American English Accent Practice with the TV Show FRIENDS!

If you’re honing your American English accent, this practice session is tailored just for you. We’ll leverage a clip from the TV show Friends to vividly illustrate how the characters embody native speech.

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Video Transcript:

Did Joey get his big break? Let’s find out as we study a scene from the show ‘Friends’ to learn American English pronunciation. We’re going to do an in-depth analysis so you understand everything about what was said and why. Let’s start firs with this scene.  

I got fired.  

Oh! 

They said I acted too much with it.  

I told everybody about this. Now everyone is going to go to the theater expecting to see me.  

Joey, you know what? No one is going to be able to tell.  

My mom will.   

And now, the in-dept analysis.   

I got fired.  

Oh! 

The context of this scene is Joey was cast in a movie, an Al Pacino movie, a famous American Actor and this was feeling like his big break. The role that he had was not actually a role, he was a double for Al Pacino for a shower scene where it was just going to be the back of Joey and so he was calling himself Al Pacino’s butt double, his butt double. Now, he’s been cut. He’s been fired from the movie and here he is, feeling bad for himself.  

I got fired. 

We start off with a simple three-word phrase. The words are not given equal weight. The word ‘fired’ is more stressed and we know that because it’s got a change in pitch. 

I got fired. 

Fired. And this up-down shape of stress is the most common thing we do with our voice to show stress. I and got are on their way up. I got, I got, I got fired. And this stress in this melody is an important part of sounding natural in American English.  

Let’s look at the T here. This is a stop T. The rules for T pronunciations are we make it a stop T if it comes before a consonant. So here, the next word is fired. So rather than saying I got fired with a full T, we say I got, I got, I got. That abrupt stop is the T. We stop the air in out throat. I got, I got fired.  

I got fired. 

If you love this kind of in-depth analysis of American English pronunciation, I really encourage you to check out my online courses at RachelsEnglishAcademy.com. We have one on all sorts of different Hollywood scenes. There are over 50 there to choose from. From movies, from TVs, and in all of them we take a scene, we study it, we do that in-depth pronunciation analysis together. The best part though is each video comes with an audio sound board so you can train your little mini phrases yourself and really get it into your voice.  

You can see it.  

And when you listen in slow motion, it helps you really hear the rhythm, the stress and the linking. So be sure to check out RachelsEnglishAcademy.com. Let’s get back to our scene.  

I got fired. 

Fired. Now the ed ending here or in this case, just a d because fire ends in an e, just adds an extra sound and it’s D so if I was going to write this out in the International Phonetic Alphabet, it would be F consonant, I as in by diphthong, fire, then schwa R and we’re adding a d for past tense. Fired.   

Fired.  

Oh!  

Everyone is disappointed, making disappointed noises, up-down shape of stress. Oh.  

Oh!  

Yeah. They said I acted too much with it.  

So we got some up-down shape of stress, some melody there. Yeah, a little on there, yeah. They said I, a little one there. They said I acted too much with it. Acted our verb has most stress in this phrase.  

Yeah. They said I acted too much with it. 

This idea of some words being stressed and longer and more important and some words being unstressed and faster and less important, this idea is what makes up the rhythm of American English, we don’t have every syllable being the same length but we have varied length.  

Yeah. They said I acted too much with it. 

And it’s said pretty quickly because of those unstressed words being so fast. They said I. They is not pronounced ‘they’, It’s pronounced they, they, fast, simple. They said I, they said I, they said I.   

They said I– 

They said I acted too much with it. 

Also, everything links together really smoothly. The D links right into the I diphthong for I, so said I, said I. Sounds like you can almost hear the word ‘die’ in there. Die, die, die, said I, said I, said I, because of the linking and that’s an important characteristic of American English. Smoothness, linking words together. They said I. Practice just that. See if you can really simplify your mouth movements. They said I, they said I.  

They said I– 

They said I acted too much with it. 

Acted too much. Acted. Acted. So here we have ah as in bat vowel in our stressed syllable and he’s really bringing that out. Ah, ah, acted, acted.  

