I’ll Help You Speak Like a Native: My Work Trip Vlog for Perfect English Pronunciation!

In this video you’ll come along with me on a work trip and learn how to have perfect English pronunciation. I’ll help you sound like a native speaker by using real-life examples to teach you vocabulary and native-sounding pronunciation.

Tagged With: Real English Conversation   YouTube blocked? Click here to see the video.

Video Transcript:

Let’s study fast English to improve our listening comprehension. Today, we’re going to study a conversation I had with my friend and we’re going to see lots of interesting things like how Americans link words together when one word ends in a sound and the next word begins in the same sound. We’re going to look at different T pronunciations like stop T’s, true T’s and when a T is totally dropped. Oh, and also, of course the flap T, all four kinds of T’s in this sentence here we’re going to really hear the difference between flat pitch and the pitch that changes in a stressed syllable.

We’re going to study a couple different reductions of the word ‘to’ and of the word ‘should’ and ‘can’. We’ll look at different ways that Americans link words together in a phrase for really smooth English, this will help you with your listening comprehension.

Why do all these words slide together in American English anyway? Stick with me this is going to be a great lesson.

First, here’s the short scene that we’ll study.

So we got ten there, we’re trying to get 24 total.

No, you’re right, this sucks dude.

It’s just, I think it’s I mean it’s a goopy dough.

Yeah. It’s hard to handle, it’s annoying.

Can I, so I should do another layer of..

Mhm, parchment.

Should we put it, ball it up and put it in the freezer for like,

I think we should.

Now let’s go through the conversation with a full in-depth analysis.

So we got ten there, we’re trying to get 24 total.

Sort of a long thought group there, let’s go ahead and write out twenty-four so we can talk about the pronunciation a little bit more easily.

So we got ten there, we’re trying to get twenty-four total.

So we got ten there, so wait, wait, pretty unclear. Ten there, to me those are the two most stressed words, ten.

So we got ten there,

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.

Ten there. Definitely a clear true T there on ten, tt, tt, tt, so you need that crisp escape, we don’t want tt but tt, ten there.

ten there—

Both of these words have more length. Ten there.

Ten there,

we’re trying to get 24 total.

What about the rest of the sentence? A little bit less clear.

So, wait, we’ve got–

We can think of this as a true T, sorry as a stop T in got, got ten but then it links right into a true T so you might just want to think of it as a single T sound. Got ten, got ten but give me that little lift there to separate it. Got ten, got ten.

We’ve got ten—

So, wait, we’ve got ten.

So, wait, we’ve got. So, wait, we’ve got. Okay, what is happening first of all I notice ‘we have’ is grammatically correct but there’s no V sound there, it’s been totally dropped. We got, we got. That’s pretty common. So, it’s just W consonant E vowel linking right into the G consonant. We got, we got.

So, wait, we’ve got–

So, wait, so, wait, to me, so wait is that so wait, so wait, so wait, so, wait, we got. We can think of this as being a stop T, I certainly don’t hear a true T release. So, wait. And you know, I might even just put schwas for both of those.

So, wait, so, wait. Not very clear all.

So, wait,

These are very flat wo, wait. We got and then we’ve got, that’s also flat. This is flat lower, this is flat higher, then we’ve got ten there, a little bit more of that up down shape of stress, so really lean into that when you’re working with this audio.

So, wait, we’ve got–

You’re going to have to simplify a lot to get your syllables in that quickly, which is what we want.

So, wait, we’ve got–

ten there, we’re trying to get twenty-four total.

Ten there, we’re trying to get–

We’re trying to get. So ‘trying’, this is a stress syllable but rather than going up down the stress is going down up, we’re trying to get.

we’re trying to get—

We are, we’re, the contraction said really quickly, we’re, we’re, we’re. Flat, low, unclear, quiet. The T cluster does become CHR, chr, chr, chr, trying, we’re trying.

we’re trying—

we’re trying to get—

Trying to get, trying to. So the ing ending changes and it’s just an N sound, not an NG sound at the end, trying to. And then we drop the T in two and it’s just the schwa. Why is that? Dropping T after N is something that we do sometimes and so here the t comes after the N because we’re not doing the NG sound and trying to becomes tryna, tryna, tryna. This is a pretty common reduction in casual spoken English. Tryna, tryna, trying to get.

trying to get—

trying to get twenty-four.

