In this English pronunciation lesson you’ll come along with me to the drive through. We’ll assess all of the pronunciation aspects of my order and have fun too.
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Let’s analyze real conversation to find out what makes American English sound American and how you can improve your listening comprehension.
In this video, I’m ordering lunch at a drive-thru and yes it’s just as hard for me to understand through the speaker as it is for you.
At the end, I’ll even put in an imitation training section so you can work on mastering the American accent. First, here’s the whole conversation we’ll analyze.
Uhm, we just need one second to decide.
In the meantime do you have any milk.
Yes we do we have white milk and chocolate milk.
I would like non-chocolate, just regular old milk.
Alrighty, anything else?
Yes hold on please. A number one?
You like cheese on it?
No thank you, but extra pickle please.
Alrighty, and what’s the drink with that meal?
Coke.
Would you like that medium size?
Yes anything else for you?
Salt, pepper, ketchup in the bag.
Should we get him a chicken nuggets or something?
Yeah. Uh what else is there?
Alrighty. Anything else for you?
Yeah. Do you see it there?
Yeah maybe a,
Four-piece.
Okay.
A four-piece chicken nuggets for kids.
No we just need,
For what?
What was 20 cents more?
A 10 piece.
10 piece, no. No thank you. We’re just getting it for the baby.
Alrighty. Anything else?
Do we want any fries for him? No right.
Yeah that’s it.
Now let’s do the analysis.
Uh, we just need one second to decide.
Uh, we just need one second to decide. But, I hear the words one and second. Being really stretched out, really stressed. One second. I think I stressed them even more than I normally would and I was speaking louder than I normally would because I was talking to this machine. And these pickup windows and order machines are always a little bit off. You’re not that close to them, they’re not that good. It’s hard to understand what the people are saying to you. And so that makes me want to speak extra clearly. But even though I am trying to be extra clear, I still do some reductions because they’re just so natural.
I’m Rachel and I’ve been teaching the American accent on YouTube for over 15 years. Go to rachelsenglish.com/free to get my free course, The Top Three Ways to Master the American Accent.
Uh, we just need one second to decide.
First, I drop the T in just ,we just need, we do this all the time. We just, when the next word begins with a consonant. Then I also reduce the word to. Second to decide. Tə, tə, tə, tə, schwa.
Second to dec-
Second to decide, but,
In the meantime, do you have any milk?
But. True T, could have made that a stop. I think we tend to make Ts more true Ts rather than stops and flaps when we are speaking into a microphone. In the meantime, do you have any milk? Again, I really make that K sound whereas if I was speaking to somebody in my room who is close by me, I would probably say, “Do you have any milk?” An extremely light release. But here it was milk, overexaggerated.
Milk?
Honestly, I don’t even like fast food., Do you? If so tell me your favorite thing to order and from which restaurant in the comments below. I love reading them.
But, in the meantime, do you have any milk?
Do you have any milk? But, in the meantime, do you have any milk? These are my longer stressed words in this sentence.
But, in the meantime, do you have any milk?
Yes we do we have white milk and chocolate milk.
I would like non-chocolate.
So he says, ‘yes we do, we have white milk and chocolate milk.’ Now, I wasn’t quite sure what he said, white milk? I’m not used to hearing non-chocolate milk described that way. I would maybe have called it plain milk or regular milk, so I wasn’t sure what word he said but that was what I wanted. So I said non-chocolate.
I would like non-chocolate.
I would like non-chocolate. Non-chocolate. Again, longer more stressed. If he had said white milk and had given me a good true tea there, through the microphone through the speaker I probably would have understood. But since he didn’t, I knew that was the one that I wanted, I didn’t want chocolate so I said non chocolate. Let’s look at the word chocolate. Choc-o-late. It looks like it should be three syllables because a vowel or a diphthong is what defines a syllable, but we pronounce this just as two. Chocolate. Chocolate. Chocolate milk.
Chocolate.
Just regular old milk.
Just regular old milk. Okay, so here a couple more reductions, just regular. T coming between two consonants, it’s dropped, just regular old milk. Old. Okay, so I dropped the D in ‘old’. Why did I do that? Sometimes we do this with the word old when we are talking about something that is very normal, very everyday, not fancy, not special, we’ll call it ‘regular old’. Regular old milk. I don’t need something fancy, just give me regular old Budweiser beer for example. Regular old milk.
Regular old milk
Alrighty, anything else?
Yes hold on please.
He says, ‘Alrighty, anything else?’ and I say yes, yes. Up down shape statement. Yes. hold on please. So here I still need to hear what David wants to order. So I need a an extra minute because I don’t know what he wants. So I say hold on please. That’s like saying please wait a second. Hold on and I do a link ending consonant to beginning vowel. Hold on, hold on.
Hold on
Hold on please.
Number one.
A number a number one.
