This lesson uses a clip from a show to break down exactly what’s happening with the spoken English in the scene.
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Phrasal verbs are one of the trickiest parts of English. And today we’re looking at phrasal verbs that use a word for an animal but the meaning doesn’t have to do with the animal.
Since the meanings might be new or confusing to you, I’ll give you plenty of examples from real life so you know exactly how to use them to express yourself effectively in English conversation.
First ‘rat out’. Rat. The classic New York City animal and a tester in labs all over. Rat out means to inform someone in authority about something wrong that someone has done. For example, I ratted out my friends for cheating in the ninth grade. I felt bad about it but I knew it was the right thing to do.
Have you ever ratted anyone out?
If you both say nothing you’ll each get say a year in jail. If you rat out your friend you might get off scot-free while your friend gets the maximum sentence and if you both rat each other out, you’ll both get a few years. If you rat out your friend,
What was that like joining? Was the crew already pretty tight?
Was it? I’m not asking you to rat out like your colleagues
No, of course not. It’s a really good group of people and–
I’m not asking you to rat out your colleagues–
You know, the big thing magicians are not supposed to rat out each other’s tricks and they’re like no we’re going to, we’re going to do that.
Rat out each other’s tricks–
Because they can use them as leverage to drive uh plea bargains because they can use them to turn low-level offenders and get them to um rat out their bosses.
And get them to rat out their bosses.
The wife of the president said that people have to eat healthy so we need to plant a garden. My friend said that he then proceeded to rat out his friend and I won’t name his friend because there are cameras here, but he ratted out his friend who quote eats bad food and therefore is not healthy.
Proceeded to rat out his friend.
Rat out. To inform authority about something wrong or illegal that someone has done she ratted out her boss when she realized he was cheating on his taxes.
Next: beef up. Beef is the meat we get from cows but ‘beef up’ means to give more substance or strength to something. For example, “I understand your argument for changing the testing format but you might want to beef it up with more examples on how it’s helped students.” or “He’s really beefed up since he started lifting weights.”
Based on where it’s earned or where the corporation lives and deemphasize that element, and instead beef up the idea of taxing the income based on where the shareholders live.
Beef up the idea of taxing–
$1,000 check, yes a giant check for a grand like a rent check, meant to help beef up the school’s library collection.
Meant to help beef up the school’s library collection.
Do you feel that now, because you were in the public eye that you sort of have to beef up your knowledge of, I mean you wrote an entire book on evolution, clearly you felt you had to beef up your knowledge on that.
That you sort of have to beef up your knowledge.
But the flood left over $3 billion in damage in its wake prompting the federal government to beef up flood control along the Ohio river and in Memphis.
To beef up flood control.
Skills if you just want to come back to school and, and maybe you need to beef up your computer skills you can do that at your local community college and I–
maybe you need to beef up your computer skills,
Beef up. To give more substance or strength to something.
You need to beef up your argument if you’re going to convince me.
Next: fawn over.
A fawn is a baby deer but to fawn over means to praise someone too much and give them a lot of attention. Really, too much attention. It can seem insincere. He really fawns over his oldest daughter, I think it makes the other two feel left out. Have you ever seen someone fawning over someone else?
He’s such a humble human being. He’s so self-deprecating and he hates it when people fawn over him.
When people fawn over him.
She is very in charge of her sexuality like men just fawn over her kind of thing. She’s very, very beautiful and men just fawn over her.
That we fawn over people in our lives as a way to prevent them from harming us again.
We fawn over people in our lives–
I’m a journalist by nature so that’s how I operate. I’m not ready to fawn over something and I’m not ready to bash something, I’m not ready to fawn over something,
Forbidden romance is the thing a lot of people idealize and fawn over rooting for it to work out in the end through all the trials and tribulations.
A lot of people idealize and fawn over.
Fawn over. To praise someone and give them a lot of positive attention. She fawns over the smartest kids in class and forgets about the rest of us.
