Speaking English: You ACTUALLY Need This To Speak Well

Speaking English has a lot of moving parts, but in this video I’ve got everything you need to make huge progress.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx6AC6VOZqM

Speaking English: You ACTUALLY Need This To Speak Well (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx6AC6VOZqM)

Video Transcript:

Is your accent holding you back when speaking English, or your listening comprehension of English?

Understanding native speakers and fast English isn’t about understanding the sounds of American English, it’s about all the other things: linking, reductions. The more you study them,

the more effortlessly you’ll be able to speak fast English and understand native speakers.

Movies, TV, real life. Understanding English conversation can be hard, but with the exercises we’ll do today, you’ll be well on your way to more effortless English conversation.

Today, we’re going to do just that in eight conversations and monologues. Here’s the first one we’ll study with the analysis we’ll do together.

Rachel.

Yeah.

Remind me to review with you which pot is decaf, and which is regular.

Okay. Fine. Gunther, you know what, I am a terrible waitress.

Do you know why I’m a terrible waitress?

Because I don’t care.

I don’t care. I don’t care which pot is regular and which pot is decaf. I don’t care where the tray spot is.

I just don’t care. This is not what I want to do.

So, I don’t think I should do it anymore.

I’m going to give you my weeks notice.

What?

Gunther, I quit.

Does this mean we’re going to have to start paying for coffee?

And now with the analysis.

Rachel

Rachel, first syllable stress and the pitch goes up.

Ra-chel and the pitch goes up because he’s trying to get her attention.

It’s like saying Rachel do you hear me. Pitch goes up Rachel

Rachel

yeah

then she does a really breathy response.

Yeah. Yeah.

Up-down shape.

The breathiness just sort of shows exasperation and that she’s kind of over it,

She’s kind of over this job.

Yeah.

Remind me to review with you which pot is decaf, and which is regular.

And then this next set group is pretty long.

What do you hear as the most stressed syllables?

Remind me to review with you which pot is decaf, and which is regular.

It’s longer so there are a few.

I’m hearing re-mind the stress syllable of that first word the verb remind me to review with you,

review some on that verb as well which pot is decaf and which pot is regular.

So, the two verbs and then the difference

between coffees,

decaf and regular and we do have a few reductions.

We actually have a dropped D here in the stressed word, in the stressed syllable.

It’s not uncommon to drop a D between two constants especially when the first one wasn’t N like this.

So, it’s remin’ me, remin’ me and this is a pretty common two-word phrase.

Remind me to do this. Remind me to call mom.

Remind me to pick up the dry-cleaning.

Remind me… Re-mind me.

I diphthong N and then write into the M with no D, remin’ me.

Remind me…

Now, the word to is not reduced and that’s not very natural.

It’s pronounced with the true T and the OO vowel.

Remind me to review with you and when I was trying to think about why he would do this fully pronounced.

It is still unstressed, so the stress is right but by not reducing that word it sounds a little bit more formal

and this character is supposed to be a little bit odd and so by not doing a reduction that’s one

way to develop that character, but it is still unstressed.

Remind me to review, me to re…

Me to re… Me to re….

These three syllables all flatter in pitch compared to the up-down shape

of the stressed syllables mind and view.

Remind me to review

Remind me to review with you which pot is decaf, and which is regular.

Review with you which pot is decaf then these five words all a little bit lower in pitch.

Less of the up-down shape of stress.

Review with you which pot is decaf…

The two words pot and is are linked.

Which pot is… Which pot is with the flap T and that’s really common when one word ends

in a T, a vowel or diphthong and T and the next word begins with a vowel or diphthong,

very common to link with a Flap T.

Pot is, pot is, pot is, pot is decaf.

… pot is decaf

Decaf is short for decaffeinated.

Decaffeinated coffee.

So, in the whole word de-caffeinated its caf that stressed but when we shorten it for some reason the stress changes and it’s de-caf

it’s not decaf but it’s de-caf so the stress changes now we have first syllable stress.

Also, the vowel changes it’s the E vowel in the word decaffeinated it’s a SCHWA de-caffeinated,

but we can’t ever have a SCHWA in a stressed syllable and so the vowel changes de-caf

de-caf

…decaf and which is regular.

Decaf and which is regular.

So, in the word and the D is dropped. That reduction happens almost every single time you’ll hear this word.

Sometimes the vowel reduces he doesn’t, but he does drop the D in decaf, and which one is regular.

…decaf in which is regular

Decaf an’ which is regular.

Regular and his pitch does go up a little bit at the end.

That’s not super common for statements

but it does sometimes happen.

Here he might be doing it to soften what he’s saying.

You know, he’s basically saying

you messed up and I need to teach you how to do this it could also be used to say

in a way I can’t believe that you don’t know the difference why would I have to teach you this which is regular

… which is regular

Okay. Fine.

Okay. Okay.

The second syllable stressed there. It’s a little bit harder to hear because the audience is laughing but okay.

K is the one with the up-down shape, okay.

Okay.

Okay. Fine.

Fine. Fine. A little flatter fine shows a

little bit of exasperation.

Okay. Fine.

Okay. Fine. Gunther,

Gunther, Gunther

and it goes up in pitch first syllable stress Gun-ther.

She goes up in pitch because she’s not done talking.

She has something to say

and we all know it’s important.

So, let’s hear what she has to say.

Gunther,

Gunther, you know what?

You know what? What’s the stress there?

You know what?

