Learn English with Movies! | Free Lesson on Speaking English with an American Accent

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Video Transcript:

 Let’s learn English with a movie. We’ll study two accents to discover what makes them sound American. What’s the rhythm like? What sounds are changed?

We’re going to use a clip from Cha Cha Real Smooth, a romantic comedy. The name of this genre can get shortened to romcom. We’ll take one scene and we’ll study everything about the pronunciation. This will help you get a better understanding of the American accent and improve your listening skills in English.

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

Why do you want this job?

Well, uh, hope loves a friend.

Hope Loves a Friend is the name of our nonprofit, yeah. But why do you want to join the team as a communications associate?

Yeah sorry. I studied marketing at Tulane and I have uh a lot of experience with social media design and a lot of experience with CRM tools like Buffer and Mailchimp, a lot of experience there.

Mmhm.

Now let’s analyze it.

Why do you want this job?

What’s his most stressed word in this sentence?

Why do you want this job?

It’s I hear it as want, and also the question word but want is definitely the most stressed.

Why do you want this job?

Why do you want this job? So question words pretty much always stressed when they begin a question, and then verbs also. Almost always stressed.

Why do you want this job?

Why do you, why do you, why do you. So why, longer than doing you, which are unstressed, all linked together really smoothly. If you practice just those three words, why do you, why do you, dadadada, it can help you feel that rhythm.

Why do you—

want this job?

Why do you want this job? Want this job? Now, here I feel this and job are both a little bit longer. ‘Do you’, both really short, but this job both had some length. This job, but they don’t really have that stress that want. Want has with that pitch change. Want this job, dadada, dadada. So the things that give us the clues about stress are length, change in pitch which is usually a curve up and then down, volume,  feeling this stress, knowing this rhythmic structure is what’s going to help you unlock that characteristic of American English, that American sound. Dadadadada.

Why do you want this job?

Now, I’m not hearing the T released in want, but it’s ‘want this, want this’, just a little lift to show a stop T. Want this. Want this. Want this. Want this job.

Want this job?

Well, uh,

Okay, first of all, you should always know your answer to this question before you start the job interview. So, it does not look really good that he has to think about it. Well, that’s a filler word. Uh, that’s our thinking word. Holding it out, that’s the uh as in butter vowel. Uh, well, up down shape of stress.

Well, uh,

Also this is a dark L because it comes after the vowel or diphthong in a syllable. In this case, it’s the EH as in bed vowel. Well, well, I’m making that sound with the back of my tongue pressing down and back there’s nothing happening with the tip the tip is down. Well, uh.

Well, uh,

hope loves a friend.

Hope loves a friend. Okay now, here it’s not really our verb, that’s the most stressed but it’s hope loves a friend, our two nouns. So, the words that will usually be stressed in a sentence are our content words, and those would be verbs nouns adjectives and adverbs. And not always is every single one of those is stressed like we saw here. This and job both sort of stressed but not like want. And job is a noun.

Hope loves a friend.

So as we study sentences, look for the words that are popping out the most and know that they will almost always be a content word but that not every single content word is always going to have the same stress.

Hope loves a friend.

Everything is linking together. Hope loves a, hope loves a. Ending Z, linking into the schwa, loves a, loves a, Hope loves a friend.

Hope loves a friend.

Hope loves a friend is the name of our non-profit, yeah.

Hope loves a friend is the name of our non-profit. Okay, so he does the same stress. Hope loves a friend. More stress there is the name. A noun that gets some stress of our non-profit. Non-profit. First syllable stress of pro and both of those have some stress, non, non, that’s got a little bit of that up down shape. Non-pro, that has our up down shape. And even Yeah has a little bit of the up down shape. It all links together really smoothly, doesn’t it?

Hope Loves a Friend is the name of our non-profit, yeah.  

Hope Loves a Friend is the. And he’s laughing a little bit as he says this so there’s a little bit of that shake in the voice, Hope Loves a Friend is the name of our.

