I can help you learn how to speak English powerfully and with emotion. This is the kind of English you’ll use when giving a speech.
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Video Transcript:
Today we’re looking at how to add emotion to your speaking in American English. We’re taking part of a monologue from the movie ‘Barbie’ to study how to add more stress to stressed syllables, to add clarity and emphasis. The English you use in giving a speech or presentation is going to be a little different than conversational English. And today we’ll study how. First, here’s the clip we’ll study:
I’m just so tired, of watching myself and every single other woman tie herself into knots so that people will like us.
And if all of that is also true for a doll, just representing a woman, then I don’t even know.
Now, let’s do the analysis.
I’m just so tired.
Okay, so we start out, I’m just so tired. Tired, our adjective really has that up down shape of stress, she puts a little bit of a break after tired.
I’m just so tired—
So there’s a little bit of a splitting up the thought group there. I’m just so tired. So, I’m just so. These three words just lead up to that peak of stress, that up down shape of the voice. They don’t feel like their own separate words, I’m just so, I’m just so, I’m just so, I’m just so, I’m just so tired.
I’m just so tired—
Let me quickly introduce myself. I’m Rachel and I’ve been teaching the American accent on YouTube for over 15 years. Try the accent training yourself go to Rachelsenglish.com/free to get my free course, The Top Three Ways to Master the American Accent.
So try to think of this as one unit, with one most important point and that is tired, with the up down shape of stress, the melody going up, we do have a true T here. So, it’s not a flap T, It’s not a stop T, it’s not a dropped T. So, you’re going to want to make that t, with your teeth releasing. If your native language is Hindi or a related language, your T is going to want to be, tt, tt, kind of soft, T, we want a crispness to it. Tt, tired.
Tired—
Did you see the Barbie movie? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments below.
Hey Barbie, can I come to your house to tonight?
Sure! I don’t have anything big planned just a giant blowout party with all the Barbies and plain choreography and a his spokes on, you should stop by.
So cool.
Now let’s look at ‘I’m just so’. We know those are said really quickly.
I’m just so—
The T is totally dropped in just. This is really common when just is followed by a word that starts with a consonant. So, here it’s just one S sound linking them together. I’m just so I’m just so. Also I’m is pronounced I’m, I’m, I’m, I’m.
I’m just so—
It’s short. It doesn’t have that up down shape of stress. Those three words sort of all blend together. I’m just so, I’m just so. Try that.
I’m just so—
tired
I’m just so, I’m just so tired. So, the feel of an unstressed word and a stress word in American English is very different. I’m just so tired.
I’m just so tired
The word tired looks like it should maybe be tired, but it’s not. True t, I as in buy diphthong, first syllable stress, tire. I would write that schwa R, remember R takes over the schwa so you don’t need to try to make a separate vowel sound there. Tired, tired. It might help you to think of there being a Y sound to connect these two syllables smoothly. Tired.
Tired—
of watching myself
Of watching myself. So stress, that up down shape on our verb. Watching myself. Also watching who, the object, myself. Of watching myself
Teeny tiny lift here. Of watching myself. Notice the word of, just like the words ‘I’m just so tired’, it doesn’t feel like its own separate word. It just very quickly attaches to the momentum of the voice going up. Of watching, of watching. So, of becomes of, of, of, of watching.
of watching—
And the unstressed syllable of watching and the unstressed syllable of myself, they’re just part of this little valley linking together, of watching myself. And so they’re lower in pitch, they’re shorter and they don’t have that change of direction in the melody of your voice, it’s the change of direction and the length that marks it is a stressed syllable. So, here in the first phrase we had ‘I’m just so tired’.
I’m just so tired—
of watching myself,
So tired, we had the one up down shape of stress. Now in this phrase, we have two of ‘watching myself’. Keep that melody, keep that smoothness. The momentum of your voice is always moving forward. Of watching myself.
Of watching myself—
and every—
And every, and every. Three syllables, one peak. So the word ‘and’ leads up to the stress syllable of every let’s go ahead and write every here, since it’s part of the same line. And every, uh so every, just like tired, it kind of looks like there should be some sort of vowel sound happening here. Every, but actually the way we pronounce that, it’s just two syllables, ev, e as in bed vowel and that one’s stressed that syllable, ev-ry, vry, vry. And then one unstressed syllable. And every—
And every—
And, and, and, and. The word ‘and’ said quickly, I’m trying to think how do I want to write that phonetically. I think I might write it with schwa, and, and, and. Schwa, because it’s definitely not a, and a little bit of a D sound, releasing right into the e vowel, and every, and every.
And every—
single
Single. So she really stresses that word and here are a couple things that she does that makes it more stressed than just a normal conversational word.
Reason number one: She breaks it up into its own thought group. It’s not linking into other words.
Reason number two: That it feels extra stress is she holds on to the beginning sound a little bit single.
So those two things make the word more stressed. It’s got first syllable stress single.