Dah, dah, dah. Know and what are both longer and the word you is said very quickly.

It’s actually reduced it’s not you it’s

yu, yu, yu know what

and everything links together really smoothly you know what and that phrase ends with a stop T.

There’s not a release of air.

…you know what?

…you know what? I am a terrible waitress.

In this next sentence what are the stressed syllables?

I am a terrible waitress.

So, I and terr the most stressed.

Am and a lower in pitch flatter everything

links together smoothly.

I am a terr.

I am a terrible waitress.

Actually, I take that back I and am don’t link together really there’s a little lift there.

I am a terrible waitress and by separating those it brings a little bit more stress to it.

I am a terrible waitress.

So, by separating it off

it makes it even more clear brings even

more prominence to her,

what she is saying about herself, I am a terrible waitress.

I am a terrible waitress.

Imma, Imma, Imma lower in pitch flatter

terrible lots of stress there.

There’s a true T and she gives it a little bit extra air to bring even more stress.

Whenever we exaggerate a beginning consonant it brings more stress to that word, I am a terrible.

I am a terrible…

Terrible, three syllable word with first syllable stress.

…terrible waitress.

Waitress, waitress,

two syllable word, first syllable stress.

Do you notice anything about the T.

Listen to just this word.

…waitress.

It actually sounds like a CH waichress, waichress.

…waitress.

Do you know why I’m a terrible waitress?

Okay, and in the next sentence what’s our stress?

What are our most stressed syllables?

Do you know why I’m a terrible waitress?

Do you know why, lots of stress on why

and again stress on terr, terrible

and a little bit on waitress, waitress, So, these first three words flatter in pitch;

less important that energy leads up

to that peak and why.

Do you know why…

Do you know why I’m a terrible waitress?

Do you know why I am a terrible.

Actually, I wrote this with a contraction, but I don’t hear that as I’m, I hear that as two syllables

I am, I am a, I am a, I am a,

but they all link together really smoothly I am a, I am a. They’re all unstressed, flatter in pitch.

Not I am a, that would be all three stressed

but it’s I am a, I am a, I am a

I am a…

I am a terrible waitress.

I am a terrible and then we get a big up-down shape.

Lots of stress after those three flatter words with the stressed word, the adjective terrible.

…terrible

… terrible waitress?.

Because I don’t care.

What are our most stressed syllables in this next phrase.

Because I don’t care.

Because I don’t, because I don’t care.

I and care are the most stress, but all of

these words are clearly pronounced.

Because can be reduced it’s not.

She actually puts a quick E vowel

so if you look it up in the dictionary this

would be an I or maybe a SCHWA

but sometimes when people are being extra clear or even just out of habit

these little unstressed syllables that

have the letter E in them

can be pronounced with the E vowel

be, be, be, because, because.

Because

Because second syllable stress K,

UH as in butter Z cuz, cuz and there is some up-down shape to that too because, because.

Because

Because I don’t care.

How is the word don’t pronounced?

I don’t care.

I’m actually going to put an up-down shape of stress on that too.

I really think she’s stressing each one of these words for emphasis I don’t care, I don’t care, I don’t care.

All of those to me feel long and with a

little bit of that up-down shape.

I don’t care.

I’m hearing a really subtle stop T there. I don’t care, I don’t care, and that tiny lift

signifies the T, the stop T.

Okay, now we get I don’t care two more times.

Let’s listen to the pronunciation.

I don’t care.

I don’t care. I don’t care.

There I is less stressed, and it’s

more smoothly connected as one thought instead of each word being stressed.

Stress on don’t and more stress on care.

I don’t care, dah, dah, dah.

I don’t care.

I don’t care and again a very subtle quick lift here signifying the stop T. It’s definitely not,

I don’t care but it’s I don’t care, I don’t care.

I don’t care.

I don’t care which pot is regular.

I don’t care which pot is regular I don’t

care again stress on that word.

I don’t care which pot is re-gular and again there was that subtle lift that signifies that stop T.

It’s not completely dropped.

That would be I don’ care, I don’ care, don’ care.

We do drop that T sometimes especially if

the next word begins with a vowel

or a diphthong but when it’s a consonant

it’s much more common

to make a quick stop T I don’t care;

I don’t care which pot is regular.

I don’t care which pot is regular and which pot is decaf.

I don’t care which pot is pot is, pot is, pot is.

Do you notice just like the other character she is linking those two words with a flap T.

Pot is, pot is, which pot is regular and then she really stretches which doesn’t she?

Which pot is regular and which pot is decaf.

…which pot is regular and which pot is decaf.

Does she connect these two words with a flap T again?

Listen.

…which pot is decaf.

Yes, she does. That’s a flap T

connecting pot is, pot is, pot is.

…which pot is decaf.

The word and she does do a full reduction, So, she reduces the D and the vowel

n, n, n, n, n.

I say to my students it can sound like this word in said very quickly regular ‘n, regular n’ which.

…which pot is regular and which pot is decaf.

You know this is the third time now that we’re seeing and hearing the word pot and I want to point out

it’s the letter O and that causes some people to round their lips and sort of shut it down

but it’s more open.

It’s the AH as in father vowel pot, AH, AH, pot, pot.

…which pot is…

…which pot is decaf

Decaf, a little bit of stress on that

stressed syllable D, decaf.

…decaf

…decaf. I don’t care where the tray spot is.

I don’t care and another

break here, I don’t care.

She does a little lift and again there’s a

stop T there, I don’t care.

