How to Improve Your Spoken American English and Sound like a Native Speaker

Learn to sound like a native speaker with a short TV or movie clip. Together, we’ll analyze the scene, revealing effective tricks and tips for enhancing spoken English.

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Video Transcript:

Today, we’re going to study American English conversation by using this scene from friends. We’re going to do a full pronunciation analysis so you understand how everything is pronounced, this is going to increase your listening comprehension when you’re watching American movies and TV. First, the scene.  

Hey guys.  

Hey.  

What’s in the bag?  

Mmm, just some presents.  

Come on, show us what you bought.  

You know you want to.  

Okay.  

Okay, this is a picture frame from Ben to my parents.  

That’s cute.  

I got some hers and hers towels for Susan and Carol.  

Cool.  

And uh, I got this blouse for mom.  

Ross, that is gorgeous!  

Now let’s do the in-depth analysis of everything we heard.  

Hey guys.  

Hey is a very common greeting in American English. Hey guys as well often used to address a group of friends. Hey guys, uh.  

Hey guys.  

All connected, part of one phrase, one idea. We don’t really feel separate words here. Hey guys. So just one big up down, smooth and connected phrase.  

Hey guys. 

Hey.  

Monica says ‘Hey.’ Really clear falling off there, little up at the beginning and hey, falling down in pitch, Chandler’s is much faster.  

Hey.  

But this is the general way that we pronounce statements. A little up and then falling off pitch. Hey, hey. Hey guys.  

Hey.  

What’s in the bag?  

Here we have a really good example of stressed and unstressed words in American English. ‘What?’ our question word and bag, our noun are both stressed.  

What’s in the bag? 

If you love this kind of in-depth analysis of American English pronunciation, I really encourage you to check out my online courses at rachelsenglishacademy.com. We have one on all sorts of different Hollywood scenes, there are over 50 there to choose from, from movies, from TVs and in all of them, we take a scene, we study it, we do that in-depth pronunciation analysis together. The best part though is each video comes with an audio soundboard so you can train the little mini phrases yourself and really get it into your voice.  

You can see it.  

And when you listen in slow motion, it helps you really hear the rhythm, the stress and the linking. So be sure to check out rachelsenglishacademy.com. Let’s get back to our scene.  

What’s in the bag? 

So, longer on what’s and bag and in the said very quickly. Also, there’s no separation here. It’s one thought, everything is linked together. It’s really important to know in American English that we have stressed and unstressed words and the unstressed words are said very, very quickly. So we don’t want them to be all clearly and fully pronounced. We want in and the to be in the, in the, in the. So fast, a little quieter.  

What’s in the —  

So what’s, a little bit longer, a little bit louder and also bag, a little bit longer, a little bit louder and the up down shape of stress. What’s in the bag?  

What’s in the bag?  

Mmm,  

Just little m sounds as he’s thinking.  

Mmm, 

Just some presents.  

Just some presents. Two longer syllables. One is just. Just some presents. And then the other one is pre. So they both  have a change of direction, this is one of the ways that we show a stressed syllable.  

Just some presents. 

Notice the T in just is dropped. It’s really common to drop a t between two other consonants and here it’s between two S’s. So it’s just some, just some. No T connecting with a single S sound.  

Just some — 

Also, notice the words some is not pronounced some but it’s some. It’s said very quickly, it’s one of these unstressed words in IPA, I would write it with the schwa which is an unstressed fast sound, some, some, just some, just some.  

Just some — 

Just some presents.  

Very smooth. No breaks between words. This linking is one of the characteristics of spoken English, it can make it hard to understand if you’re expecting every word to be clearly pronounced and separate from other words. The more you study with me the more we study American English pronunciation, the more you’ll get used to this and the easier it will be to understand native speakers.  

Just some presents. 

Notice the s in presents is a z sound, zz, pre, pre, presents.  

Presents.  

Come on, show us what you bought.  

Come on, come on. Really fast on the word come. Come on, and then more length on the word on. Come on, come on. Sometimes you’ll see this written C apostrophe m-o-n. C’mon. That’s how we might take the vowel out of that first word and just link the m into the next word so it’s k sound k-mon, come on, come on, come on.  

Come on–  

Show us what you bought.  