Next: squirrel away. A squirrel is a small animal found all over the place in the US. By the way, I know this word is really tricky to pronounce and I do have a video on how to pronounce squirrel. They’re very common. Parks, yards. Squirrels gather and save acorns. So, to squirrel away means to put something in a safe or secret place especially so it can be kept for the future.
For example, “He’s been squirreling away money for retirement.”
When we have exciting new ideas our first instinct is to squirrel them away so no one can steal them.
to squirrel them away.
They follow the rules because there’s somebody looking over their shoulders but they find ways to like teachers. will follow the scripted curriculum but they’ll do it at double time. And so they squirrel away 10 minutes here and 20 minutes there and a half hour there.
They squirrel away 10 minutes here.
There’s Americans who are going to have terribly insecure retirements they’re going to have to live on whatever they’ve managed to squirrel away to their own savings.
to squirrel away to their own savings.
I have a lot left over depending on the project. Extra scraps that I would then go squirrel away in my fabric stash.
I would then go squirrel away–
The first thing it deals with is 50 bucks. You can squirrel away 50 bucks. Just try, believe in yourself.
You can squirrel away 50 bucks.
Squirrel away.
To save something for the future.
I’ve been squirreling away his old soccer jerseys throughout his childhood because I want to make a quilt out of them when he goes to college.
Next: chicken out. A chicken, a common barnyard animal one of the main staples of the American diet. To chicken out means to decide not to do something because you’re afraid.
For example, “I was going to jump off the high dive but I chickened out.” Have you ever chickened out of doing something?
If you only really talk to them over text, if there’s no in-person interaction well then guess what? You can tell them all day how you like them but when it finally comes the meeting face to face, you’re going to chicken out.
You’re going to chicken out.
Okay, I’ve made this appointment and I, I need to go but I, I always chicken out and I get really anxious and I don’t, you know I get overwhelmed, and so I can’t go.
I always chicken out.
They were coming from this feeling like, “Oh my God, I’m not going to do this, I’m going to chicken out, I’m not going to do this and it’s going to be the biggest mistake of my life.”
I’m going to chicken out, I’m not going to do this.
That in the book um, The Gunslinger, he kills the little kid. And in the movie of course they chicken out, they don’t show it don’t talk about it nothing I was mortified so–
They chicken out, they don’t show it, don’t talk about it nothing–
Because Mitch McConnell decided to chicken out and even though reports as recently as this time yesterday were telling us that McConnell was secretly cheering on impeachment, yeah.
Decided to chicken out.
Another thing that I want to get more confident on at least is skiing steep stuff, because if I think about it for too long I generally tend to chicken out.
I generally tend to chicken out.
Chicken out. To not do something because you’re afraid.
She says she’ll go bungee jumping with me on vacation but I’m afraid she’s going to chicken out.
Next: wolf down. You may know that a wolf is a wild animal, part of the dog family. To wolf down is when you eat as fast as possible, as if you were a ravenous wolf in the wild. To eat without table manners. After the marathon she wolfed down a bagel.
Where couples in courtship would keep a slice of apple crammed under their armpit during dances, and at the end of the evening the girl would give the guy she most fancied her used fruit and if he the feeling was mutual, he would wolf down that stinky apple.
He would wolf down that stinky apple–
Well, that’s just weird.
These fruits don’t hold a candle to the very worst thing, Zimmern said. He had to wolf down though fermented spoiled food like Iceland’s Hakarl ranks as his absolute least favorite thing to try.
Zimmern said he had to wolf down.
And if you follow some recommendations, you should take a long time eating food because we are a nation of under chewers that we uh, we just wolf down our food–
that we just wolf down our food–
A Disney princess who can make this incredible. Alright, I will not subject to you guys to watch me wolf down the rest of this,
to watch me wolf town the rest of this,
He just knows to move these around but he can’t come in here with an open mouth and wolf it down. And that’s when you run the risk of choke because you wolf down too much at once.
With an open mouth and wolf it down.
Wolf down. To eat very fast.
Will you please wolf down your sandwich? we need to get going.
Our final phrasal verb, okay it’s not an animal but it’s the word ‘farm’. It’s to ‘farm out’. It means to send out or subcontract work to others.
