Fast English: The TV Show Friends Can Help!

For many of my students speaking fast English feels impossible at first. But with my help, they tend to make a lot of progress. Let’s get to work!

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Video Transcript:

Let’s do another in-depth analysis of a scene from Friends. Here, Phoebe is collecting money for the Salvation Army when someone does something she doesn’t like.

Thank you! Happy holidays! Wait.

You can’t take the money out.

I’m making change. I need change for the bus.

But can’t you leave the dollar? This money’s for the poor.

I’m poor. I got to take the bus.

Okay. Season’s greetings and everything, but still.

Bite me, blondie.

Oh!

Now, let’s do an in-depth analysis of the pronunciation. Everything we hear when you study English this way, your listening comprehension and your accent can really improve.

Thank you!

Thank you! Very high in pitch, extra enthusiastic as the man puts money in the container that Phoebe is using to collect money for the needy. Thank you! Smoothly connected, up down shape of stress on thank.

Thank you!

This word is tricky. Unvoiced th. Thank. If you look this word up in the dictionary, you’ll see that phonetically this vowel is the a vowel like in cat. But actually, when it’s followed by the ng consonant like it is here, this vowel changes. It becomes something more like the ey diphthong like in the word they. Not the a vowel like in the word that. Thank you!

Thank you!

Happy holidays!

Again, two up down shapes of stress. Happy holidays! And I’m really focusing on the up down shape of stress because it’s so important for clarity and understandability when speaking English. A lot of my students speak quite flatly and honestly, it’s hard to understand. We need this pitch variation in our stressed syllables to be able to easily understand English.

Happy holidays!

I’m Rachel. I have a background in opera singing and I’ve been teaching the American accent to non-native speakers for over 20 years. Scan this QR code or go to rachelenglish.com/free to get my free course, The Top Three Ways to Master the American accent. It will blow your mind. It will give you totally new ideas on how to get the sound you’ve always wanted.

Happy holidays!

If you’re used to speaking more flatly, it might feel pretty strange. Sort of like singsongy like a little bit almost clowny or comical, but it really is clear English to have smooth gliding sounds going up and down.

Happy holidays!

All linked together, not separated. Happy holidays! It’s a really common greeting in the US in December or something that you might say when you’re leaving someone. Happy holidays. Try that right now. Happy holidays!

Happy holidays!

Wait.

Wait, wait. The word wait said really quickly. Wait, wait. It is pretty flat. There’s no tt, released t sound at the end. That’s a stop t. We stop the sound abruptly, but we don’t release it. Wait, wait, wait.

Wait.

You can’t take the money out.

You can’t take the money out. So, we do still have three up down shapes of stress. You can’t take the money out. And again, a stop t at the end. But let’s look at the rest of the words for now.

You can’t take the money out.

The word you. You probably learned that this word is fully pronounced. You. You. You. But it’s often not fully pronounced in a sentence. It doesn’t have one of these up down shapes of stress with it. It’s flatter. And actually when we do that, sometimes we’ll change the sound. Instead of you, it becomes yə.

You can’t take the money.

It’s so fast. Yə, yə or you, you. But it’s much more mumbled. It’s not you. Not with that up down shape of stress. In American English, clarity comes from the contrast of a word like can’t that’s longer and has an up down shape of stress versus the sort of mumbled nature of yə, yə, yə, yə. That contrast is really important and that’s what makes clear English. So you actually have to make some of your words and syllables a little bit unclear so that we get the contrast, the difference between clear and unclear.

You can’t take the money.

And as you’ll see in this pronunciation analysis, we’ll look at all of the different words where they reduce. That means a sound changes or is dropped or they’re just simply flatter and faster, different from these up, down, shape of stress, longer syllables like here on the word money. That uh vowel has much more length than the schwa of yə, yə or the oo of you, you, uh. Very different quality.

You can’t take the money out.

You can’t take. You can’t take. These words are linking together with a single t sound. So don’t try to make two. Can’t take. Can’t take. Can’t take the. The, the, the. Not stressed, flat and pitch. The, the, the. The mun, the mun. Really big difference between the and mun. Two totally different qualities.

Can’t take the money out.

The money. The money. So, in this two-word phrase, we have three syllables. The middle one is stressed. The other two are unstressed. They’re just part of the melody going up and falling away from the peak of stress. And they’re also very short. Make sure that you’re linking the all of the sounds and syllables together. That will help you make the short syllables even shorter. The, the, the money. The money. Try just that. The money. The money.

The money—

out.

Money out. Linking smoothly the e vowel of money into the aw diphthong of out. Money out.

Make sure you don’t put a break there. We just want it to be smoothly connected. The money out.