Most of the stress on care.

I don’t care.

I don’t care where the tray spot is.

Where the, where the, where the, flatter lower in pitch unstressed then we have

tray spot is and she connects spot and is with a flap T.

Ending T coming after a vowel or diphthong followed by a vowel or diphthong linking that with a flap T.

…where the tray spot is.

Now, what is tray spot.

This is not a very common phrase, common thing. I guess that what she’s referencing

is probably something that came up earlier in the episode

that the tray that she’s supposed to take

drinks out on has a particular spot and she was not putting it in its particular spot.

…where the tray spot is.

Also, just like pot we have the letter O but

it’s the AH as in father vowel.

…tray spot is.

…tray spot is. I just don’t care.

This is not what I want to do.

Then she says two more phrases, but she links them all together into one thought group.

Every word smoothly connects to the next word.

I just don’t care. This is not what I want to do.

I just don’t care this is not, a little bit of stress there, not what I want to do.

So, care and do get a lot of stress. Notice the word not. Again, the letter O it’s the AH as in father vowel.

I just don’t care. This is not what I want to do.

Let’s look at the first part of

this thought group. I just don’t care,

dah, the pitch, the melody everything is rising. The energy rising up towards that peak of stress on care.

I just don’t care.

Again, a stop T there.

Now, the T in just is actually totally dropped

and this is really common with this word and any word that ends in an SC cluster

or a T cluster of any kind when the next word begins with a consonant.

We usually drop the T,

very common to drop the T between consonants and just link the two words together,

I jus’ don’t, jus’ don’t, right from the S into the D.

I just don’t care.

I just don’t care. This is not what I want to do.

This is lower in pitch, this is not, this is

not said more quickly

and again they link together just like every word in this thought group.

This is, this is, this is not.

This is not…

This is not with a stop T.

Now, why is this a stop T?

Pot and spot, those words linked in with a Flap T.

That’s because the next word began with

a vowel or diphthong.

Here, the next word begins with a consonant sound W.

So, that ending T is a Stop T.

This is not what I want to do.

Listen to just the words what I want to.

…what I want to…

Said very quickly these are unstressed,

flatter in pitch, less clear.

What I, these two words link together with

a Flap T, what I, what I.

Want to, that gets reduced, that gets changed to wanna what I wanna, what I wanna, what I wanna.

…what I want to…

Listen to those four words together again and then there’s going to be a little break.

Try to repeat it back so you’ll hear it three

times and then you try to say it

and try to match exactly what she’s doing.

There’s a lot of simplification you might want to pronounce more than she is, try not to, just repeat.

…what I want to…

…what I want to …

…what I want to do.

And then all of that links into the next

word, the stressed word do

with that longer length and that up-down shape.

…do

…do.

…do. So, I don’t think I should do it anymore.

Okay. In this next sentence what do you hear as the peak of stress for the whole sentence.

So, I don’t think I should do it anymore.

So, I don’t, little bit of stress there.

So, I don’t but then even more stress on. So, I don’t think I should do it anymore.

Definitely the peak of stress is do and all

of the words lead up to that

and then all of the words after that kind of

fall away from that peak of energy,

that peak of volume, that peak of stress.

So, I don’t think I should do it anymore.

So, I don’t think, so I don’t think up. Again, I would write that as a really light quick Stop T.

So, and I said really quickly.

Not that clear. I don’t think I hear an O diphthong in so.

So, I don’t think…

It’s more just like sou, sou, sou

I don’t, sou I don’t, sou I don’t.

I guess I would right that as the SCHWA so, so, so I don’t, so I don’t, so I don’t

linking together really smoothly, really quickly.

So, I don’t think…

These first two words unstressed then we

have think I should.

Let’s listen to just those three words.

…think I should…

Think I should, think I should, think I

should, think I should.

A little bit more length on think.

Think I should, think I should, think I should linking together really smoothly.

The word should is like just an SH and a SCHWA.

The next word begins with the D and so these really combine, wouldn’t make the D twice.

Single D sound and it really goes with the

stressed feeling.

So, you could almost just think of the D in should as being dropped should do, should do, should do.

…think I should do it anymore.

Should do it anymore.

What do you think we’re going to hear

with this T when we study it.

It’s the end of a word.

The sound before is a vowel and the next

word begins with a vowel.

I should do it anymore.

Do it anymore.

Did you guess the Flap T? You were right. it any, it any, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah.

The tongue just flaps against the roof of the mouth.

So, we have a lot of stress on do, some stress on don’t, some stress on think

and then the other words are said really quickly.

We have some reductions. This contrast is really important in American English.

It’s one of the characteristics that makes

it sound American.

…do it anymore.

I’m going to give you my week’s notice.

Okay. In this next sentence what are the

most stressed words?

‘m going to give you my week’s notice.

I’m going to give you my week’s notice.

So, basically she’s saying she quits, and

she’ll work one more week.

I’m going to give you my week’s notice.

Okay, before the first stressed word give

what do we have?

I’m going to…

I am going to become muh, muh.

I actually did another video on this about

how extreme this reduction is.

We lose the I, we lose the G,

so this did become this is common to be

reduced to gonna,

going to becomes gonna but sometimes when the contraction I am comes before

we actually replace the beginning G with the M so it’s just monna, monna, monna, monna, monna.

I’m going to…

I’m going to give you my week’s notice.

I’m going to give, I’m going to give, I’m going to give.