For example, “I don’t think my audio editor does all his own editing. I think he farms out some of the work to his friends.”
I saw that happen for 10 years straight and there’s no way I want to pay a company to learn that much and not get the learning. So this, it’s one thing. Like, I’ll farm out graphic design, I’ll Farm out engineering, if we have to. Um, there’s I’ll farm out pretty much anything to build capacity,
I’ll farm out graphic design, I’ll farm out engineering,
Assignments that you can easily farm out to some third party. Assignments that you can easily farm out to some third party. People who were studying with him as though he were a school and paying him to do that, um and he would farm out an apprentice to each house for the most part.
He would farm out an apprentice to each house–
How is filtering information going to be more collaborative, how do we, uh farm out some of the work to machines.
How do we farm out some of the work to machines.
Uh, some of the stuff we do ourselves and some of the stuff we farm out to a vendor.
Some the stuff we do ourselves on the stuff we farm out to a vendor.
Farm out. To subcontract work to others.
They farm out their call center overseas.
Seven phrasal verbs and here’s a challenge: Take one of them and write a sentence in the comments below using it.
Keep your learning going now with this video and don’t forget to subscri
This small scene shows you everything you need to know about American English pronunciation and how to understand fast English. I’m Rachel, and I’ve been teaching the American accent and improving your listening skills for over 15 years. Check out RachelsEnglish.com to learn more and to sign up for my free course.
To understand fast English, you have to know about reductions and simplifying certain words, what a stressed syllable should sound like, linking, and so on. We’ll study all of this in a short scene from the TV show “Little America” from Apple Plus, a series about the immigrant experience in America.
First, we’ll watch the scene, then we’ll do an in-depth analysis. Here’s the scene. There’s going to be no closed captioning for it this first time through. How much of it do you understand? All of it? Most of it? some of it? or a little of it? Let me know in the comments.
That’s your mom’s signature?
Mm.
That looks a lot like your handwriting.
Yeah, because we’re related.
Look, I don’t know how long we’re going to play this game or what it’s going to take to make you care about your future.
Oh my God, this talk again?
Yeah. There are colleges that, don’t laugh.
There are scholarships you can apply for.
What? You’re going to lend me your Social Security number?
You have to get this signed by your mom or I’ll just suspend you.
Now, let’s go word by word, phrase by phrase, to figure out how to understand fast English.
That’s your mom ‘s signature?
So this is a yes no question and the intonation is going up at the end. Signature. So we have two stressed syllables in this phrase we have moms and our stressed syllables always have a pitch change so it’s going mom’s, down and up and we can really hear that change of pitch. Let’s listen to Just the word mom’s in slow motion.
Mom’s–
Then we have a second stress syllable in signature. So again a little bit down and then up for our stressed syllable in a yes no question. That’s your mom’s signature?
That’s your mom’s signature?
That’s and your both said really quickly, those are unstressed words.
that’s your–
So see if you can do that really simplifying your mouth movements. Your would be written in IPA with the Y consonant schwa R and the schwa R ending really just becomes an R ending, R takes over the schwa, so it’s almost just like a word with no vowel. Your, your, your.
We’ve just gotten our first reduction, your becomes yer. So fast. You’re going to hear this a lot in this conversation. Now that you know it and you’re studying it, your ear is going to pick up on it more in conversation, and your listening comprehension, your ability to understand fast English, is going to improve.
One thing that will get the American accent even more into your ear and body is repetitious training with audio. I can offer you that in my free mini-course, Top 3 Ways to Master the American Accent.
Visit Rachel’senglish.com/free to start your course today.
And the word that’s is that’s that’s that’s that’s that’s. So fast, the tongue tip doesn’t need to come through the teeth. It just touches the backs of the teeth, tha, tha, tha, tha, that’s that’s that’s that’s.
that’s–
your mom’s–
To make it really fast and simple. That’s your, that’s your, that’s your mom’s. So the one word moms is longer than the two words that’s your. That’s your mom’s. It’s almost twice as long as those two words.