David tells me what he wants, I say, ‘a number one.’ Now notice what my intonation is doing here. A number one. That’s different than my statement ‘yes’. My intonation goes up because I know that we want more than just this. When my intonation goes up, it lets him know that I’m starting a list and I’m not done yet. A number one.
A number one.
Would you like cheese on it?
No thank you.
He says, ‘would you like cheese on it?’ No thank you. So I could have definitely just said no but I think always ‘no thank you’ is more polite. No thank you. All linked together, no thank you. No is the most stressed word there and thank you come into the falling off of the pitch. No thank you.
No thank you.
But can I get extra pickles.
But extra pickle please.
But extra pickle please. So this is interesting. Look, the T comes between two vowel sounds, normally I would make that a flap T. But extra pickle please. I don’t do that here I make it a stop T, and I think that’s because I was trying to be more clear. Now, why didn’t I make it a true T? I don’t know. That would have been the most clear. But I put a little break there, but extra pickle please. Whenever we put a little lift before a word, it adds extra stress to it, but extra pickle please. Extra, but extra. So by putting that little break there. I’m bringing even more stress into the word ‘extra’ and I know David loves his pickles so I want to make sure that they get that he wants extra, he wants more than normal on there.
Now, when David was talking in the background he said, “but can I get extra pickles.” and then I made it singular, ‘but extra pickle please.’ It’s a little strange to do that because if you’re talking about extra something more of something, that kind of implies a plural. But it is also totally normal and uh, very much so a part of everyday speech to leave the plural off in a case like this. Extra pickle please.
But extra pickle please.
Alrighty, and what to drink with that meal?
Coke.
And what to drink with that? Coke. Coke. Again, the up down shape of a stress syllable a statement. Coke.
Coke.
Would you like that medium size?
Yes. Yes would you like that medium size? Yes. Yes. Another up down shape clear statement. Yes.
Yes.
Anything else for you?
Salt pepper ketchup in the bag please.
Salt pepper ketchup in the bag.
Anything else for you? This is always what they’re going to keep asking you after you say what you want until they know you’ve reached the end of your list. David wants to make sure he gets all the condiments he wants so he tells me what to say and I say it back loudly and clearly into the mic. Salt, pepper, ketchup, in the bag. So salt, loud and clear up down shape, pepper, ketchup in the bag uhuhuh.
So, in and the are the only two that were not stressed and even so they were pretty clearly pronounced, in the instead of in the which is how I might normally pronounce it because I’m speaking into a microphone. I do notice I do a stop T here, salt, pepper, that’s not completely normal. It’s fairly common to make the T a true T in a cluster. I mean that’s actually the official rule but I’ve noticed a lot of Americans don’t do that. A lot of Americans still make that a stop T when the next word begins with a consonant.
Salt, pepper, ketchup in the bag.
Should we get him a, chicken nuggets, or something?
Should we get him a, chicken nuggets, or something? Now you can see the tone of my voice has totally changed, it’s much softer and I’m speaking more quickly less clearly. That’s because I’m talking to David who’s right next to me instead of into this machine that’s several feet away from me. Should we get them a, should we get them a. Okay, so I drop the D, the L is always silent but I drop the D, should we, should we. This is really normal in American English. Should we do this? Should we do that? Shu, shu, shu. Should we get them a, should we get them a. So, get is the most stressed there and I end it with a flap T because I’ve dropped the H in him, I’ve made that reduction. So I link get and him with a flap T, should we get him a, should we get him a.
Should we get him a—
chicken nuggets or something?
Chicken nuggets or something? Chicken nuggets or something? Pitch going up because it’s a yes no question. Chicken nuggets. Both of those are stressed syllables, the word or reduced, or something? or something? said very quickly linked on to the next word. Or Something?
Or Something?
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. David says sort of quietly from the back seat, he’s not very close to the microphone. Yeah.
Yeah.
Uh, what else is there?
Alrighty, anything else for you?
Yeah. Do you see it there?
Then I say, ‘Yeah’ very loudly, very clearly. He’s asked me if I want anything else, I say, ‘Yeah’, I do. I do want something else. Yeah.
Do you see it there?
Do you see it there? Do you see it there? Now, my tone is quieter again as I’m talking to David. Do you see it there? Very smooth, all connected, it goes up at the end and intonation because it’s a yes no question. A little bit of stress on ‘see’ and then everything is smooth and connected. Do you see it there? It there? A stop T in it because the next word begins with a consonant sound.
Do you see it there?
Yeah. Maybe uh.
Four piece.
David says, ‘yeah, maybe a,’ and I answered ‘four piece’. I’m finishing his sentence. Four piece, because I know that Stony wouldn’t eat more than that. Four piece. All connected, smooth, smooth intonation.
Four piece.
Okay.
A four-piece chicken nuggets for kids.