I am going to, those are five syllables and they get reduced to two, monna, monna, monna.

I’m going to give…

I would write that in IPA with the M consonant,

UH as in butter and then the end in the SCHWA, monna, monna, monna, monna give.

I’m going to give you…

I’m going to give you my week’s notice.

I’m going to give you my.

You and my lower in pitch, unstressed and then week’s notice, stress on weeks and notice

I’m going to give you my week’s notice.

The T in notice is a Flap T because it

comes between two vowels

and it does not start a stressed syllable.

…week’s notice.

What?

Okay. So, I’ve just listened to him saying

this about a thousand times

to try to determine if I thought I heard a

little escape of air before the W, what.

I think I do hear a really, really light one.

That’s not very common anymore, it’s something my mom does, and my friend said her mom does it.

We love our moms. They’re in their seventies and it’s not really that current to speak that way anymore.

So, by making that little escape of air

is again making him just a little bit different like when he didn’t reduce to before

and is maybe part of his character.

Maybe this guy in actual conversational English

would be making just a pure W sound what, what but instead it’s what, what, AH, AH

and the vowel is closer to the AH as in father vowel

whereas I think it’s more common to

make it the UH as in butter vowel.

Both are acceptable pronunciations, but the difference is what versus what, UH, UH, what.

What?

And he does a little light release of a True T.

Again, not the most common way to pronounce that T.

It would be more common to

make that a stop what, what.

What?

Gunther, I quit

Okay what is our stress of this sentence?

Gunther, I quit.

Gun, the stressed syllable of his name Gunther, I quit and then the verb.

So, the two middle syllables less stressed, lower in pitch

Gunther, I quit.

And she does do a True T release here

making that word even more clear,

making it an even stronger statement.

Gunther, I quit.

Does this mean we’re going to have to

start paying for coffee?

Okay. Then Chandler with his asides, so funny.

What’s the stress here?

It’s under his breath, it’s a little bit less clear

but we can still hear the contrast between

stressed and unstressed.

Does this mean we’re going to have to

start paying for coffee?

Does this mean we’re going to have to

start paying for coffee?

Does this mean we’re going to have to

start paying for coffee?

Does this mean, a little bit of stress on mean.

Does this mean we’re going to have to

start pay-ing for coffee?

Mean, pay and co.

We have some reductions.

Let’s look at the first two words does this.

Does this…

So, the word does would be written in IPA fully pronounced D, UH as in butter, Z

and the word this voiced TH as in sit and S.

Does this but what he did here is something that you’ll hear in conversational English.

Does this mean, does this mean.

We drop the first sounds of does we take

the Z and we replace the TH,

zis, zis, zis, zis mean, zis mean, zis mean

smoothly linked together.

Does this mean?

Does this mean we’re going to have to

start paying for coffee?

We’re going to have to start.

We’re going to have to start

then we have a bunch of words that are lower in pitch, unstressed compared to pay, we’re going to.

Going to is reduced, gonna, gonna

have to start, gonna have to start.

Going to have to start.

have to, have to, have to, have to.

So, this is being pronounced HAHF.

The V sound gets turned to an F because of the next sound being a True T.

When these two words go together that happens a lot.

True T but then SCHWA-

have to, have to, have to, have to.

…we’re going to have to start…

And then stress on pay,

we’re going to have to start pay-ing.

…we’re going to have to start paying…

…we’re going to have to start paying for coffee?

Paying for coffee and then

we have one final reduction.

The word for pronounced fer, such a common reduction, fer, fer, paying fer coffee.

…paying for coffee?

And it goes up in pitch because it’s a yes/no question

even though he’s not expecting an answer.

It’s just a joke.

…paying for coffee?

Rachel quits her job.

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

Rachel.

Yeah.

Remind me to review with you which pot

is decaf, and which is regular.

Okay. Fine. Gunther, you know what, I am a terrible waitress.

Do you know why I’m a terrible waitress?

Because I don’t care. I don’t care. I don’t care which pot is regular and which pot is decaf.

I don’t care where the tray spot is. I just don’t care. This is not what I want to do.

So, I don’t think I should do it anymore.

I’m going to give you my week’s notice.

What?

Gunther, I quit.

Does this mean we’re going to have to

start paying for coffee?

You want to get personal.

Where were you born?

Huntsville, Alabama. But technically, I don’t

remember that part.

>> First job?

>> Soldier. Straight out of high school.

>> Left the ranks a full bird colonel.

>> Then?

>> Spy.

>> Where?

>> It was the Cold War, we were everywhere.

>> Now?

Been riding a desk for the past six years,

trying to figure out where future enemies

are coming from. Never occurred to me they

would be coming from above.

Now the analysis.

You want to get personal.

I love this sentence because there’s such

contrast between the stressed and unstressed

syllables and words. He really stresses the

word ‘you’ at the beginning.

You want to get personal.

You want to get personal. And in the stressed

syllable of ‘per’, the first syllable is also

stressed, but the three words ‘want to get’

are all much lower in pitch, much less clear,

flatter than the ‘you’, up-down shape, higher

pitch of the stressed word ‘you’.

You want to get personal.

Listen to just ‘want to get’.

Want to get–

Want to get– want to get– want to get–

Much less clear than ‘you’. Now listen to

the word ‘you’ with ‘want to get’ together,

stressed and then unstressed.

You want to get–

A big difference there in the quality of those

stressed versus unstressed syllables. We have

a reduction. ‘want to’ becomes ‘wanna’.