Single–
Now, the vowel in ‘sing’, if you look it up in the International Phonetic Alphabet, you’ll see I like sit, but it’s followed by an NG consonant which we write in the International Phonetic Alphabet with this symbol.
And when I is followed by that sound, it actually sounds more like e, single. I also want to talk about the ending sound, that is a dark L, and guess what? Americans don’t lift their tongue tip for that in many cases. H ere, it’s not linking into another word, it’s just g g g g. That sound is made at the back of my mouth, at the top of the throat, not with the tip of the tongue. Tip of the tongue stays down. Single, ul, ul, single.
Single—
other woman—
Other woman. Okay, again just little breaks, not linking the words together like we did here with ‘I’m just so’.
Other, woman. Again, that just that separation makes us feel more stressed. She is passionate about what she’s saying. Single other woman. These are all two syllable words with first syllable stress, so they have the same pattern, the same feeling.
dada-
Single other woman—
Woman. So the vowel in our stressed syllable of woman is the same vowel that we have in push, that we have in sugar, uh, uh, woman. Single other woman.
Single other woman—
tie herself into knots—
Tie herself into knots. A little break there. So now, she’s starting to link more words together, which is more natural for conversational English.
Tie herself into knots—
Tie herself into knots. So we have our verb tie, tie herself into knots. So, herself into. These four syllables are all lower in pitch, and they’re flatter, they don’t have the length or the up down shape of stress.
Tie herself into knots—
Another true T here, t, t, t. Make sure you get that crisp release. Your teeth will need to come together and then separate. You don’t want your tongue right behind the teeth touching the teeth. T, the tip of the tongue should be the roof of the mouth. So you get that tt, really clean escape of air, tie.
Tie—
herself into knots.
She’s also moving her hand on her stressed words. Tie herself into knots.
Tie herself into knots—
Into knots. Into knots. So, into. There are a couple different ways we can pronounce that. She is making a true T and then the vowel is schwa. Into, into, into, into.
into knots—
In Rachel’s English Academy, in the Hollywood course, you can find this analysis video with an audio training soundboard and downloadable audio. Watching the analysis video and then training with the soundboard, speaking out loud in slow motion to help you hear the up down shape of stress.
I’m just so tired.
Then at regular pace over and over,
I’m just so tired—
Can really help you smooth out your speech, simplify your mouth movements and get a more relaxed and natural American placement in sound.
If you feel you could benefit from more ease in speaking American English please check out Rachelsenglishacademy.com, we have a great training program that’s helped thousands of students improve their American accent and speak with less effort and more confidence.
So she’s not saying into. Into, she’s saying into, uh, uh, uh, the schwa. Tie herself into knots. You probably know the KN consonant cluster written, it’s just one sound and it’s n, knots.
into knots—
so that people–
So that people. Again, breaking this up with a little lift, a little stop in her voice, not linking it, to add more stress to what she’s saying.
So that people—
So that people, so that people. There’s one stressed syllable. Can you hear which one it is?
So that people—
So that people. People, that’s the E vowel, people, and another dark l, pull, pull, pull.
So that, just part of the energy leading up. Let’s look at the pronunciation. Are there any reductions there? Do we hear so that?
So that—
So that. Definitely very fast, we have a stop T that gives a bit of an abrupt stop to the word that. I think I would write the word so not with O but with O, so, so, so that, so that, so that. The vowel does change in that to the schwa. That, that, that, that. So these two words together, so that, so that, so that. Very little mouth movement, no up down shape of stress, linked together.
So that—
This contrast of unstressed versus stressed is so important for clarity in American English.
So that—
so that people—
So that people. Ahuh. All of the voice goes up to and then falls away from that one stressed syllable. When you’re practicing with the audio of this, you might want to even lift your arm up and down on that. So that people. Let your body match the melody, help you find that stress. So that people.
So that people—
will like us.
Will like us. Will like us. One stressed word there. These two words linking together with one L, will like us. That is a light L here because it starts a word, will, but you can move into a dark sound. Will, ill, ill, ill. Before you lift your tongue tip because this L, an ending L is a dark L. Are you confused enough yet about light L versus dark L? Don’t worry, the academy and the YouTube channel both have videos on that. Will like us.
will like us.
Like us. The K links in to the u vowel of us, kuss, ,kuss, kuss, kuss kuss. This linking together is part of the smoothness of American English. And I’ve pointed out here there are a lot of places where she is not linking words to add stress, but in general, in conversational English, we link words together all the time. Will like us.
will like us.
And if all of that—
And if all of that. If you slow down audio, you hear even more clearly the up down shape of stress on our stress syllables. She puts a little break here. And if all. So ‘and’ and ‘if’ they’re just leading up to that stress. ‘Of’ is on our, is in our little valley here. And if all of that. So you really want to feel the up down of the voice. If you don’t have very much pitch change in your voice, it’s pretty hard to understand. And if all of that. And if all of that. But when we have that pitch change, it makes everything clearer and it also adds more stress here. And if all of that.