Then I say a four-piece, a little break, chicken nuggets. A four- piece chicken nuggets for kids. So, even though I am speaking more clearly than normal, making my stress words even more stressed, I’m still doing some reductions. The word ‘for’ gets reduced to for, for kids, for kids. Because even when I’m trying to be extra clear, I don’t really mess with reductions that much because those aren’t what we need to be clear. It’s the stressed words that need to be clear. So, as those are longer and clearer and more fully pronounced, the reduced words can still be reduced.
A four-piece chicken nuggets for kids.
No we just need.
20 cents.
Okay, then he says something back to me. Who knows what he is saying? It’s a terrible system. I can barely understand. But I know that he’s trying to upsell me. What does that mean? He’s saying if you pay a little bit more, then you get a lot more. David is interested in this.
No, we just need.
I say, no we just need, no we just need, no we just. Drop the T, just need, but in the background, David says, ‘sure.’ He’s like for 20 cents more, why not. So he says, ‘20 cents’ and I say, ‘for what?’ For what? Because I don’t know. I literally could not understand the man through the drive-thru. For what? Reducing for, for what? stop T at the end of what. For what?
For what?
What was 20 cents more?
And I think David doesn’t even know what the guy said. He just knows if it involves more chicken nuggets, he wants it.
So then I say back to the guy into the speaker, ‘What was 20 cents more?’ What was 20 cents more? Again, my intonation goes up at the end, and what? What? was the most stressed word there, most clear. It was the most important word. I was saying I do not know what you said. What? What did you say? What was 20 cents more? With a stop T after what. What was,
What was—
What was. Now, twenty, I dropped the T here. Very common, even in a stressed word, even when you’re trying to be extra clear, twenty becomes tweny, tweny cents.
What’s twenty cents—
More?
A 10-piece.
10-piece? No.
He says a 10-piece and I say 10 piece? Intonation goes up. 10- piece? Smoothly connected.
10-piece?
No. No, thank you.
No. Statement. No, thank you. Now he keeps talking, but at this point I can barely understand him anyway and I know I do not need that many chicken nuggets. So I say no, no, thank you.
No. No, thank you.
We’re just getting it for, for the baby.
We’re just getting it for, for the baby. We’re just getting it, just getting it. Connecting that with no T makes a smoother transition. We’re just getting it. Stop T, for. I’m thinking about what exactly to say.
We’re just getting it—
for the, for the baby.
For the, for the, for, for, for, for. The word for, reduced both times. Just the schwa, so, the fr sound, fr, fr, fr, fr, for the baby. For the baby. Smoothly connected, smooth change of pitch.
For the, for the baby.
Alrighty. Anything else?
Yeah, that’s it.
So he says, ‘anything else?’ and I discussed a couple things with David. We decided no, so I go yeah that’s it. Now, this is a little bit strange because if the question was anything else and the answer is no, I think my saying, yeah was growing out of something that David and I had just been talking about deciding do we want this, saying you know I think we’re all done ordering, yeah, yeah we’re all done ordering. Yeah that’s it. So that’s it means nothing more, I’m done ordering. That’s it. That’s it. Smoothly connected, stress on that and a stop T at the end of it. That’s it. Yeah, that’s it.
Yeah, that’s it.
Let’s listen to the whole drive-thru order one more time.
Uh, we just need one second to decide.
But, in the meantime, do you have any milk?
I would like non-chocolate. Just regular old milk.
Yes. Hold on, please. A number one.
No thank you.
But extra pickle please.
Coke. Yes.
Salt, pepper, ketchup in the bag.
Should we get him a, chicken nuggets, or something?
Yeah. Do you see it there?
Four piece. A four-piece chicken nuggets for kids. No, we just need. For what? What was 20 cents more?
10 piece?
No. No thank you. We’re just getting it for… for the baby.
Yeah that’s it.
In this training section you’ll hear each sentence fragment twice in slow motion then three times at regular pace. Each time, there will be a pause for you to speak out loud. Imitate exactly what you hear. Do this training twice a day, every day this week and see how the conversation flows at the end of the week.
Uh, we just need one second to decide.
But,
in the meantime do you have any milk?
I would like
Non-chocolate
Just regular old milk.
Yes. Hold on, please.
A number one.
No thank you.
But extra pickle please.
Coke.
Yes.
Salt, pepper, ketchup in the bag.
Should we get him a…
chicken nuggets or something?
Yeah.
Do you see it there?
Four piece.
A four-piece
chicken nuggets
for kids.
no we just need.
For what?
What was 20 cents more?
10-piece? No.
No thank you.
We’re just getting it for…
…for the baby.
Yeah, that’s it.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this video, I absolutely love teaching about the stress and music of spoken American English. Keep your learning going now with this video and don’t forget to subscribe with notifications on I absolutely love being your English teacher. That’s it and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.
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