Want to get– want to get– want to get–

And the word ‘get’ has a Stop T because the

next word begins with a consonant.

Get, get, get, get, want to get, want to get.

Want to get–

want to get– want to get personal.

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Okay, let’s get back to the analysis.

You want to get personal.

Then the unstressed syllables, son–, al–,

both said really quickly, those both have

the schwa, and in both of these cases, they’re

followed by a syllabic consonant, that means

the consonant takes over the schwa. We don’t

make a separate vowel sound. So we go right

from S into N. Sn, sn, sn– person, person.

And then right from N into L, without making

any kind of vowel sound. Nal, nal, nal, nal.

Now, this is a Dark L, which does have a vowel-like quality.

You want to get personal.

Whoa! Different day, different outfit, important announcement. Did you know that with this

video, I made a free audio lesson that you can download? In fact, I’m doing this for

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free downloadable audio lesson. It’s where you’re going to train all of the things that

you’ve learned about pronunciation in this video. Back to the lesson.

Now, here is how Americans make the L in this case. It’s a Dark L, it’s at the end of a thought group, it doesn’t link into anything.

We make that without lifting the tongue tip.

Can you do that too? We make the Dark L with the back part of the tongue. Uhl, uhl. Back part of the tongue presses down a little bit, uhl, uhl, while the tongue tip stays forward.

I find that most of my students are so heavily trained in lifting their tongue tip, that it’s

a very difficult habit to break. I want to challenge you to do this. Per-so-nal–

uhl– your tongue is lifted for the N, bring it back down, nal– uhl– and use the back of the tongue to make the dark sound for the

Dark L.

Personal.

Where were you born?

She’s speaking quickly here without much emotion,

very straight faced. Where were you born?

Where and born, both are stressed words there.

Where were you born?

They both have that up-down shape, were you–

on the other hand, are much flatter, much faster. Were you, were you, were you.

The word ‘born’ this would be written with the AW as in law vowel, followed by R. When these

two sounds come together in the same syllable, like here, the AW as in law vowel is not pure.

It’s not AW but it’s owh. My lips round more, the tongue pulls back a little bit, born,

born. Where were you born?

Where were you born?

Huntsville, Alabama but technically, I don’t remember that part.

So this is a longer thought group. He says:

Huntsville, Alabama but technically, I don’t remember that part. No brakes. If it’s no brakes, then that means it’s one thought group.

So I’ve written in here with Huntsville Alabama, on this slide, and on the next slide, is the

second half of the thought group, but he didn’t actually put a break there.

Huntsville, Alabama but technically, I don’t remember that part.

The stress of these multi-syllable words, we have huntsville, first syllable stress,

Alabama, so the most stressed syllable is

bam–, and the first level has a little secondary

stress, so I would put the primary stress marker there, secondary stress marker there.

The other two A’s are schwas. Actually, just a few weeks ago on the channel, I made a video

of how to go over the pronunciation of the 50 states and their capitals, we talked about

the four A’s in this word. Click here or in the video description to check out that video

that goes over the pronunciation of the 50 states.

Huntsville, Alabama

Huntsville, Alabama but technically, I don’t remember that part.

But technically, I don’t remember that part.

Our stressed syllables, very clear, but tech–

but technically, I don’t remember that part.

Those have higher pitch, they have the up-down shape, that curve. The rest is a little bit

flatter. It’s either leading up to a peak, or falling away from a peak.

But tech– but, but–

But technically, I don’t remember that part.

Now we have an ending T, and a beginning T.

Those will combine into a single sound, one true T, but technically, but technically.

But technically, but technically, but technically.

He’s pronouncing this word as three syllables,

first syllable stress, tech– and the ch here makes a hard K sound. Tech-nic– the C here

makes a hard K sound. Tech-nic-lly– and thenhe’s not pronouncing this at all, just an

LY ending then. Tech-nic-lly– technically.

Technically.

Technically, I don’t remember that part.

And all of these words linked together really smoothly. Technically, I don’t re–

Okay what’s happening with the N apostrophe

T contraction? We have lots of different ways we pronounce that. And in this particular case, I think I’m actually hearing the whole thing dropped. Doh remember– doh, doh. So we have the D consonant, oh diphthong, and then I hear that linking right on to the next sound, which is the R.

I don’t remember that part. Now, it doesn’t sound like ‘do’ because ‘do’

has different sounds. It has the D consonant, and the oo vowel. So the fact that we have

this oh diphthong, that’s how we know it’s the negative. Doh– don’t remember. Don’t

remember. But I actually, I definitely don’t hear the T. For a second, I listened to it

on a loop, I was asking myself: do I hear a light quick N? I don’t think I really do.

I think it’s just dropped. Don’t remember.

Don’t remember. Don’t remember. Don’t remember.

Doh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Just the OH diphthong right into the R. Isn’t it crazy? We can pronounce

this contraction without the N apostrophe T at all, without the part that makes it a

negative. But I still hear it as that word because of the OH diphthong.

I don’t remember that part.

Are you pronouncing this word? Remember? Try to pronounce it with the schwa. Remember, re-re-re,

remember

remember,

I want you to listen to just the last three words. Remember that part.

Remember that part.

Kind of mumbly, it’s at the end of the thought group, it’s losing the vocal energy, and when

I’m listening to the word ‘that’, which would have a Stop T in most cases because it’s followed

by the P here, I actually think I am also not hearing that. That part, that part, that

part, that part, that part. I think he drops

TH, quick AA vowel, and then right into the P. That part, that part, that part, that part.