Show us what you bought. [flap] So if we’re studying the rhythm to make it easier to understand, then we see show us what you bought. We see that show and bought are our stress words and ‘us what you’ are unstressed, flatter in pitch, softer in volume and said more quickly.  

Show us what you bought. 

So the three unstressed words, us what you, us what you, us what you, not very clear on their own, only clear in the whole sentence. So ‘us what you’ we have a stop t here in the word what, what, what, what, us what you, us what you, us what you, us what you. But see if you can really simplify your mouth movements and just imitate us what you, us what you, us what you in order to match that pace. It’s not going to be what you think. It’s not us what you but us what you, us what you, us what you. We aim for that to be less clear. Because that’s the only way to make it fast enough and it needs to be really fast so we have contrast with the stressed syllables because that’s actually what makes English clear to us.  

Us what you–  

Bought.  

Bought, bought. And another stop T at the end there. What is a stop T. A stop T is one that doesn’t have tt, that released t sound. Bought, bought, we stop the air at the end, bought, in our throat or just with the tongue position, bought, bought. But it’s different from ba where there is no consonant at the end. This is bought and that abrupt stop, even though it doesn’t have t, is what sounds to us like a stop t, I have lots of videos on the stop T, you can search Rachel’s English Stop T to find them.  

Bought.  

You know you want to.  

You know you want to. So he slows it down, he exaggerates things a little bit, you know, we’ve got a down up there for our stressed word our verb. You know you want to. And then another stressed up down on the other verb want.  

You know you want to. 

But it’s important to note the smoothness here when he slows it down, we really hear how each word links into the next one with no break. You know you want to. That’s exactly what we want every time we speak English. Want to, tt, tt, that there is a little bit crisp true t there. So different that the stop T here, we do hear t, t, a little bit of that release.  

You know you want to. 

Okay.  

Okay. This is a word that can have either first syllable word stress or second. Okay. Here, he kind of does both. Okay. Make sure you’re doing a diphthong, two different sounds. Oh, your lips have to round a little bit more towards the end of that to get the full sound. Oh, okay.  

Okay.  

So the next time he says it, we have a more clear second syllable stress. Okay, okay.  

Okay.  

This is a picture frame from Ben to my parents.  

Let’s listen just to this part of the sentence a couple times, see if you can feel that some words are longer, louder and higher in pitch than others.  

This is a picture frame–  

This is a picture frame, picture, we have some up down stress there. Picture frame and then up down. Both these changes of pitch, both of them are what we use to show stress. Pic, frame. It’s different than the other words that are either flatter or just moving in one direction like up towards a peak of stress. This is a, this is a. Picture frame. When we have a change of direction of the melody that signals a stressed syllable.  

This is a picture frame–  

So this is a, less important, faster. Let’s listen to just these three words.  

This is a–  

This is a, this is a, this is a, this is a. Can you do that that quickly? Simplify your mouth movement as much as you can, make sure it all links together smoothly. The S links right into the ih of is and then this which is actually a z sound links right into the schwa, is a, is a, is a, is a. this is a, this is a, this is a, this is a, this is a. Not very clear right? When we take these unclear, unstressed words in a row and we listen to just them, we’re like hold on, that’s so unclear and actually sometimes I’ll play this for a native speaker and they can’t understand it. But then when I play them the whole phrase, they totally get it. This is a picture frame.  

This is a picture frame.  

The T here is actually making a ch sound. Pic-chur, picture. Picture. It might sound like an sh to you. Picture, picture but in the dictionary, you’ll see the symbol for the ch sound which is written like this if you look up the phonetic symbol. Picture, picture frame.  

Picture frame.  

From Ben 

From Ben. If I slow that down. From Ben, I find that both of them are stressed. From Ben. Then he goes up a little bit to show he’s not done. Well, who’s it for? It’s from Ben but who’s it for? He’s going to keep going.  

From Ben–  

To my parents.  

So, all linked together, sounds like one word, one phrase and it’s just one scoop, down and up to my parents, parents. Why do we have so many phrases that are going up at the end. The general pattern is the phrase goes down at the end. Well, the phrase will go up, the pitch will go up at the end if we want to signal we’re in the middle of a thought, we’re going to keep talking like here or if we’re listing things. Like here, he’s just finished one thing, and now he’s going to list more. So when you’re listing things, each things goes up until the last one goes down. To my parents. So let’s just listen to this little phrase one more time.  