Acted– 

To bring even more stress to that word. The ed ending here, adds an extra syllable, it’s ih as in sit D, so the ed ending is different, we have three different cases. I do have a series of YouTube videos on those different cases so you know exactly how to pronounce the ed ending, I’ll link to the playlist in the video description  

Acted– 

acted too much with it. 

Do you hear how ah is higher? Acted to. The second syllable and the word ‘to’, they are lower in pitch, they are unstressed. Acted too much with it. Then again we end with two unstressed words.  

 acted too much with it. 

Lower and said more quickly, with it, with it, with it. So we do have an unvoiced th here but don’t put too much pressure into it, tt. It’s actually relaxed especially because it’s an unstressed word. With it, with it, with it. It’s very fast.  

The T at the end is a stop t so I said before, we make a t a stop t when the next sound is a consonant but we also make it a stop t at the end of a phrase. Not always but often. So he doesn’t say with it. He says with it. With it, it. And that abrupt stop is the stop T.    

with it. 

Acted too much with it. I do want to talk about this word, ‘too’ because it’s different than this word, ‘to’. Because this word often reduces. This one never reduces, we never change the sounds. So it’s always pronounced true t and the u vowel too, too, too. Too much with it.  

Too much with it. 

I told everybody about this. 

And everyone laughs. The reason why this is funny is because he didn’t have any lines. He was I think playing a dead person in a hospital or a person who was unconscious in a coma.  

I told everybody about this. 

Okay now, he’s feeling a lot of emotion here and that means his stressed syllable is even more stressed. Listen to this phrase. And listen for where is there the most energy, the highest pitch, that up-down shape. Where do you hear that?  

I told everybody about this. 

Ev. And he even gives us a hand gesture so we know for sure. Now the reason why I’m talking so much about stress is because I want you to really understand that it is important in American English that you give variation to your syllable length. Do not make every syllable the same length.  

I told everybody about this. 

I told everybody about this. So, just like up here when I got was going up in pitch. I told we’re going up towards our stressed syllable ah, everybody about this.  

everybody about this. 

I told everybody about this. He even does a little break here to attack the eh vowel a little bit more, eh, eh. I told everybody  

I told everybody– 

Let’s just look at this word really quickly. It looks like it’s pronounced ever-e. But actually forget this letter e, just put the r right with the v, evry, every, everybody.   

everybody– 

Practice that with Joey. Everybody.  

everybody– 

Everybody about this. A little bit about of that up-down shape of stress there but everything links together. Everybody uh. They Y which is an e vowel linking right into the first vowel of about which is the schwa. Everybody about this.  

Everybody about this. 

About this. About. Just a tiny little lift there, a tiny little break for the stop T because the next sound is a consonant, it’s the voiced th sound. All these symbols that I’m writing are the International Phonetic Alphabet. It’s how we can write a symbol for a sound because in American English, the letters don’t correspond directly with the sounds. One letter could be pronounced five different ways. So that’s why we use the International Phonetic Alphabet also called the IPA.  

About this–  

Now everyone’s going to go to the theater expecting to see me.  

Sort of a long phrase, so many words linked together said quickly. I mean look at these words. He says them so fast 

Now everyone’s going to go to the theater–  

Now everyone’s going to go to the theater. So we have stress on ev. Now everyone’s going to go to the theater.  

Now everyone’s going to go to the theater– 

expecting to see me. 

Go to the theater expecting to see me. So even though it’s fast, we do have some words, some syllables that are a little bit longer with this up-down shape of stress and that’s what makes it so that we can understand because we feel that rhythm, we feel that stress. Let’s look at some reductions and all of the linking that’s happening here.   

Now everyone’s going to go to the theater expecting to see me. 

Now everyone’s going to go to the theater. Now everyone’s going to go. I notice here that I left out a word, let’s add it. It’s going to go to the theater. That means we need to erase this little stress mark that’s not right anymore. And neither is this one. So, we said before the stress was on go and the, the first syllable there. When I listened again I realized well, of course he’s saying gonna because that’s such a common reduction but gonna is a reduction of going to not just going. So, part of how he’s saying this quickly is by putting in reductions. Such a common part of spoken English even in formal situations we use reductions. Maybe not always gonna but when we see the to reduction that we’ll study, that happens even in the most formal settings, the to reduction. Many happen all the time when we’re speaking.   