The ending T, he’s also not really pronouncing that too clearly. I would still write that

as a Stop T, I don’t think it’s dropped, that would sound like par– and I don’t hear that.

I hear: part, part, and that more abrupt end is the Stop T. But let’s listen to these last

three words on a loop again and think about how you have to simplify everything in your

mouth to be able to say this this quickly and this unclearly. It’s a little bit mumbled.

This is pretty common for how words come out at the end of a thought group.

They’re definitely less clear.

Remember that part.

First job?

First job? First job? Two stressed words.

They’re both a little bit longer. First job?

And pitch goes up at the end because she’s asking the question. She wants to know what

was his first job. Notice how we’re pronouncing the T here. This T is dropped because it comes

between two consonants. That’s really common to do that when we have an ending cluster

like the ST cluster in ‘first’ or ‘just’ or ‘must’. When it’s followed by a word that

begins with a consonant, you’ll hear that T dropped. That helps to link the two words

together more smoothly. So right from the S into the J sound. First job. Also note we

have the letter O here. I know my students see that and they want to do some lip rounding.

No lip rounding in this sound. It’s the AH as in father vowel. It is not job, actually,

this reminds me of Tom who’s a Rachel’s English teacher. His name is the same, single syllable

has the letter O. It makes the AH as in father vowel. And even so, almost all of his students

say something like: Tom, Tom, instead of Tom, ah-ah, with no lip rounding, even though he

reminds them it’s not an OH sound, it’s the AH vowel.

We see the letter O, we have such a strong association. But in English, one of the challenges

is to break your association between what you see on the page, and the actual natural

American pronunciation. Because as you can see, we change things quite a bit.

We drop sounds, vowels are not what we think they are, so the vowel in ‘job’ and in the word

‘Tom’ is the AH as in father vowel. Oh–

First job?

>> First job?

>> Soldier.

Soldier. Soldier. Two-syllable word, first

syllable stress, soldier.

DI here is pronounced as a J sound, which we would write in IPA: dj– soldier, soldier.

Soldier. Soldier. Soldier.

And the L here, this is the break of the syllable.

Soldier. So the L comes after the vowel. That makes it a Dark L. He made it without lifting

his tongue tip. I make it without lifting my tongue tip. Soldier. Soldier. I’m not lifting

my tongue tip at all there, I’m using the back of my tongue for a more dark sound, for

the Dark L. I challenge you to do the same thing. Do not lift your tongue tip. An L is

a Dark L when it comes after the vowel or diphthong in a syllable. Soldier.

Soldier. Soldier. Soldier.

Straight out of high school.

Five-word thought group, the word ‘straight’ and ‘high’, most stressed. School also has

some length, but it’s at the end of the thought group, the pitch isn’t as high. Straight out

of high school. Straight out of high school.

Straight out of high school.

We have an STR beginning cluster, strai–

strai– the T can come out as a CH there.

Stch– strai– strai– straight out of– straight

out of–

Just make sure you make it light. Don’t put too much ch– air in it. Strai– strai–

then these four letters, a-I-g-h, all make the

AY diphthong.

Straight out of high school.

All of the words in this thought group are really smoothly connected. We have a couple

Flap T’s linking words together, like connecting ‘straight out’. Straight out, straight out,

dadadada.

Straight out ah– straight out ah–

Another Flap T connecting here.Straight outta–

The word ‘of’ reduced, it’s just the schwa.

Straight outta– straight outta– straight

outta– straight outta– dadadadada– two flaps linking those words.

Straight out of high school.

High school. High school. High school.

And again, we have a Dark L. I guarantee you he is not lifting his tongue tip. Don’t lift

your tongue tip as you practice this.

High school.

Left the ranks a full bird colonel.

So, the word ‘left’ stressed, ‘ranks’ also sort of stressed, but also not totally clear.

We’ll talk about that in a second. Then the

last three words, even more clear, even longer.

Full bird colonel.

Left the ranks a full bird colonel.

So the rhythm pattern of these first four

words, I would say, is still: da-da-da-da.

Stressed, unstressed, stressed, unstressed.

Even though ‘left’ and ‘ranks’ are said more

quickly, it really slows down then on ‘full

bird colonel’. He’s really stressing all three

of those words.

Left the ranks a full bird colonel.

Left the ranks, left the ranks. T is dropped,

it comes between two other consonants.

Left the, left the. So a quick F goes right into

the voiced TH, which doesn’t come through

the teeth here, because it’s beginning an

unstressed word. Left the, the, the, the–

I make that sound by just pressing my tongue

on the backs of the teeth. It’s not at the

roof of the mouth, that would make it sound

like a d, but the tongue tip doesn’t come

through the teeth either. Left the, left the,

left the ranks. Left the ranks a–

Left the ranks–

The N here is the NG sound because it’s followed

by the letter k. Ranks, ranks, ranks. And

I really feel like it’s very subtle here.

He says this word quickly, a little unclearly.

It almost sounds like ‘rakes’ without the

ng to me.

Left the ranks– left the ranks– left the

ranks a full bird colonel.

Full– we have a Dark L. Don’t lift your tongue

tip. Try it: full, full, full bird. ‘bird’

has the UR vowel, and that’s overtaken by

the R so you don’t actually need to try to

make a vowel at all. Make the B sound, the

R sound, the D sound. Bird, bird.

