Learn how to use and pronounce ‘In the Loop’ comfortably in conversational English: what words or syllables to reduce, how to link everything together, and the melodic shape of the phrase.
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Video Transcript:
In this American English Pronunciation video, we’re going to go over the idiom ‘in the loop.’
Have you ever heard anyone say “keep me in the loop”, or, “I want to stay in the loop”? This idiom means to be informed or connected. For example, if you’re working on a project at work, and you’ve just been talking about it. To let your coworkers know that you’re interested in staying involved or informed, you can say, “Great, keep me in the loop.”
So, keep me in the loop, or stay in the loop: it’s the verb and the word ‘loop’, a noun, that are stressed. The unstressed words will be less loud, very quick, and lower in pitch: in the, in the, in the. A tip to get these two function words connected is to sort of make the N and TH at the same time. My tongue tip can be just peeking out of the teeth for the TH while this part of the tongue, the front part, is actually up touching here, where the N is made. So I don’t have to move my tongue between those two sounds. That will help me say these two function words very quickly. You may notice there’s not really a strong TH sound, in the, in the. Don’t worry about that, just make sure your tongue tip is between the teeth. The tongue pulls back to make the quick schwa sound in ‘the’, in the, in the, and then the tip of the tongue goes back to the roof of the mouth for the Light L of ‘loop’. In the lll-. It’s the tip that’s up at the roof of the mouth, so the tongue will bend this way, ll. The OO as in BOO vowel is next, so you must round your lips, and finally the P consonant where the lips come together and part, releasing a light burst of air. Loop, since it’s stressed, it will have the up-down curve in the voice, loop, and be longer than ‘in the’. In the loop, in the loop. Keep me in the loop.
Practice your English: make up a phrase with the idiom “In the Loop” and record yourself. Post it as a video response to this video on YouTube. I can’t wait to watch!
That’s it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.
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