Mom’s–
Signature.
Looking at the word signature, it’s interesting because the word sign is in it and the word sign has a silent G. But in the word signature we do have a G and then an N signature, and the letter T there makes the CH sound. Signature, ture, ture, signature?
Signature?
Mm.
So instead of saying yes, one thing that we can say is Mmhm but she’s shortening that to just Mm, mm. This is not usual it’s not very respectful because it’s not really a full answer. Mm, Mm. But to say hmm, hmm, that would be fine that wouldn’t be considered rude. Yes is probably even better but hmm is a fine way to say yes but Mm is just a little bit rude, this girl is not really interested in what this woman is trying to get her to do.
Mm.
That looks a lot like your handwriting.
Okay so just like up here when we had that’s your and they were both unstressed and short now we have that looks and they’re both unstressed and pretty short.
That looks–
I would say the t is dropped even and again with this th, when the th is unvoiced, sorry is voiced but it’s in an unstressed word like that or the, it’s really common to make that actually all the time we would make that without the tongue tip actually coming through because that takes too long when the word is unstressed, we want to say it as quickly as possible. So rather than that full th sound, it’s thththth, the tongue just touches the backs of the teeth which are very slightly parted tha, tha, tha, tha, tha, tha, that look, that looks, that looks, that looks, that looks.
That looks–
In order to get those words out quickly. Now while that is unclear on its own in the context of the full sentence with that contrast, it’s very clear.
That looks–
a lot like your handwriting.
So what are the stress longer words or syllables in this phrase?
That’s looks a lot like your handwriting.
That looks a lot. So lot is our most stress word, that has the most pitch change. That looks a lot like your handwriting and then another up down shape of stress on the word hand, it’s less stressed, it’s closer to the end of the sentence and often those stressed syllables will feel less stressed, it looks a lot like your handwriting.
That looks a lot like your handwriting.
Remember the phrase a lot. Always write that with a space and the first sound is the schwa. So it’s not a lot but it’s uh uh, a lot, a lot, a lot. And it will always link in which is why some people write it with no space because it feels like one word. Because of how we link and connect but it is two words. A lot, a lot. And this is going to be a stop t because the next word begins with a consonant. Looks a lot, looks a lot, a lot.
A lot. One of the most common misspellings in English, because the two words go together. We don’t put breaks between words in spoken American English most of the time; there’s no way to know by listening if it’s one word or two, because all of your words should smoothly link together.
It really helps to break things up into these little mini phrases to help you practice that smoothness looks a lot to help you really focus on your stressed syllable, looks a lot and also to help you simplify your mouth movements. Looks a lot.
Looks a lot–
looks a lot like your handwriting.
Like your handwriting. Like your handwriting. So all of this, if we listen to just the first half of the phrase, the pitch is higher in general. The second half of the phrase the pitch is lower and this is normal. In spoken English, generally the pitch and the energy of the voice is higher towards the beginning and it tends to fall towards the end with some of these up down shapes for stress.
I like your handwriting.
Like your handwriting, like your handwriting. Notice the your reduction again not your or your but your, your, your, your handwriting, your handwriting. The D is dropped here fairly common to drop a d after an n. Handwriting. And of course wr is just one single sound, the r consonant and the T in writing, writing, writing, writing is a flap T because it comes between two vowels so it’s not writing but it’s writing, [flap], writing, writing.
like your handwriting.
Yeah, because we’re related.
Okay, she’s making me laugh here a little bit with her um, the way she says related.
It’s like she knows it’s a lie she knows it’s not very convincing and she’s not saying the word very quickly even though it’s the stress word here. Yeah, because we’re related. And they both both yeah and related have that more extreme pitch change, yeah, because we’re related.
Yeah, because we’re related.
And that’s again just what we do on stressed syllables. Her pitch is higher now and our pitch is higher and changes more when we’re wanting to add stress or emotion or excitement so here I think because she knows she’s lying she’s just trying to cover with like sort of a happy attitude. Yeah, because we’re related.
Yeah, because we’re related.