Hope Loves a Friend is the name of our—

Is the name of our, is the name of our. So here we have some unstressed words with a stress word in the middle. Is the, is the, is the. So we have I as in sit Z and that’s linking into the voiced TH, the, the, the. Now with that voice TH the tongue tip doesn’t have to come through the teeth since it’s beginning a stressed, an unstressed word. Is the, is the, is the, is the. So you go from the Z sound, to the TH sound by just a very small movement of your tongue tip lifting a bit when I make the Z my tongue tip is down so my tongue lifts just a little bit so it’s more even with the back of the teeth. Is the, is the, and it touches the backs of the teeth. Is the name of our.

Is the name of our—

And the word of he doesn’t reduce it by dropping the V sound I do still hear the V and it’s linking into the word R, of our, of our, of our.

Of our—

This word ‘our’ can sound just like the verb ‘are’. I am, you are. They can sound exactly the same.

Of our—

Non-profit, yeah.

Non-profit, non-profit, it, it, it. Little lift there for the stop T.

Non-profit,

Yeah.

But why do you want to join the team as a communications associate?

But why do you want to. Do you hear that peak of stress on why?

But why do you want to. So, question words that are part of a question almost always stressed. So what do you mean part of a question you can have a question word not in a question but in a statement like for example, I don’t know why you do that. I don’t know why, there it’s usually not stressed when a question word is part of a statement or, I don’t know how you do that. There, ‘how’ was a question word,  part of my statement, not stressed but when it’s part of a question at the beginning of a question then it is stressed. But why do you want to.

But why do you want to—

And again we have a stop T in but. But why, but why, but, but,but. It’s not. It’s also not totally connected, that would but why, but why, but why, but, but, but, that’s what lets us hear that as a T.

But why do you want to—

But why do you want to, why do you want to, do you want to, do you want to, do you want to. All of those are a little bit faster, we don’t have any reductions as far as do and you, those both have the U vowel. They can both reduce to the schwa. That would be do you, do you, do you, and you’ll hear that too. But here I’m hearing why do you, why do you, why do you.

But why do you want to—

But why do you want to join the team—

Why do you want to join the team. Why do you want to join the, some stress there. Join the team, and some stress there on our noun, want to, of course becomes wanna.

But why do you want to join the team—

but why do you want to join the team as a–

Team as a, team as a. So as and a, that Z linking into the schwa, those are also both unstressed. Team as a team as a, ending m into beginning vowel, all of these things help us link and get that smoothness. Join the team as a.

join the team as a—

And you can really hear that contrast between team which is longer. By the way this does start with a true T. The rule is a T is a true T if it begins a stressed word. Team as a, team as a. You can really hear that that difference in length between the stressed word team and the unstressed words as and a.

team as a—

communications associate.

Then the job title two longer words. Each of these longer words has a stressed syllable. Communicate. Here, it’s ca-tions, the syllable right before the t-i-o-n ending. Communications associate. So, here it’s the second syllable. Communications associate. If you’re ever worried about or intimidated by a longer word, break it up and think about stress. So we want to say communi, communi, communi, take the first syllables before the stressed syllable and just practice them with that flatness that lower in pitch feeling communi, communi, communi, K, then break out your stressed syllable K and any unstressed syllables that come after, tions, tions, tions. Communica, and you can break it up like this, Communica, cations, cations. And knowing that stressed syllable,  that anchor can help you simplify the rest of the syllables and get the rhythm a little bit more accurate which is going to make it a lot easier to understand. Communications.

Communications—

Associate

Communications associate. So for this one I would say, uh, uh, uh. So, so. I would practice that with just such a fast schwa at the beginning.

Associate?

Asso-ciate. So this can be pronounced ciate, or shiate. Let’s see how he’s doing it.

Associate?   

Associate. He’s doing the SH sound. Shiate, shiate, shiate, and a stop T. Associate.

Associate?   

Yeah, sorry.

Okay both of those stressed with a nice change in pitch, nice gradual up down shape. Yeah. If you slowed it down, you would hear that there’s always a rising and a falling it’s never flat or skippy or jumpy. Yeah, yeah, sorry. And then sorry our first syllable is stressed, and it’s the one that has that up down shape. This is the A as in law vowel followed by R and that does change that vowel. It’s not pure, now the lips round a bit more the tongue shifts back a bit more so instead of A it becomes

 

1. Sor, sorry.

Yeah, sorry.