Now the word ‘colonel’. Okay, that’s obviously…

This is one of the weirdest words in American English as far as letters and sounds.

Full bird colonel. Full bird colonel. Full

bird colonel.

We have the K sound, which we get from the

letter C, then we have the same sound combination

as in ‘bird’, the ur vowel and the R consonant.

Where’s the R, exactly? So where’s the O?

Don’t know. Where’s this O? Don’t know. It’s

just very strange. I don’t know how this word

evolved, it’d be interesting to look into

that. Colonel. Two-syllable word, first syllable

stress, K sound, R sound: ker– ker–, and

then a very quick: nl, nl, nl. And Dark L

sound at the end. Colonel.

Colonel.

Then?

Voice goes up in pitch, she’s asking a question,

it’s not a statement. She’s saying what’s

next? Then?

Then?

Spy.

Spy. So his voice has a little bit of popcorn

quality. There’s not a full engagement of

the air. Quick up-down shape of a stressed

syllable. That is a statement. It comes down.

Spy.

Where?

Now this one also comes down and she also

has a popcorn quality of her voice. Uhhhh–

where? Where? Instead of: where? Where?

Which has more volume, more air.

Where?

Now, why does this one go down in pitch, where

the other question statement went up in pitch?

That’s a great question. The general rule

is for the most part, if it’s a yes/no question,

it goes up in pitch, if not, it goes down

in pitch. But there are always exceptions

when she said ‘then?’ going up here, that

was not a yes/no question, but going up made

us know it was a question. Here, the pitch

of ‘where’ it goes down. We still know it’s

a question.

Where?

The word ‘where’ as a statement wouldn’t exist,

wouldn’t really make sense. And I’m trying

to think: would I ever make the intonation

of ‘where’ go up? And I would. I would if

someone had told me where something was, and

I didn’t hear them, and I needed them to say

it again, then I would say: where? But this

is her first time asking the question: where?

She’s making it a statement.

Where?

It was the cold war, we were everywhere.

Okay, this is interesting. We have: it was

the cold war. It was the cold war. Stress

on ‘cold’. It was the– those three words,

hmm, how are they pronounced?

It was the cold war–

I’m hearing a Z sound, I’m hearing a schwa.

It was the cold war– it was the cold war–

Now, I know that the phrase grammatically

would be ‘it was the cold war.’ but he says

those three words really quickly, just combines

them into two sounds. It was the cold war–

it was the cold war–

It was the cold war–

We were everywhere.

Then the words: we were everywhere. We were–

pitch goes up, energy goes up. We were eh–

we have the peak on the EH vowel, everywhere.

And then the pitch comes down. We were everywhere.

We were everywhere. All connected, smoothly

together.

We were everywhere.

>> We were everywhere.

>> Now?

Now? Now? Again, her pitch goes up, showing

it’s a question. Now, this is a word that

we could make as a statement. Now? Like if

someone said: hey rachel! When are you leaving?

Now. So by making the intonation go up, now?

It’s inviting that question by a conversation.

Now?

Now? Now? Now?

Been riding a desk for the past six years,

trying to figure out where future enemies

are coming from.

Then he has a really long thought group. Actually,

let’s add the end of this thought group here

to this slide. So we have lots of words that

are a little bit longer, a little bit clearer.

Been riding a desk for the past six years–

Been riding a desk for the past six years,

trying to figure out where our future enemies are coming from.

Trying to figure out where our future enemies

are coming from.

Future. A little bit of length on ‘enemies

co–‘, but we have some reductions,

what are you noticing? First let’s look at the first word.

Been riding,

EE is pronounced as the letter IH, that’s

actually not a reduction, but it’s just the

pronunciation, but it’s said very quickly.

Been, been, been, been. Been riding, been

riding–

Been riding, been riding, been riding a desk–

Riding a desk– riding a– riding a–

NG sound is changed to just an N sound.

Ridin a–

And that links right into the schwa. Ridin a– ridin a–

Been riding a,

Now, we have ‘desk for the’.

I want you to listen to those three words, and listen especially for the K.

Been riding a desk for the–

Desk for the– desk for the– desk for the–

K is dropped.

Comes between two consonant sounds,

we sometimes do that when we’re linking things together. Desk for the–

Been riding a desk for the–

Desk for the– desk for the–

‘for the’, both said really quickly, we have

a for reduction, the word ‘the’,

tongue tip does not need to come through the teeth for that TH, you can just touch it at the back

of the teeth, the back of the front teeth.

For the, for the, for the, for the.

How fast can you say that? For the, for the, for the. Desk for the, desk for the.

Desk for the– desk for the– desk for the

past six years.

Now look, let’s look ahead.

We have STS, a cluster, the T comes between two other constant sounds.

Do you think it’s dropped? I think

it is. Let’s hear.

The past six years. The past six years. The

past six years.

Past six years. Past six years. Past six years.

Okay, yup. It is dropped. Past six.

Those two words connected with the single S and actually, I’m gonna write a little bit of

length on that word too. Past six years, past

six years.

I think they all have a little bit of length to them.

The past six years. The past six years. The

past six years, trying to figure out where

future enemies are coming from.

Trying to figure out– okay, that has… That’s

not how it’s pronounced.

The TR, I am hearing a CHR, trying, trying, that’s really common.

Now the ING, again, he’s dropping the G sound.