Trying to get twenty-four. So the word get, get, get. I think I pronounced that with more of an ih vowel instead of e, a little bit of a reduction there gi, gi, gi, and that’s a stop T for sure, no release trying to get twenty-four, then I have more stressed words. So, we are, were, to, get, all of these words shortened, reduced, smoothly linked into the line.

we’re trying to get—

we’re trying to get twenty-four total.

Twenty-four total. So we start with one peak of stress on ‘twe’, twenty. We have another peak of stress on four, four. It’s less high though. Twenty was higher. Twenty-four total. And then another peak of stress, again less high on total. Twenty-four total. Let’s look at our T pronunciations. True T in twenty, dropped T in twenty. Look, it comes after N, it’s exactly what happened here. We dropped the T after an N, twenty. Twenty is definitely the most common pronunciation of that word.

Twenty-four total. So when a T starts a stress syllable when it’s not part of a TR cluster it is a true T. We’re getting that here and here. We got it in ten, tt, tt, total. So the first T there is a true T, the second T is a flap T, the tongue just bounces against the roof of the mouth, total, total. After the tip bounces up, the tongue tip comes down and this is a dark L made with the back of the tongue. Total, total.

Twenty-four total.

No, you’re right,

No, you’re right, no, you’re right. One stress word there and it’s right. Everything else leads up to it. No, you’re right. Change in direction of the melody, stop T. The word no, not a very clear O diphthong there.

No, you’re right.

No, you’re right. No, no. I would write that with schwa. No, no, no. I can say that without moving my lips at all. You are. You’re reduces becomes yer, no yer, no yer, no yer, no yer, no, you’re right. No, you’re right. You’re and right linking with a single R sound, so smooth. No, you’re right, no, you’re right, no, you’re right. When you agree with somebody: No, you’re right. I had said something, she commented back, I agreed with her. No, you’re right. No, you’re right.

No, you’re right.

No, you’re right, this sucks dude.

This sucks, dude. Okay, I’m frustrated with this cookie dough. This sucks. So the word sucks is stressed, this is not, it just comes as the energy builds into the sucks, this sucks dude. It all links together. Dude, and then down up also stressed. These two words link together with a single S. So when you have a word that ends in one sound and begins in the same sound the next word, you’re going to link with one sound. We’ve done it here, we’ve done it here, we’ve done it here, this sucks, this sucks linked together.

this sucks—

this sucks, dude.

It’s just, I think it’s, I mean it’s a goopy dough.

Okay so, she has a lot of little starts before she gets out her sentence. But let’s look at them, they’re interesting from a pronunciation standpoint.

It’s just—

This is a really common thing to say. We add just a lot. It’s just, it’s just, and it’s never pronounced just. It’s always unstressed, said so quickly. It’s just, just, it’s, it’s, it’s just, so I would write that, I mean I almost feel it with no vowel at all, just, just, but I’m going to write it with schwa, the J sound which we write in IPA with this symbol, jj, jj, I’m going to write the schwa and the S because it’s so common to drop that t. We don’t drop it if it links into a vowel but here it doesn’t. She’s starting a new thought so it doesn’t link, it’s just, it’s just,

it’s just—

I think it’s,

It’s just, I think it’s. I think it’s. So one stressed word there, it’s think it’s our verb. I think it’s. Again, not it’s just or I think it’s but it’s it’s it’s it’s, said very quickly, the vowel so fast, no jaw drop really, it’s it’s it’s it’s it’s. The K in think links into the I of its to make that utterance very smooth.

I think it’s—

The K is not very strong. I think it’s. We’re not getting k, a lot of contact there.

I think it’s—

I mean it’s a—

If you listen to just those four words, you can really hear how there’s no pitch change. I mean it’s a, and that’s what we usually have on our unstressed syllables. They’re super flat or they’re going in one direction up or one direction down and to me these sound so flat. I mean it’s a.

I mean it’s a—

It almost sounds like a song. I mean it’s a. So they’re unstressed, everything links together very smoothly, then we have longer syllables with change in pitch and that’s how we know oh, this is our anchor, this is the stress.