Now everyone’s going to go to the theater–  

Now everyone’s going to go to the theater. Now everyone’s gonna. Now everyone’s gonna. Now everyone’s gonna. Notice how low his pitch is. It’s probably lower than you naturally speak when you’re speaking American English. Try to match his pitch. Now everyone’s gonna. Now everyone’s gonna. Notice what muscles you need to relax in your neck and your body to say it that lowly. Now everyone’s gonna. Now everyone’s gonna. Remember, it’s not every but it’s ev-ry. So pretend that the e is not there, we just go right from the v into the r. Now, everyone’s gonna, the apostrophe s here is a really light z sound. Now everyone’s gonna. Now everyone’s gonna. 

Now everyone’s gonna–  

Now everyone’s going to go to the theater– 

Now everyone’s going to go to the theater. Go the the theater, go to the theater, go to the. Do you notice that this doesn’t sound like to? Go to, go to. That’s a flap t which I rate with the d and then the vowel here is an ooh but it’s uh, uh, the schwa, go to, go to, go to. Very common reduction. It helps make that smoother, that transition between words it helps link the words go to, go to, go to the, go to. So we definitely don’t want to the, but we want go to, go to, go to. So the word ‘the’ is also not super clear, it’s also low in pitch, flatter, low in volume. So, stress go and then back off of ‘to’ and ‘the’, go to the, go to the, go to the, go to the. See how much you can relax when doing that over and over. The more you do it, the more you repeat it, the more you’ll be able to relax while doing it. Go to the.  

go to the theater– 

Go to the theater. Theater, theater. So he’s also making this a flap t, it’s not theater which is sort of what it looks like but he’s saying Thee-thur. So, unvoiced th e,e,e,e, and then a flap t schwa r. Theater, theater. Go to the theater. Go to the theater. This word is tricky, I’m not going to lie, I mean that unvoiced th is hard, the r in American English is hard so slow it down, theater. Practice that flap, hold out your r. If you’re doing it really quickly and you’re not quite getting it, that’s not going to help. Slow it down, think through the mouth position, get all of those sounds in order before you speed it up. It might take you a week or practicing that word. Theater. To feel like you get it. So take that week. Might as well make the word perfect.  

go to the theater– 

Expecting to see me. 

Expecting to. You know what? Shame on me. My accent mark here is very lazy. Expect. We have stress on the second syllable there. Not the first syllable expecting, expecting to. This is another case where the word ‘to’ is pronounced with a flap t and a schwa, expecting to. It’s just like an extra syllable at the end of the word before expecting to.  

Expecting to see me– 

I mean, it’s even kind of hard to hear isn’t it? It’s not that clear. It’s very fast. Expecting to, expecting to, expecting to.  

Expecting to see me– 

This t is not very clear either. Expecting, expect. It’s almost like a very light d but at any rate it’s said very quickly. The place where the length of that word happens is on the stressed vowel. E, expecting, expecting. The letter x here is making two different sounds, K and S. The first vowel is expecting, expecting to, expecting to.  

Expecting to see me– 

Expecting to see me. See. Notice how this word has length. It feel longer. We’re not rushing by it. See, it’s our verb, one of our most important words. Expecting to see me. We also put some length on me because Joey, he is the reason why people that know Joey are going to watch this movie. They want to see Joey.  

Expecting to see me, and– 

Expecting to see me and. Really quick and at the end, it’s just quick schwa n, we don’t make D at all, we reduce the vowel. See me and, see me and.  

see me, and– 

Joey 

Joey, first syllable stress on his name Joey, and the whole thing has that up and then down shape of stress, Joey. Joey. Joey. Joey. Uhhhuhuh. It’s not flat, Joey, Joey, Joey, Joey, Joey, Joey. But Joey, Joey. The difference between Joey. Flat and Joey, same length but with that up down shape, the difference is Joe-, that one is easy for us to understand. The one with much pitch difference is hard for us to understand. We need that pitch change, that up-down shape to understand. Joey.  