To my parents.  

To my parents. Par. So that’s our stressed syllable, everything else is faster. To my is actually to my, to my, to my. So, a little true T and then a schwa. That’s a reduced vowel. It’s not to but tt, tt. So we can say it really quickly. To my, to my, to my, to my, to my. Can you make it that fast? To my. Try it right now. To my, to my parents.  

To my parents.  

Aw, that’s cute. 

Monica says ‘Aw,’ aw, really clear up down shape, that’s cute. That’s cute. The word that’s is reduced just to the ts sound and and the ts sound is attached to cute. That’s cute, that’s cute, that’s cute.  

That’s cute.  

Isn’t that funny? The word that’s, it’s and also the word let’s can all reduce this way to just the ts sound attached to the next word. That’s cute, that’s cute. Do you notice? I’m not saying cute. I’m not releasing that T Monica doesn’t release that T, it’s a stop T, cute. So a T is often a stop T at the end of a phrase or if the next word begins with a consonant. That’s cute, that’s cute.  

That’s cute.  

I got some, uh,  

I got some, uh. I got some, uh. I actually love this so much because it really shows our linking. Some, uh, like this is the thinking sound but it sounds like muh, because the m links into the vowel. We link our words together so much that we even link words into sounds that aren’t words like this thinking vowel. some, uh, some, uh, some, uh, 

I got some, uh, 

So, if there’s just one thing you take away from this, I hope it is linking, linking, linking.  

I got some, uh, 

I got, I got, I got. Those two words link together quickly, we have a stop t, it’s not I got. It’s also not I got. Sort of tapering off into nothing. It’s got an abrupt stop, that’s the stop t. I got, I got, I got some uh.  

I got some, uh, 

Hers and hers towels.  

Hers and hers towels. Going up. Towels. He’s going to talk a little bit more about them. Also we got two stressed words. Hers and hers and they both follow that pattern up and down. The word and reduces. It’s a little unstressed word in there where we actually drop some of the sounds.  

Hers and hers towels–  

Hers and hers. So it actually sounds kind of just like n and it links them together. The z links right into the n which goes right into the h, no break at all. Hers and hers.  

Hers and hers–  

Now, keep in mind with the word hers that it’s got this vowel that looks like the letter three sort of in IPA and it’s the r vowel, it’s the r sound in vowel form. Hers, it’s also in earth, it’s in girl. So, you don’t need to try to make a vowel sound that’s really separate from the r. Just from the h, her into an r-like vowel sound. Hers, hers, hers and hers.  

Hers and hers–  

Hers and hers towels for Susan and Carol.  

Towels. So he actually doesn’t really put a break here, he keeps going. For Susan and Carol. So the two proper nouns, the two names also have stress. For Susan and Carol. So they both have firs syllable stress. Su, Car and are two other words that are less important, that are faster, they are both reduced. They both have sounds that change. So this is not pronounced for. And it rarely is pronounced for in conversation but what is it? Let’s listen.  

For–  

For, for. So not for but fer, fer. Hear how it’s flat? It’s lower in pitch, it’s not very loud, there’s not a ton of energy in it. It’s for, for, for. So, in phonetics, in IPA, I would write that with an F and a schwa r, these two sounds blend together. So you can think of it as just being no vowel. For, for, for, for Susan. For Susan. In the word Susan, the first letter S is an S, the second letter S is a Z. S is tricky in English because sometimes it’s an S sound and sometimes it’s a Z sound.  

For Susan– 

For Susan and Carol.  

Just like here with hers and hers, we have Susan and Carol and again the word and reduces to just the and sound. Susan and, Susan and. Actually, the sound before is an N so think of it as like a schwa n or you can think of it as being the word in Susan and, Susan and, Susan and Carol. But it’s definitely not and fully pronounced is it?  

Susan and Carol.  