The money out.

I’m making change.

I’m making change. I’m making change. Again, so not flat. Pitch variation. I’m making change. Actually, in Rachel’s English Academy, we do a lot of analyses like this, and we always pair them with soundboards of the phrases where you can listen in slow motion. Because when you listen in slow motion, you hear even better, this up down shape of stress.

I’m making change.

Here we had two words linking together with one sound. That happens again here. I makin’, I may, just one m sound linking them together. Notice the ing ending is changed. The G sound is dropped. So it’s just makin, kin, kin, kin. Not making, but an N sound. I’m makin’.

I’m making—

change.

I’m making change. I’m making change. Up down shape of stress on change. This word phonetically would be spelled with the ch sound, the ey diphthong. Change. The n consonant and the ʤ sound which is written with two symbols. So the ch sound written with two symbols and the ʤ sound written with two symbols. Change.

Change.

I need change for the bus.

I need change for the bus. I need change for the bus. So even though it’s said pretty quickly, the up down shape of stress on change and bus are what make this clear for us. If every syllable was said as quickly and as flatly as for example, for the, for the, for the, we would not be able to understand at all. I need change to the bus. I need change for the bus. But because we have change and bus those two words that are slightly longer and do have that pitch change, it becomes easy for us to understand.

I need change for the bus.

Let’s look at the two-word phrase. I need.

I need—

It’s so fast, it’s almost hard to separate out from change. I need becomes I need, I need, I need. The D is not released. It just links right up into the ch sound. I need, I need, I need, I need, I need change.

I need change—

for the bus.

For the becomes for the, for the, very unclear for reduction becomes fer, fer, fər, links right into the, the. This voiced th in an unstressed word like ‘the’, you don’t need to bring your tongue tip through for that. The, the, the, the. Just tap the backs of your teeth. For the, for the, for the, for the. It’s really quiet, isn’t it? When we say just these two words together in their reduced unstressed form, it’s quiet, It’s flat, it’s very fast. You just don’t need to move your mouth that much. It simplifies things.

For the—

And then we give the length and the clarity on the noun. For the bus. For the bus.

For the bus.

But—

But. But. Stop t. But, but, not released. But.

But—

can’t you—

Up down shape of stress on can’t. Can’t you, does a little lift while she’s thinking about exactly how to address the situation. Can’t you. What do you hear as far as a t?

Can’t you—

Do you hear can’t you?

Can’t you—

No, I do not hear that released. There’s a couple different ways Americans pronounce an apostrophe t contractions. When followed by the word you or your, it’s pretty common to make a ch sound. Can’t you? Can’t you? You’ll hear that a lot. But that’s not what she’s doing.

Can’t you—

She’s doing a nasally nt stop. Can’t you, can’t you, can’t you, can’t you.

Can’t you—

leave the dollar?

Leave the dollar? Pitch goes up at the end. Dollar. That’s because it’s a yes, no question.

Leave the dollar?

Leave also stressed, a verb. Leave the dollar. So here, normally our change in pitch goes up and down for a stressed syllable, but it goes down and up, the opposite when our pitch is going up at the end. And like I said, this is typical for a yes, no question. So instead of a statement, leave the dollar, it’s a question. Leave the dollar?

Leave the dollar?

Leave and doll, both longer stressed syllables. Do and ar, ending of the word dollar, said much more quickly. Just part of the rest of the melody. They don’t make their own pitch change.

Leave the dollar?

And the very short compared to leave. Leave, leave, leave the, the, the, the. It might be a change for you to think about making words like this that quickly. But it really will help. The more you drill it, the more you get used to it. It will help with the clarity of your speech. The, the, the, the dollar?

The dollar?

This money is for the poor.

This money is for the poor. Two up down shapes of stress that are the most stressed words. This money is for the poor. And the rest of the words link in smoothly from this peak of stress to this peak of stress. And then poor. Intonation goes down at the end. It’s a statement.

This money is for the poor.

Money is. This actually gets contracted in speech. Money’s. Money’s. And that letter S is a quick Z sound. This money’s. This money’s for the. So money is for the, all unstressed gets pronounced, money’s for the, money’s for the. Here we have for the bus. Here we have for the poor.

This money is for the poor.

Just like in this example. We’ve got the two words very fast, unstressed. The for reduction, for, for the, followed by a word one syllable stressed. For the bus. For the poor. And we want to link it together. For the poor. For the poor. This money is for the poor.

This money’s for the poor.

I’m poor.

I’m poor. I’m poor. So I’m not very long. I’m I’m I’m poor. Very long. Up down shape of stress. I’m poor. So, this little two-word statement, a good example of the contrast between an unstressed word and a stressed word. Going up in pitch here signals. He’s going to explain it more. He’s going to keep going. I’m poor.