Joey– 

You know what?  

Joey, you know what? You know what? So here it’s a question and sometimes with questions with certain kinds of questions the pitch goes up. You know what? And that’s what she’s doing here. You know, you know, you know what? You know what? Stop T at the end. Why? Because it’s at the end of the phrase.  

You know what? 

So linked together, so smooth. See if you can imitate that.  

You know what? 

No one is going to be able to tell.  

No one. So here she’s stressing no, no one and it’s going up. No one, and then it starts to come down. Is going to be able to tell.  

No one is going to be able to tell. 

One thing I’ve noticed with my students when they’re working on their American accent is this pitch change starting low going high, coming back down. It’s not comfortable. They want to make it much smaller. No one. No one. They kind of want to do it like that. No one. And I’m often telling them make the pitch more dramatic. That can make it clearer to be understood. So a lot of my students don’t use enough pitch variation because it feels uncomfortable but sometimes more pitch variation would make them easier to understand.  

No one is going to be able to tell. 

No one, no one. And she does a little tiny break there. No one. Make sure you link those together. No one is going to be able, is going to be, is going to be. Going to becomes gonna. There’s a little bit of stress on the first syllable of gonna, go, go, go, go, gonna, gonna. But not much. It’s not a very stressed syllable. Is gonna, it’s gonna, is gonna be, is gonna be, gonna be. So make that smoothly, quickly and the s in is is a z. is, is, is gonna be, is gonna be.    

No one is going to be–  

No one is going to be to- 

Is going to be able to. Is going to be able to. So the first syllable of able, the ei diphthong, that gets some length, some up-down shape. Is going to be able. Is going to be able to, able to. Another case where to word to becomes a flap t schwa. So, this vowel ooh almost always changes to the schwa in this word. The t sometimes is a flap t, sometimes is a true t. It’s pretty common to make it a flap t like here when the sound before is a vowel or is voiced. So here, the sound before is a dark l. Able. That’s a voiced consonant able to. So it’s common to flap the t there. Able to, able to, able to tell. And tell starts with a true t. Able to. Able to tell. The word tell also ends in a dark L. You know you’re confused about what the heck is a dark L. It actually is pretty confusing and I have a whole video on it. If you go to the sounds playlist on my channel, you’ll be able to find a video about the dark L. You’ll also be able to find a video about T that will go over all the different T’s. True T, stop T, flap T  

is going to be to tell.  

My mom will.  

My mom. So stressing mom, of course the most important person. I’m just saying that because I’m a mom. Just kidding. My mom will, and drifting off but smooth. That doesn’t sound like three separate words smoothly connected. My mom will. Also this ends in a dark L. The L at the end of a word is a dark L.  

My mom will. 

And of course, this is funny because why would Joey’s mom still know what his butt looks like.  

My mom will. 

Let’s watch the whole scene one more time, side by side with the analysis.  

I got fired.  

Oh!  

Yeah. They said I acted too much with it.  

I told everybody about this.  

Now everyone’s going to go to the theater expecting to see me, and… 

Joey, you know what?  

No one is going to be able to tell.  

My mom will.  

Let’s look at that one more time, this time we’ll play the scene in slow motion so that you can really hear the pitch change and all the linking.  

I got fired.  

Oh!  

Yeah. They said I acted too much with it.  

I told everybody about this.  

Now everyone’s going to go to the theater expecting to see me, and… 

Joey, you know what?  

No one is going to be able to tell.  

My mom will. 

My students who work with these kinds of lessons really improve their listening comprehension quickly and in Rachel’s English Academy, I have 50 or 60 different scenes from TV and movies where we do in-depth analyses like the one you saw here and in addition to that analysis video, we also have audio training. My students use this training, use these sound boards to get this new way of speaking that they have just learned in the video into their bodies, into their own accents. If this sounds like fun to you, please check out RachelsEnglishAcademy.com. And for now, please subscribe with that notification bell on so you never miss a video. Keep your learning now with this video, I love being your English teacher. That’s it and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.  

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