I mean it’s a—

goopy dough.

Goopy dough, goopy. We’ve got pitch changing there, goopy

dough and then pitch changing there. Goopy double oo making the U vowel, means kind of sticky a little bit wet, goopy, goopy dough. Really different than ‘I mean it’s a’, those words that are said so quickly and flatly. I mean it’s a.

Goopy dough.

The word dough pronounced D consonant O diphthong, that’s it. There’s no G sound, there’s no H sound, make sure you round your lips for that diphthong.

Dough.

Yeah.

Now that’s sort of quiet, said pretty quickly but it’s not flat. Yeah, yeah. We still have an up down shape of stress, so that is a stressed syllable. Yeah.

Yeah.

It’s hard to handle.

It’s hard to handle. Two stress syllables there, two up down waves. It’s hard to handle.

It’s hard to handle.

It’s hard to, it’s hard to. Couple things, first ha-, make sure you give me a vowel with some jaw drop there before your R. Ha, a, the ah as in father. Hard to. Now, we’ve seen a couple cases here where the T gets funky and here’s another place where it gets a little bit strange. We have the word to. Now we know this is a common reduction. The word before ends in D. We did this with ‘trying to’ where the word before ended in N, we saw that the T dropped. Here it happens as well. Hard to. It’s like the D the t turns into a single D and they link with a D, hard to, hard to, not hard to. That could be how I pronounced it, but I’m reducing and linking even more here. It’s hard to, It’s hard to handle. Hard to.

It’s hard to handle.

Handle. My voice is getting a little whiny, isn’t it? Hand, what’s the vowel there? Ae, it’s the a as in bat followed by N in the same syllable which makes it not pure. A, no way. it’s AE. So your tongue starts a little bit lifted and arched in the back, AE, and then it relaxes down.

Handle.

Then we have a D and another dark L tongue tip down for that. Sound made at the back of the mouth. Handle.

Handle.

It’s annoying.

The word, it’s barely heard. It’s annoying, it’s annoying, it’s, lets, that’s, these are all words that can reduce to just a quick light TS sound. It’s annoying. So it’s becomes, it’s annoying, linking into the vowel of the next word, it’s annoying. We have one peak of stress there, it’s on the stress syllable, oy, it’s annoying.

So we sort of have a Y sound because it’s an IH as the second half of the Oy diphthong and then an IH for the -ing ending,

annoying so that Y sound might help you link all of those vowels together. Annoying.

It’s annoying.

Can I, so, I should do another layer of..

Can I. So, again, doesn’t start a full sentence right away, has a couple false starts. Can I, but we can still see the reductions that we do. Can, so often just becomes kn, kn, and links into the next word, in this case it’s I and that n links really smoothly into the I diphthong. Can I, can I, can I, can I, can I. Try that. Can I, can I.

Can I—

So,

So, so. Another kind of filler word, just like just, is so and it becomes so or so, said quickly and it’s flat.

So,

I should do another layer of…

I should do another layer of, I should do another. So we have up down shape of stress on I. I should do another, little bit on the middle syllable, ano-uh, that’s the UH as in butter vowel, another layer of.

I should do another layer of—

Let’s look at should and do.

I should do—

Should do, should do, should do. Linking together with the single D sound, should do, should do, and really we can just think of this as being sh and schwa. Sh, sh, should do, should do, should do, I should do, should do, should do, should do another. I should do another. Very linked together and smooth.

I should do another—

I should do another layer of…

Another layer of. The R linking right into the, hm, do I want to say UH as in butter? Layer of. It’s either UH or schwa, kind of depends on how stressed it feels.

Another layer of—

Actually, now that I think about it it’s not super smoothly connected layer of but it’s layer of, layer of, almost a little lift there and I am going to say that feels like an UH vowel to me. She can’t think of the word. So she does a hand gesture instead. Do you ever do that? What she’s thinking of is parchment paper.

Another layer of—

Mm-hmm.

Very, very common response means yes. Mm-hmm. Up down shape of stress, mm-hmm, I’m even nodding my head, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Parchment?