Because we’re related, because were related. She sort of cuts off her stressed syllable. It’s not even relay that I hear but it’s more like relu, relu. It’s almost like the word just stops abruptly.
Yeah, because we’re related.
I still hear a flap T here though. Because we’re related [flap].
So you’re learning about T pronunciations now. We have something called a flap T like in related, [flap], and sometimes we drop T like in ‘I don’t know.’, don’t know. We also have a Stop T and a True T, so there are four different pronunciations of this sound. I’ll link to a playlist on T pronunciations in the video description.
More clearly pronounced it would be related with schwa in the first syllable and the ed ending, that’s always an i as in sit D or you can think of it as schwa d because it’s unstressed but it’s always pronounced that way after a t or a d. Related or in this case, related.
Because were related.
Because we are. We see the contraction we are becomes were and how are these two words pronounced?
Because were–
Super unclear flat low in pitch, low in energy, the word because is reduced to k schwa z. The word were, wer, wer, wer, I would write w schwa r, wer, wer, wer.
Because were–
So they’re flat, we don’t have the pitch change that we have in a stress word. They’re either flat or going up or coming down but unstressed words never have a pitch change and they’re said so quickly more quietly, less energy and volume. Because were, because were, because were.
Because we are – cuzwr. When I tell my students, pronounce that ‘cuzwr’. They’re like, hold on though! That’s totally unclear, no one will be able to understand me. Which is actually true. If we only ever said unstressed words, no one would understand us. But we don’t do that. The unstressed and the stressed together, that is what makes clear English. Watch this, I took a few unstressed words together, and played just that for native speakers. They had no idea what was being said. But when I played them the whole sentence, right away they understood it. it seems crazy to change words like this, to use reductions, but it’s the contrast of clear and unclear that makes clear English. Watch this clip: it has my friend, my husband, and my parents in it. I played them a few unstressed words in a row, and they had no idea.
So here we are at my parent’s house out on the back deck. I am playing part of a sentence a couple of unclear unstressed words in a row. Let’s see if my friends and family can guess what I’m playing. This is the clip they’re going to hear do you know what’s being said?
Put your guess in the comments right now what is being said. Let’s see if my parents and my friends could figure it out.
This first one I think is a little bit easier but I’m not sure.
Okay.
Okay here it is.
Do it again?
No.
Okay great this is what I was hoping would happen.
It sounds like.
Can you guys tell what it is? Should I turn it up?
Yeah.
Okay here’s I’m going to turn the volume all the way.
Jonathan.
You think it’s Jonathan? What do you think?
Hit me.
Don’t know.
Oh anything.
You think don’t know, you think anything, you think Jonathan. One more time.
Okay, here’s the last time.
Jonathan.
Not a thing.
Their guesses: anything, Jonathan, not a thing, don’t know. None of those are right. Really, they have no idea what this native speaker is saying and I played it for them several times now I’m going to play them the whole sentence.
You don’t have to face the horrible pressures of this holiday.
You don’t have to.
You don’t have to face.
Wow.
Do you totally understand it without hesitation when you hear in a sentence?
You don’t have to face the horrible pressures of this holiday. Because it puts it in a context.
In order to do that again you’re going to need to simplify your mouth movements. Because we’re, because we’re because we’re related.
Because we’re–
Related.
Look I don’t know how long we’re going to play this game or what it’s going to take to make you care about your future.
Okay, so now we have a really long thought group lots of words in a row with no break and at the end she says future. So the scoop down and up we said earlier that that’s the intonation we do for yes no questions but we also do it sometimes for a few other cases in this case to show that we’re going to keep going. She’s not done with her thought, she has more to say so the voice going up cues that future, future. And just like in signature the letter t here with u makes the CH sound future.
Future.
So this whole long thought group, no breaks. let’s look at our stress words that are a little bit longer.
Look, I don’t know how long we’re going to play this game or what it’s going to take to make you care about your future.
Look, look, look. Little bit of up down and actually I would say this one is just ever so slightly separated look and then we have I don’t know how long we’re going to play this game.