I’m poor.

I got to take the bus.

I got to take the bus. Take. Bus. These two words much clearer with that length and that up down shape of stress. The, said very quickly, take the bus. The, the, the. It’s just a quick little word that links in connecting our two stressed words. I have got to not pronounced that clearly. How are they pronounced?

I got to—

That hardly sounds like English on its own. But in the phrase, in the whole phrase we get it. So the word have, which is contracted is actually just dropped. I gotta, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta. A single flap t linking the two words gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta. I would write this with the a vowel but it’s unstressed so it’s not a it’s ə, ə, ə. Quick flap of the tongue and the schwa. Got to, got to, got to, got to, I got to, I got to.

I got to—

I got to take the bus.

And then of course, that’s so different than take which has more volume and that length and that up down shape of stress for clarity. I got to take the bus. When you split it up this way, I think it really helps focus on quick short syllables versus longer syllables. I got to take, the bus.

I got to take the bus.

Okay.

Okay. Okay. So, this is pretty mumbled. I don’t really hear the O. K. K. K.

Okay.

Season’s greetings!

Season’s greetings! So, she’s getting a little bit upset here. Her pitch is going up. Seasons greetings and all. Both of these up down shapes of stress or actually here it’s down up are on the e vowel. Season’s greetings. A flap T here helps to smooth out that word.

Season’s greetings,

Notice this S in seasons is pronounced as a Z. This is pronounced as an S. Seasons. And then this is also a Z, but it’s very weak. Also, this O, don’t be fooled by it. Don’t think sons or zons. It’s seasons. Think of it as being the letter I. That might help you think of the I vowel. Seasons. Seasons. I or schwa, Either one of those sounds will be just right here. Just make it very fast. Zuns, zuns, zuns, seasons.

Seasons—

Greetings,

And everything.

Wow, fast. Pretty mumbled. The word and, I guess I would write that schwa n, and everything. So, no d sound at all. The a vowel changes, gets reduced, and, and, and, and everything. And the n links into the e vowel beginning the next word. We love linking in smoothness in American English.

and everything.

The V sound pretty weak there. And everything. If you say it as quickly as you can to match this pace, you’ll notice that you have to simplify your mouth movements.

and everything.

But still.

Up down shape of stress on the stress word, still. The T and but unreleased a stop T. There’s no release of air there. But, but, but, but still.

But still.

I’m actually going to write that, but still, with the pitch going up a little bit at the end. But still.

But still.

The ending L here, when an L comes after a vowel or diphthong in a syllable, that’s a dark L. It’s different than a light L, which begins a word or a syllable or comes before the vowel or diphthong.

But still.

The light L is probably what you think of with an L, your tongue tip lifting. For the dark L, the tongue tip doesn’t lift. Still, I make that dark L sound by keeping the tongue tip down and the back part of the tongue pushes down and back a little bit. Still. Try that. Still. Still. But still. But still.

But still.

Bite me, Blondie.

If you say bite me, it’s um, I’m trying to think of a good way to explain it without using a cuss word. Basically, it’s an insult. It’s like whatever you are trying to do or say, I do not care about at all. Bite me. First syllable stress. The me is just part of the intonation coming down by. We’ve got the I diphthong. Bite me. Little extra energy in the B there to make it more insulting. Bite me. And of course we have a stop t. We’re not hearing t, that release. Bite me.

Bite me—

blondie.

Bite me, blondie. First syllable stress again. Blondie. And the e vowel just sort of part of that falling intonation at the end. Bite me blondie.

Bite me, blondie.

Blondie is what you could call a woman with blonde hair. In this particular phrase, it definitely sounds a little bit negative, like he’s writing her off. Her opinion doesn’t matter.

Bite me, Blondie.

Oh!

She is shocked. Do you hear the up down shape of stress?

Oh!

It’s always there. Even in just this non-word sound of surprise, oh! We still have the feeling of that up down shape.

Oh!

Let’s listen to the whole conversation one more time.

Thank you! Happy holidays! Wait.

You can’t take the money out.

I’m making change. I need change for the bus.

But can’t you leave the dollar? This money’s for the poor.

I’m poor. I got to take the bus.

Okay. Season’s greetings and everything, but still.

Bite me, blondie.

Keep your learning going now with this video. And don’t forget to visit rachelenglishacademy.com to get my free mini course, the Top Three Ways to Master the American Accent. You’ll be amazed at what you learn. Please subscribe with notifications on. I love being your English teacher. That’s it. And thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.

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