Sunday Morning: Weekly Review & Top Words
Good morning! 🌅 It’s Sunday — the perfect day to review what you’ve learned this week and celebrate your progress. Today we lock in the best words, practice pronunciation, and look ahead to next week.
This Week’s Top 5 Words
You covered a lot of ground from July 13–19. Here are the five words worth keeping forever:
| # | Word | IPA | Vietnamese | Topic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | inference | /ˈɪn.fər.əns/ | suy luận | AI & ML |
| 2 | articulate | /ɑːrˈtɪk.jʊ.lət/ | rõ ràng, mạch lạc | Professional Comm |
| 3 | leverage | /ˈlev.ər.ɪdʒ/ | đòn bẩy / tận dụng | Career & Growth |
| 4 | spontaneous | /spɒnˈteɪ.ni.əs/ | tự nhiên, bột phát | Social English |
| 5 | scalability | /ˌskeɪ.ləˈbɪl.ɪ.ti/ | khả năng mở rộng | Architecture |
Tip: Say each word aloud right now. If one feels awkward, that’s your word to focus on today.
Word of the Day: consistent
IPA: /kənˈsɪs.tənt/ Vietnamese: nhất quán, kiên định Part of speech: adjective
Consistency is the secret ingredient that turns good habits into great skills.
Three examples in context
- Daily practice: “The key to fluency is consistent practice — even 15 minutes a day adds up.”
- Code quality: “Our team maintains consistent code style using ESLint and Prettier across every repository.”
- Communication: “He’s known for consistent communication with stakeholders — never a surprise in sprint reviews.”
Quick usage note
- ✅ “She gives consistent feedback every week.” (reliable, predictable — positive)
- ✅ “The results were consistent with our hypothesis.” (matched, aligned)
- ❌ “He’s very consistently.” — Remember: consistently is the adverb form.
🔗 Cambridge Dictionary — consistent 🔊 YouGlish — hear native speakers say “consistent”
Phrases Recap: Top 5 Most Useful This Week
These phrases come up constantly in tech workplaces. Review them now — they’ll serve you for years.
| Phrase | When to Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| touch base | Check in briefly with someone | ”Let’s touch base on Friday before the demo.” |
| take ownership | Accept full responsibility for a task | ”I’ll take ownership of the deployment checklist.” |
| break the ice | Start a conversation in an awkward/new situation | ”I broke the ice by asking about their tech stack.” |
| circle back | Return to a topic later | ”Good question — let me circle back on that after the meeting.” |
| hit the ground running | Start fast and productively | ”The new engineer hit the ground running — her first PR was merged on day two.” |
Challenge: Which of these have you used in real life this week? Even one is a win.
Pronunciation Challenge
Read this sentence aloud 3 times, clearly and at a natural pace:
“I consistently leverage my scalable architecture experience to articulate technical decisions to stakeholders.”
What to watch for:
- consistently → /kənˈsɪs.tənt.li/ — stress on the second syllable: con-SIS-tent-ly
- leverage → /ˈlev.ər.ɪdʒ/ — two syllables: LEV-er-idge (not “lee-ver-age”)
- scalable → /ˈskeɪ.lə.bəl/ — SKAY-la-bul
- articulate → /ɑːrˈtɪk.jʊ.lət/ — stress on second syllable: ar-TIK-yoo-lut
🎯 Record yourself once and listen back. Even 30 seconds of self-recording dramatically improves your awareness.
Mini Quiz
Exercise 1: Match the Word to Its Definition
Match each word (left) to its best definition (right):
| Word | Definition |
|---|---|
| A. inference | 1. The ability of a system to handle growing demand |
| B. articulate | 2. A conclusion reached through reasoning or evidence |
| C. leverage | 3. Happening naturally without planning |
| D. spontaneous | 4. To express ideas clearly and effectively |
| E. scalability | 5. To use something to your maximum advantage |
✅ Click to reveal answers
| Word | Answer |
|---|---|
| A. inference | → 2. A conclusion reached through reasoning or evidence |
| B. articulate | → 4. To express ideas clearly and effectively |
| C. leverage | → 5. To use something to your maximum advantage |
| D. spontaneous | → 3. Happening naturally without planning |
| E. scalability | → 1. The ability of a system to handle growing demand |
Score: 5/5 = excellent | 4/5 = solid | 3 or below = review the word list above
Exercise 2: Vocabulary in Context
Translate this paragraph into English using this week’s vocabulary. Try to use at least 4 of the 5 top words.
Vietnamese paragraph:
“Một kỹ sư giỏi không chỉ biết xây dựng hệ thống có khả năng mở rộng, mà còn biết diễn đạt rõ ràng các quyết định kỹ thuật cho stakeholder. Anh ấy tận dụng kinh nghiệm của mình để đưa ra những kết luận suy luận chính xác từ dữ liệu.”
✅ Click for a sample answer
“A great engineer doesn’t just know how to build systems with scalability in mind — they also know how to articulate technical decisions clearly to stakeholders. He leverages his experience to draw accurate inferences from the data.”
Notes:
- “khả năng mở rộng” → scalability
- “diễn đạt rõ ràng” → articulate
- “tận dụng” → leverage
- “suy luận” → inference
Idiom Review: “Stay the Course”
Meaning: To continue with a plan or effort despite difficulties; kiên trì theo đuổi mục tiêu dù gặp khó khăn.
Pronunciation: /steɪ ðə kɔːrs/
Two examples in career and project context
- Career: “The job search has been tough for three months, but she decided to stay the course — and got an offer the following week.”
- Project: “The migration will take another two sprints, but the team is committed to staying the course rather than cutting corners.”
Origin: Originally a horse-racing term — meaning a horse that finishes the full race distance rather than stopping early. Now used broadly for persistence.
Similar expressions: see it through, keep at it, hold steady
Next Week Preview
Here’s what’s coming Monday–Saturday (July 20–26):
| Day | Session | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Morning | Technical English — Programming Concepts |
| Tuesday | Morning | AI Vocabulary — Round 2 (prompting, fine-tuning, RAG) |
| Wednesday | Morning | Architecture — Reliability & Fault Tolerance |
| Thursday | Morning | Professional Communication — Meetings & Facilitation |
| Friday | Morning | Career & Growth — Leadership Vocabulary |
| Saturday | Morning | Social English — Weekend & Travel Phrases |
Next week’s theme: Moving from vocabulary to fluency — using words naturally in sentences, not just knowing their definitions.
Your Sunday Challenge
Pick one word from this week’s top 5 and use it in a real conversation or Slack message today.
For example:
- In a code review: “This approach improves the scalability of our notification system.”
- In a 1:1: “I want to leverage what I learned in Q2 to lead the next architecture review.”
- In a social message: “That was so spontaneous — I loved it!”
Small, real-world usage beats hours of passive study.
Weekly Progress Summary
This week you covered:
- ✅ AI & ML vocabulary (inference, hallucination, embeddings)
- ✅ Architecture concepts (scalability)
- ✅ Professional communication phrases (articulate, touch base, circle back, bandwidth, constructive feedback)
- ✅ Career & growth language (leverage, take ownership, career trajectory, growth mindset)
- ✅ Social English (spontaneous, catch up, no worries, break the ice)
- ✅ Idioms: break the ice, hit the ground running, stay the course
That’s 5 major topics and 20+ vocabulary items in one week. Well done — now stay the course. 💪
Next lesson: Monday Morning — Technical English: Programming Concepts
Part of the Daily English for Tech Professionals series.