Look, I don’t know how long we’re going to play this game.
Oh, wow so connected. We have stress on I don’t know how long we’re going to. Then that whole rest of the phrase is just coming down in pitch. Then we have play another up down shape play this game. So we have two stress words there: I and play and everything else is just coming down from or leading up to those stressed words.
I don’t know how long we’re going to–
So don’t know how long we’re going to becomes don’t know how long we’re going to.
I don’t know how long we’re going to–
So, don’t know how long don’t know how long don’t, don’t. So definitely no T sound there the T gets dropped don’t don’t don’t don’t know don’t know.
I don’t know how long we’re going to–
So the word don’t just becomes d schwa. Connected to the word no don’t know, don’t know, don’t know, don’t know, don’t know.
How long we’re. how long we’re how long we’re how long we’re.
I can actually do that without moving my lips and also not moving my jaw it’s just the tongue doing some work there.
How long we’re, how long we’re, how long we’re. Very unclear on its own right? Totally but it’s part of the whole thing, it makes sense. And I’m sure you know going to so common to pronounce that. Gonna, gonna, gonna.
I don’t know how long we’re going to–
Gonna, gonna, gonna. Really unclear, I would probably even write both of those syllables with the schwa.
Go-na.
Gonna–
I don’t know how long we’re going to–
If everything we said was that fast and that low inv volume, it’d be incredibly hard to understand but by bringing in these shapes of stress, the longer clearer stressed words that contrast is actually what makes spoken English clear.
I don’t know how long we’re going to–
play this game.
We’re going to, we’re going to, going to. That’s starting to go up a little bit towards the peak of stress on play. Going to play this game or, play this game or,
play this game or
Again this is a voiced th, in an unstressed word this this this this this this. You don’t need to bring your tongue tip through this game this game this game. Definitely not this game. That would be stressed, sometimes the word game will be stressed but not here. Play this game, play this game. She’s really stressing the verb. Play this game.
Play this game.
or what it’s going to take.
Or what it’s going to take. Couple more up down shapes of stress there or what it’s going to take to make you care about your future. We’ve already said future has that down up shape of stress.
Or what it’s going to take
Or what it’s going to take, Or what it’s going to take. So, or what it’s going to, all linking together so smoothly, the or is reduced. It’s just or what or what or what it’s or what it’s or what it’s. That’s a flap T which I sometimes write with the d symbol linking those two words together. What it’s or what it’s or what it’s or what it’s.
Or what it’s going to take
Again going to reduces to gonna, take, now we have a stress word that begins with a true T. Take, take, now what about this t? Let’s listen.
Or what’s it going to make–
Tt, tt, tt, really quick true T schwa. Take to, true t schwa. So it’s not to but it’s to, to. So fast take to take to.
Take to make–
You care about your future.
Make you care about your future. Make you, make you, make you. Again, so fast a little bit of that up down shape a little bit more length on care, so care if you look it up in the dictionary you’ll see the e as in bed vowel, schwa R but schwa R does change this vowel it’s not a pure e but it’s a little bit more closed than that care, care about. And the r links right into the schwa of about uh, uh, uh. Care about, care about, care about. Everything linked together smoothly. Care about.
care about–
care about your future.
Care about your future. Care about, no T sounds there it’s a stop t, care about, about, about, about. That little abrupt stop is the stop T and again the reduction of your, your. Your, so fast your future.
Your future.
Oh my God this talk again?
Oh my God. Oh my God. Up down shape of stress on O. Oh my God. And the rest is a little bit mumbled a little unstressed and you can see she really doesn’t move her lips much at all. Oh my god.
Oh my god let’s talk again?
So it’s a great example to be able to see when things are less clear like our unstressed words there’s much less lip movement, there’s much more simplicity than on our stress words where you’ll see more jaw drop more lip rounding this kind of thing.
Oh my God this talk again?
Oh my God this talk again? The, scoop up change of pitch, stress on this this, talk again? Again, little bit of up down on again. So the reason why we’re going up is this is a yes no question. This talk again?
This talk again?