I—

I, really holding that out while he thinks. That’s the I diphthong. So again, he has not prepared an answer to this and he doesn’t even have a good one so far. If I were the guy interviewing I would probably already be in my mind thinking, there’s no way I’m hiring this kid. By the way if you haven’t seen it, I have a couple different job interview series on YouTube. Job interview video collections, check them out. They go over common questions you might get asked and how to prepare for them.

I—

studied marketing.

Studied marketing, and then just a tiny little lift here. So we’ve got studied, marketing. So our verb and the thing he studied, our noun both have those peaks of stress on the stressed syllable.

Studied marketing—

The ed ending here is just a D sound so the word study ends with the e as in she vowel and we’re just adding the D which goes right into the M. Studied marketing–

 

Market [flap], do you hear that? That T between vowels, that’s the flap T that helps smooth out speech, Americans do it all the time.

Marketing—

At Tulane.

At, at Tulane, at, at, at. That’s pretty flat. That’s because it’s an unstressed syllable it has a stop t at Tulane and then a nice true T starting our stressed syllable there.

At Tulane.

Tulane,

our second syllable is what’s stressed there but rather than going up and down like we’ve seen this one’s going down and up. So even though that’s a statement, it’s a questioning intonation, uh and it does seem a little bit weak when you give a statement a questioning intonation and it’s like saying you’re unsure of yourself or maybe you’re unsure of what you’re saying, which is actually something that regionally does happen in American English but in a job interview, in order to sound more confident you do not want to have this upward intonation at the end of your syllables u,h sentences. You definitely want downward your intonation going down at the end that sounds a little bit more confident. So rather than I studied marketing at Tulane, you would want to say: I studied marketing at Tulane.

studied marketing at Tulane.

And I have a—

And I have a. Okay, so again he’s putting in quite a bit of a thinking vowel. I’m going to just write uh, in American English that’s the uh as in butter vowel and there’s no problem with using it some but if you’ve prepared your answers to common interview questions ahead of time which you should have done if you’re having a job interview, hopefully it helps you take some of those out. Just makes him sound like he doesn’t really know what he’s doing.

And I have uh,

Okay so he’s stressing the word and. And I have uh. Why the word and? He wants to show all the different skills he has so the list is important. There’s more, there’s more so that’s why the word and would get stressed here.

And I have a—

All linked together, and I, the D links right into the I diphthong, have uh, the V links right into the uh vowel.

And I have a—

a lot of experience with social media.

Oh man, you guys. He’s doing that intonation thing again.

A lot of experience with social media.

A lot of experience. So he’s stressing a lot of. A lot that word is going to be stressed there. A lot of experience. Then he’s taking the second syllable which is stressed and making it go up. Experience, with social. Up down shape of stress for our stressed syllable but then media, down and up. That questioning intonation experience with social media, that is not a strong way to speak.

A lot of experience with social media,

A lot of experience, so a lot of, the first letter A is going to be the schwa. A lot of [flap]. Then we’re going to have a flap T. You’ll pretty much never hear Americans say a lot of, but a lotta, or a lot of.

a lot of—

And I do hear a really weak V there linking into. A lot of experience, the first vowel there. Experience.

a lot of experience—

The letter X here, makes two sounds K and S. Experience.

Experience—

If you look up the word experience in the dictionary, you’ll see that this stressed syllable, the second syllable has the IH as in sit, we’ll just go ahead and write a few more of the letters. IH as in sit followed by schwa R. So schwa R, these two sounds always influence this sound in the same syllable and they make it not I but actually more like EE. So it’s not experience, experience, but it’s experience, ee, ee, ee. Tongue lifts a little bit more, arches a little bit more closely to the roof of the mouth.

Experience

with social media.

Social media, social. So the letters CI there making the SH sound then we have schwa dark L. Social, social, social media.

social media.

And the tongue tip is not lifting here for this L. We go right into an M, we make the dark sound with the back of the tongue then don’t lift the tongue tip at all and go right into your M. Social media.

Social media—

Design.