Parchment. And then it’s got that questioning intonation. The word is parchment, first syllable stress. As a statement, we would think of, think of it as going up and down but I’m confirming that this is what she meant to say, I’m asking, I’m offering that word. Parchment. So it has the opposite intonation. Parchment. Just like previously when we were studying A plus R, make sure you do give a good AH as in Father vowel before that consonant. R, par, parchment.

Parchment?

Parchment, ment, ment, ment. That’s going to be schwa at the end, ment. So say it really quickly. You can think of it as being an IH as in sit if that helps you make it faster. Parchment, parchment. Do you hear that abrupt stop? Stop T. Parchment.

Parchment?

Should we put it—

Should we put it. I love this so much. Another should reduction. So in the first example it was should, was the next word, it ended with a D, it was should do, should do, and now we’ve got should we but still the D is dropped. Should reduction, should becoming just, should with the schwa linking into the next consonant sound, in this case W. Should we, should we, should we.

Should we put it—

Notice that stop T there? Put it, put it, put it, not put it, but also not put it. That abrupt stop for the stop T. Put it, put it, up down shape of stress. Put it. Linking with a flap, put it. Here the letter U is the vowel uh like and push, P, put it like and cook, UH, put it, should we put it? Should we put it.

Should we put it—

ball it up and–

So she’s talking about the leftover dough, our dough scraps and she uses a phrasal verb to ball up.

ball it up and—

This is when you take something that’s not a ball shape like, say a piece of paper and you rumple it up into a ball shape. Ball it up.

ball it up and—

put it in the freezer.

Here she’s talking about our lumpy mass of dough, should we ball it up and put it in the freezer so that it can get harder.

ball it up and put it in the freezer.

Ball it up and, ball it up and. In a phrasal verb, it’s common for both to have an up down shape of stress but if not, then definitely one of them. Here they both have that up down shape. Ball it up and. The word and is reducing to just n, n, n, and it links into the P, ball it up and, it up, it up. That T links the two words together. That’s a flap T. A T is a flap T when it comes between two vowel or diphthong sounds and links words together. It up, it up, ball it up.

Ball it up—

This L is a dark L because it’s at the end of the vowel in a syllable it’s after the vowel or diphthong but when a dark L links into another vowel, ball, you can still lift your tongue tip there. That helps differentiate the syllable. But practice that. You don’t want a lot of tongue contact, you still want that that to be light, ball it, ball it, ball it, ball it, ball it up and, ball it up and.

ball it up and—

put it in the freezer.

Put it in the freezer. Put it in the. Up down shape of stress on our verb, put it in the, then the rest of the words just fall into that line on the way down. Put it in the freezer. Then we have another stress word our noun. Here the pitch direction is down up, freezer, put it in the freezer, uh.

put it in the freezer.

Lots of smoothness and linking here, we have two flap Ts in a row. Put it in. And they’re linking vowel to vowel, linking words to together. Put it in the, put it in the, put it in the freezer.

put it in the freezer.

for like—

So, the freezer, she has a little lift here, while she thinks about well, for how long how long should we do that. For like, for like. Okay, the word for reduces, for, said very quickly.

Like another filler word, it can also mean about or approximately, so she’s about to give a time like approximately 5 minutes. So the word like here does have meaning, but I would say it can also be considered a filler word and it’s not said very clearly.

For like—

I think we should.

She doesn’t even know her time yet and I already agree with her. I think we should. So definitely stressing myself, I’m in agreement with her opinion. I, up down shape of stress, I think we should. Linking together smoothly, linking together smoothly, think and we, less stressed than I and should.

I think we should.

I think we should. Should. The vowel in should is just like the vowel in put, push, cookie, it’s this vowel, and of course the L is silent. I’m not reducing it here. It’s at the end of a sentence at the end of a thought. We don’t really reduce words at the end of a thought group. I think we should.

I think we should.

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

So, wait, we’ve got ten there, we’re trying to get twenty-four total.

No, you’re right, this sucks, dude.

It’s just, I think it’s, I mean it’s a goopy dough.

Yeah. It’s hard to handle, it’s annoying.

Can I, so, I should do another layer of…

Mm-hmm. Parchment?

Should we put it, ball it up and put it in the freezer for like—

I think we should.

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.