Talk with a true T and you probably know the L is silent there. This talk again? The word again, that first sound is always the schwa, it’s not a but uh again? Again?
Talk again?
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Up down shape of stress quite a bit of pitch change. Yeah.
Yeah.
There are colleges that–
There are colleges that. She gets cut off because the girl is laughing she doesn’t like that but in these four words, what do you feel is stressed is longer? has a change in pitch?
There are colleges that–
There are colleges that. Coll, our most up down shape of stress, our longest syllable. They’re a little bit. There are, there are, there are, but really those are more unstressed feeling leading up to our stress syllable. There are colleges that. There are colleges that. And then the word that also it’s just coming down from that peak of stress stop t at the end, not released. There are colleges that.
There are colleges that.
And everything links together quite smoothly doesn’t it? We have a lot of linking in American English.
There are colleges that.
Don’t laugh.
Don’t laugh. Those are both stressed. Don’t laugh. What do you think about the n apostrophe T pronunciation there?
Don’t laugh.
Don’t laugh. Don’t, it’s not totally connected so I would say I feel a stop T there we have several different ways an apostrophe T can be pronounced. Don’t laugh and this is with a little tiny lift to signify the stop t. Don’t laugh.
N’T contractions. How Americans pronounce these is really interesting. I have a video on that, which I’ll link to in the video description.
The word laugh begins with a light l, in IPA it would be written with the a vowel and an F at the end. Laugh. Don’t laugh. For this vowel, you do need jaw drop.
Don’t laugh.
There’s maybe a half inch between the teeth there. La, ah, ah, so we do need jaw drop to get that vowel out, laugh.
Don’t laugh.
There are scholarships you can apply for.
There are scholarships you can apply for. If you slow it down I think you really start to feel the connection and the melody more. There are scholarships you can apply for. So second syllable of apply, first syllable of scholarships, and everything else unstressed. No change of pitch just part of the line. More simple mouth movements probably less volume and faster. There are scholarships you can apply for.
There are becomes there’re, there’re, there’re. The r reduction just schwa R. Now the word before there ends in schwa R so it’s sort of just like a little re-emphasis of the r consonant there are, there are, there are scholarships.
There are scholarships–
So we have schol and then two unstressed syllables or ships in stressed words there are still unstressed syllables if it’s a multi- syllable word. Schol-archips , arships you can, arships you can. So all of these are unstressed syllables. Even though some of those unstressed syllables are part of stressed words. And we have a reduction in here. Can becomes cun, you can you can you can you can.
Scholarships you can–
Apply for. The word for falling down in pitch here, it’s not reduced, now really often we will reduce the word for to, for but we don’t do that at the end of a sentence. At the end of a sentence it’s not going to be reduced into something like for but it is still unstressed, for, just coming down from the peak of stress. For, you can apply for.
You can apply for.
What?
What? What? What? Not very clear but we do still feel an up down shape of stress. Stop t at the end she sort of has that vocal fry uh quality in her voice, she’s not putting a lot of energy into it. What?
What?
You’re going to let me your Social Security number?
You’re going to lend me your. So we have some up down shape of stress here on our verb. You’re going to lend me. Now, we’re going up at the end because this is a yes no question. Social, social security number? So both of all three of these words that are going up towards the end have a little dip down and then then up for our stress syllable rather than scoop up and fall down. So this is the more normal stress because most sentences in English tend to go down towards the end. But if they’re going up then towards the end you’ll have down up down up instead of up down. Now we have some reductions here let’s check them out.
You’re going to let me your Social Security number?
You are going to. You’re going to, you’re going to, you’re going to. I don’t need to really move my mouth at all for that. Your reduction going to becomes gonna, gonna, gonna, gonna. You can write that with the uh as in butter or the schwa if the first syllable also feels really unstressed. You’re going to, you’re going to, you’re going to.
You’re going to lend me your–
Lend me your. No d right? Do you notice that? Lend me your? Remember I said sometimes we drop the D after n? That is happening here. Lend me your, lend me your, lend me your. Another your reduction. So we see here the example that you are the contraction, and your, to show possession, two different words, same reduction. Your, your, your. You’re going to lend me your.
