workbook is there if you want the transcript, the gap-fill answers and the stress-pattern exercise.

How long is it?

18 minutes 22 seconds, covering fifteen words and phrases about memory.

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