Design. Again, design, ign. Questioning intonation going up at the end. Now this is a little bit tricky design because when you list things, you do make your intonation go up for each thing in the list until the end. So for example, I have a lot of experience with social media and design. That would sound normal to say social media go up and design. Then it feels part of a list, it still feels like it has that intention of being a statement but he’s sort of slowly speaking we’re not sure if there’s another thing coming so all of these up intonations make him sound like he’s not sure of himself.

social media, design.

Notice in design, we’ve got D, our unstressed syllable, has the IH as in sit and then Z, design.

Design.

and a lot of experience with—

And a lot of experience with. So and a little bit longer.

and

a lot of experience—

And actually, he does drop the D, I hear the n linking into the schwa. And a lot of experience. Again, second syllable stress but this time he is giving it more of that statement intonation where the shape of stress goes up and then down. A lot of, always linking with that flap T also I didn’t say it but that L is a light L. An L at the beginning of a word or before the vowel or diphthong in a syllable is a light L and you do lift your tongue tip for that. A lot of, a lot of, a lot of experience.

A lot of experience—

 with CRM.

A lot of experience with the CRM. So whenever we have a list of letters making up the name of something, it’s always the last one that’s stressed. So it doesn’t matter how many letters there are. If we’re saying the letters out loud it’s the last one that is stressed.

CRM.

And again, notice those all link together smoothly. CRM. There’s no break there, it sounds like a word of sounds. CRM.

CRM

Tools.

CRM tools. CRM, RM. So again, that questioning intonation, CRM tools going up, dark L here, don’t lift your tongue tip, tools.

CRM tools—

like Buffer and Mailchimp,

CRM tools, then his voice goes back down again. Like Buffer and Mailchimp, so that it can go up like B first syllable stress there. Buffer and D dropped. N right into M. Mailchimp. The first syllable is stressed in that word, Mailchimp.

like Buffer and Mailchimp,

Buffer and Mailchimp. Buffer and Mailchimp. Do you hear how much that word and is reduced? I almost don’t hear it. And, and. Here, it had some stress, it had some length but here it’s so fast. And Mailchimp, and Mailchimp.

Buffer and Mailchimp,

I’m not really hearing that P released. So P is another stop consonant just like T, which means there’s a stop of air and then a release, and I’m not hearing P that release. Mailchimp, mailchimp. Lips are together for the M anyway. It’s more just that abrupt stop of sounds that makes me hear it as a P. Mailchimp.

Mailchimp,

a lot of experience.

Okay, so we’ve had the phrase ‘a lot of experience’ twice in this scene already. Here we have it again. Same thing happening. We have stress on lot, the word lot is linking. I’m going to write the letter A down here. A lot of with a flap T, the first sound the schwa is reduced so much here, a lot of, a lot of.

a lot of experience—

In fact, I almost don’t even hear it. It’s almost like he’s just dropped that article and just said lot of. Lot of, lot of experience there.

A lot of experience there.

A lot of experience there. And we have again there, the upward questioning intonation. Do I have that experience? Of course you do. So, make it a statement. And again second syllable stress on experience.

a lot of experience there.

So feel that rhythm. Lot of experience there, as you’re working with this audio, in repetition that’s going to help you capture that feeling.

a lot of experience there.

Mm-hm.

Okay so he’s also making his intonation go up. He is using questioning intonation here. It makes sense it’s like saying “Tell me more.” Mhm, Mm-hm. What else?

Mm-hm.

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

Why do you want this job?

Well, uh, hope loves a friend.

Hope Loves a Friend is the name of our non-profit, yeah.

But why do you want to join the team as a communications associate?

Yeah, sorry. I studied marketing at Tulane and I have uh, a lot of experience with social media, design. And a lot of experience with CRM tools like Buffer and Mailchimp, a lot of experience there.

Mm-hm.

Let’s review the conversation in full one more time.

Why do you want this job?

Well, uh, hope loves a friend.

Hope Loves a Friend is the name of our non-profit, yeah.

But why do you want to join the team as a communications associate?

Yeah, sorry. I studied marketing at Tulane and I have uh, a lot of experience with social media, design. And a lot of experience with CRM tools like Buffer and Mailchimp, a lot of experience there.

Mm-hm.

Keep your learning going now with this video and don’t forget to subscribe with notifications on. I absolutely love being your English teacher.

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