You’re going to lend me your–
Social Security number?
Social Security number? All moving towards going up. Social, c-I-a-l. There we’ve got Sial, the sh sound, schwa L. Social, social.
Security, flap T because it comes between two vowel sounds here. Security number? All going up and pitch.
Social security number?
You have to get this signed by your mom.
Okay, statement. Going down in pitch, the word have is stressed. Have to get this. Signed by your mom. The peaks of stress are a little bit lower across the sentence as we’re moving down.
You have to get this sign by your mom.
Let’s look at our reductions. We have you have, but not pronounced that clearly are they?
You have to get this sign by your mom.
You have, you have. So the H is actually dropped. You have, you have, you have. So we have scwha, y schwa, y, y, y linking right into the a vowel of have. You have, you have.
You have–
The V I don’t really hear. I do know have to when we link these two words together that we make that V and F. Have to, have to. But the f is pretty weak too. But I would still think of it as an F. You have to, you have to. There’s not a lot of volume or energy to that F.
You have to–
And the word to, again with that schwa, you have to, you have to, you have to. Not super clear is it?
You have–
You have to get this sign by your mom.
Get this sign. Okay, so get this, a little teeny tiny lift separation there shows us it’s a stop t. T is a stop T when the next sound is a consonant. Get this, get this, get this, get this, get this signed. Did you notice that it connects with one S sound. This signed. When one word ends in the same sound that the next word begins with, that’s just a simple little link with one sound. This signed, this signed, this signed.
Get the signed–
by your mom.
Signed by your mom. Okay, we have an ed ending here. We already talked about the ed ending when it comes after a t or d sound. Here it comes after a voiced consonant n so the E ending makes a D sound. So we have the S consonant the I diphthong. Signed.
Signed by your mom.
Now, we’ve already studied a couple places where when we have nd, the d gets dropped and guess what? It happens here. So actually the Ed ending we don’t even hear it. It’s like it’s not there. Signed by, signed by.
ED endings, another crazy topic in AmE. I have a 3-video series on that, and I will link to those videos in the video description.
Signed by your mom.
It’s pretty crazy and confusing right? But this is just one of the ways that the Ed ending is pronounced it is sometimes dropped. Then it sounds like present tense of course we know what it means from the context of the sentence but we do not actually hear the Ed ending. Signed by.
Signed by–
your mom.
Your mom. Of course we have another your reduction. Your, your, your, your mom.
Your mom–
or I’ll just suspend you.
Or I’ll have to suspend you. So again stress on have and again, the H is dropped. So sometimes even a stressed word will have a dropped sound. Suspend, and then a little bit of stress on our second syllable there. Or I will. How is that pronounced?
Or I’ll suspend you.
Or I’ll, or I’ll, or I’ll. Schwa R. And then the word I’ll sounds sort of like the word all when it’s reduced and said quickly. Or I’ll, or I’ll, or I’ll, or I’ll.
Or I’ll suspend you.
Or I’ll have. Now again we have have to remember that becomes have to, the V gets changed into an F in have when the next word is to, and that’s a pretty common word combination. Have to, have to, have to, have to.
or I’ll have to,
Or I’ll have to suspend you.
To, to. So the word to said so quickly with that schwa. To suspend you. To suspend you.
To suspend you.
Now here we have n and d, we know that we can sometimes drop the D after an N because we’ve already seen it twice here, suspend you. I do think I hear a super light release of that D so I’m not going to cross it out, suspend you.
Suspend you.
Let’s listen to this whole conversation one more time.
That’s your mom’s signature?
Mm.
That looks a lot like your handwriting.
Yeah, because we’re related.
Look, I don’t know how long we’re going to play this game or what it’s going to take to make you care about your future.
Oh my God, this talk again?
Yeah. There are colleges that, don’t laugh.
There are scholarships you can apply for.
What? You’re going to lend me your Social Security number?
You have to get this signed by your mom or I’ll just suspend you.
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