And if all of that—
And if, and if, and if. So the D is releasing into the i as in sit vowel, linking consonant to vowel, and if, and if, and if. And it’s just going up to that peak of stress, and if all. This is a dark L. All, all. Make sure you get that dark sound in there.
and if all of—
All of, all of. The word ‘of’, I would write that with schwa, of, of, of, of, and if all of. You know what’s fun? These two words linking together sound really a lot like the word olive. Do you like olives? I love them. And if all of. And if all of that.
and if all of that—
All of that. And she does release that ending T into a nice crisp true T, bringing more stress to the word ‘that’.
all of that—
She doesn’t reduce the vowel, it’s the a vowel. So the word that is a word that can be stressed or unstressed.
all of that—
Back here we had a unstressed example. That, that, that. That pronunciation, really different.
That–
Then that, that, that. So comparing those two different versions of that, can give you a really good feel of what a stressed word feels like and an unstressed word feels like. So let’s just play the unstressed ‘that’ and the stressed ‘that’ back and forth a few times.
that
all of that is also true for a doll.
Is also true for a doll. Okay, two more up down shapes of stress there. Is also true for a doll. And she stresses that beginning consonant more than normal conversational English because it brings more stress to the word. It’s like, can you believe it? Not just a human, but even a doll is feeling this pressure.
is also true for a doll.
Is also true. Remember is, that ends in a Z sound not an S.
is also—
Al, al, al. She sort of restresses this vowel, is also, is al- also. There are a couple different ways you could think of this. I think of it as the a as in law followed by dark L. Also, and again as a dark L you don’t need to lift your tongue tip for that. Also.
Also—
true for a doll.
True for a, true for a. Okay, a couple interesting things to notice here about our unstressed words. Thing number one, TR cluster this is pronounced like a CHR sound. True, true. It links right into the for reduction. It’s not for, it’s pronounced fr, fr, fr. And it links right into the schwa which is how we pronounce this article. For a, for a, for a, true for a, true for a.
True for a—
You know now that I’ve listened to this a few more times, I think I actually want to erase this link because even though that’s very normal in conversational English, she doesn’t really say ‘for a’, she says ‘for a’. And that stresses it a little bit more. This speech is all about showing how adding stress brings more emotion in. It’s not necessarily very conversational English. It’s like giving a speech English. Giving a passionate speech.
true for a doll.
Doll. A as in law, followed by dark L makes it a little bit less open and don’t lift your tongue tip for that dark L. It will bring the sound forward in your mouth, and the dark L is made at the back. Doll, my tongue tip is down for that sound.
Doll—
Just—
Just. Okay, this is interesting because ‘just’ is in its own thought group. Just but even so, it’s so natural to reduce this word that she doesn’t say just, with an up down shape of stress, there is no up down shape of stress, it’s flat and the t is still dropped. Just.
Also, it’s not ah, a very pure, ah vowel but it’s more like schwa. Just.
Just—
representing a woman,
Representing a woman. Okay, two up down shape of stress here. Even though the voice is getting quiet and whispery, we still hear those. Representing a. The e as in bed vowel, woman.
The uh vowel like and push, the other words just part of the scoop up and the falling down. Representing a. Notice this S is a Z.
Representing—
a woman.
Representing a woman. She does make a little true T here, a little light release.
representing a woman,
A woman, a woman. The schwa here links our two words together. A woman.
a woman—
then—
Then. Again, flat. This does not have an up down shape of stress of a stressed syllable. It’s unstressed. Even though it’s separated out from the thought group. Then, then, then. It’s not super clear, it’s not then. Then, then. Tongue tip doesn’t need to come through for this voiced th, and I think it’s not really coming through here. Then.
Then—
I don’t even know.
I don’t even know. I don’t even. Stress on I. I don’t even. Don’t even, unstressed, flatter in pitch, no. Up down shape of stress. I don’t even know. All linking together, sliding together, one thought. Feels like one unit, with two up down shapes of stress.
I don’t even know.
Don’t even. It’s really common to pronounce this with a dropped T when the next word begins with a vowel and it links into it. The next word begins with the E vowel of even. Even.
I don’t even know.
Don’t even. Don’t even, don’t even. So, the N links into the E of even. Don’t even, don’t even, don’t even. No T at all. Try that. Don’t even, don’t even.
I don’t even—
And like we’ve seen in other spots in this monologue, ending sound beginning sound, the same, because we know we don’t say that k sound. It’s a silent K. So now, we link with the single N sound. Even know. And it ends with the O diphthong. You will need a little bit of lip rounding for that. Even know. Even know. I don’t even know.
I don’t even know.
It’s very important to think of English in these terms. What are our up down shapes of stress? What links together. The smoothness and the stress are so important for clarity in speaking English.
I don’t even know.
Let’s listen to the whole conversation one more time.
I’m just so tired of watching myself and every single other woman tie herself into knots so that people will like us.
And if all of that is also true for a doll, just representing a woman, then I don’t even know.
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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