And, uh,  

And, uh. Okay now, here he’s thinking, he’s drawing it out a little bit more and now this same word, that was reduced in whole thought, now that it’s on it’s own isn’t reduced. It’s fully pronounced. And uh, but do you hear that? It links just like some, uh, and uh. The D links right into that thinking vowel uh. This is the sound we make in American English when we’re thinking, when we’re feeling uh or uhm. And different languages have different sounds that they make when they’re thinking. For us, it’s uh, this really pure, open relaxed vowel in IPA, we would write it like that. Uh, and uh.  

And, uh,  

I got this blouse for mom. 

Now let’s listen to the rest of his phrase and listen to it three times. See if you can feel which words are the most stressed.  

I got this blouse for mom. 

I got this blouse. I got this blouse. A really fun rhythm here. So short for I but then got has some length, I got, I got, I got. It’s not I but it’s I like seriously how fast can you make that I, I, I got, I got, and it links together smoothly, we have a little bit of a break there, a little lift so we feel that stop for the stop t. I got, I got this. And then this again is low, is quiet, there’s less vocal energy in it, I got this. And then we go up again for blouse. So, unstressed stressed then unstressed stressed. I got this blouse [flap] I like sometimes to just say phrases on their rhythm [flap] so I can really feel it, I think it’s a fun way to break down the language.  

I got this blouse–  

I got this blouse. A blouse is shirt, it’s a top but it’s dressier that a T-shirt for example, something a little dressier. Now, I see we have the word for and I’m wondering, are we going to hear the whole word for or are we going to hear reduction?  

I got this blouse for mom. 

For mom. For mom. It’s definitely not for mom but for mom. It just links right into that word. It’s jus part of that one, up down shape that we’ve got. For mom. So we’re peeking on stress here for our noun and the word for is just sliding up to it. And it’s reduced, drop that vowel. For, for, for. And I don’t want for. I want for, for, so fast, for mom. I love it when I’m working with my students in my live classes and we’re working on reductions and they get it but they’re still making it twice as long as they need to because then I can say no, not for but for, for, for. And once the start shortening it like that oh, my gosh, they sound so natural speaking English. For mom.  

For mom.  

Ross,  

Ross, Ross. So, her pitch is higher, this shows elevated excitement. Ross, it also has a couple different pitch changes. Ross.  

Ross,  

Ross, that is gorgeous!  

That is gorgeous! That is, both said quickly, that is, that is, that is. She’s not linking them with the flap T which she could, she’s making that a stop T. That is, that is. But they’re both said very quickly before more length on gor, gorgeous. One up down shape of stress. First syllable is stressed and the second syllable just falls away from that peak of stress. Gorgeous. And this is a,  we’ve got a lot of vowel letters here, just think of it as I. is, is, is. Gorgeous like in kiss. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.  

That is gorgeous!   

Yeah?  

Yeah? 

He doesn’t open his mouth much for that, it sounds a little trapped, yeah? But we know what he means, the intonation going up here, this time it’s asking a question. So the intonation goes up to signal we’re not done with the thought, if we’re listing things or if we’re asking a yes no question. That’s what’s happening here, yeah? He’s asking for confirmation like oh, wow, you really think it’s gorgeous? You think she’ll like it? Of course Monica is being sarcastic here, she does not the mom will like it, she does not think that the blouse is gorgeous at all, she think it’s hideous. She think it’s terrible. What do you think of the blouse? Would you wear it?  

Yeah?  

Giving gifts can be stressful right? Let’s listen to the whole conversation one more time.  

Hey guys.  

Hey.  

Hey.  

What’s in the bag?  

Mmm, just some presents.  

Come on, show us what you bought.  

You know you want to.  

Okay. Okay, this is a picture frame from Ben to my parents.  

Aw, that’s cute.  

I got some, uh, hers and hers towels for Susan and Carol. And, uh, I got this blouse for mom.  

Ross, that is gorgeous!  

Yeah?  

Thank you so much for studying with me, love doing this kind of scene analysis. If you like this kind of exercise, I have many, many lessons like this in my Academy where we’re taking scenes from movies and TV and we’re doing a full analysis then you have a soundboard to work with the audio so that you can really take what you’ve learned and get it into your body to transform your own accent. If this sounds interested to you, check out Rachelsenglishacademy.com. In the meantime, please subscribe with notifications on, I absolutely love being your English teacher. And you can keep your learning going right now with this video. That’s it and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.  

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