He’s making that an N sound. Tryin, tryin,

tryin. The word ‘to’ this word is reduced

to just the schwa. We don’t usually drop the

beginning sound, we do make that a Flap T

sometimes. But I have noticed we do sometimes

drop that altogether when the sound before

is an N, and that’s what’s happening here.

Tryna– tryna– tryna–

Trying to figure out,

Trying to figure out, trying to figure out,

trying to figure out. Figure out. Figure out.

Figure out. Figure out.

Also said pretty quickly, out, we have a Stop

T here, figure out, figure out, figure out.

Because the next word begins with a consonant,

the W sound.

Trying to figure out,

where our future enemies–

WH word but he makes just a clean W sound.

There’s no wh, wh, wh, where in front, it’s

just: where, where. The word ‘our’ pretty

unclear. I would probably write that schwa R,

it’s reduced. Where our, where our, where

our, where our.

Where our future enemies– where our future

enemies– where our future enemies–

You know, I would normally write this schwa

R, but I actually almost think I’m just hearing

it like a schwa. Where our– where our future–

where our future enemies are–

That’s not too common, but I do think that’s

what he’s doing here. Where our future– where

our future enemies are–

He’s just speaking so quickly. This particular

word is said so quickly. Now, when it’s all

linked together, I totally get it. It would

sound weird to pronounce ‘our’ that way if

it wasn’t linked in as part of the sentence.

Where our future enemies–

This word ‘our’ and this word ‘are’, both

often reduced to something that sounds pretty

much the same, schwa R. Of course, over here,

I said the R was dropped but here, I do hear it.

Enemies are– enemies are– enemies are–

ending Z sound linking right into the next sound.

Zar, zar– enemies are–

Enemies are–

coming

from–

Are coming from– are coming from– are coming

from– so he has three ING verbs here, and

for each one of them, he’s changed the NG

sound into an end N sound.

I do tell my students not to do this all the time.

It just doesn’t sound quite right, mixed in with other things

that students tend to do. There will be some

native speakers that do it all the time, that

will definitely sound like an accent, a regional

accent in the us, and that’s fine. Especially,

you know, if you live there, you might want

to pick that up. Although people in the US

move around so much, I can’t say that, you

know, everyone in a particular region speaks

that way. A lot of people would speak with

a more standard accent. And that’s what I teach.

So I just want to talk about that here, he’s

done it three times, a student watching this

might think: oh, it’s… We should be doing

this all the time. I wouldn’t say that.

The last word ‘from’, not reduced. Sometimes,

we reduce this word to: from, from, but the

vowel is not reduced. It is the UH as in butter

vowel. We generally don’t reduce the last

word in a sentence, or a thought group.

Coming from,

Never occurred to me they would be coming from above.

So let’s talk about stress. Never occurred

to me they would be coming from above.

And the most stress on that last word because this is what is unusual.

The enemies are coming from above.

Never occurred to me they would be coming

from above.

Never occurred to me they would be coming

from above.

Never occurred to me they would be coming

from above.

Also, grammatically, we would have the word

‘it’ here. The word ‘it’ is implied. It never

occurred to me. But he doesn’t say that, he

just says: never occurred to me–

Never occurred to me–

So in the stressed syllable of occur, we have that R vowel again.

Occur– ur– occured–

So you don’t need to try to make a vowel there.

It’s really the R sound. Occurred. Occurred.

Occurred.

A little bit of stress on the first syllable

of ne– never uh– then the R links into the

schwa. Never uh, never uh, never occurred–

Never occurred–

to me–

Never occurred to me– occurred to me– so

the ED ending here is a little light D sound,

not released. Then he makes the word ‘to’

with a true T, and the vowel is reduced to

the schwa. Occurred to– occurred to– do

you hear that D sound in my vocal cords before

I make the T? Occurred to– occurred to me–

occurred to me–

Occurred to me– occurred to me– occurred

to me

they would be coming from above.

So we have the stressed syllable: occurred–

then we have ‘to me they would be’, all of

these words before the next stressed word.

To me they would be coming–

To me they would be, to me they would be,

to me they would be, to me they would be.

A little bit flatter in pitch but you don’t

have much of that up-down shape.

To me they would be, to me they would be, to me they would be. Now, I hope you’re noticing the

L in ‘would’ is always silent. To me they

would be, to me they would be.

A very light D sound in the vocal cords here,

again, not released. That would be: they would be.

They would be. They would be.

We don’t hear that. They would be, they would

be, they would be. That’s what we hear.

They would be. Little D sound, the vocal cords

are vibrating, that’s a voiced sound, but

it’s not released, I go right into the B sound.

To me they would be–

coming from above.

Coming from above.

We have interesting stress here. He’s playing

with it a little bit because of the surprise

of the enemies coming from above, from outer space.

Coming from above. Da-da-da-da-da.

Really stressing that last syllable.

Now, here we have an ING word, he does pronounce that as an ING word. He makes the NG sound

instead of an N sound. Coming, coming, coming,

coming, coming from, coming from.

Now, here I probably would write this as the

from reduction with a schwa instead of the

UH as in butter vowel. Coming from, coming

from above. Coming from above.

Coming from above.

The last thing I want to talk about is he

does do a little lift here: from above.

When I was practicing it one time, I did it with the link: from a, from a, from a, from above,

from above. But no, it’s not how he does it.

He says: from above, from above, from– little

break, above. Putting that little break there

makes that word even more stressed. If we

linked it into the word before, it would sound

a little bit more conversational. But by putting

a little lift there, a little break in the

sound, it brings more stress to that word.

Wow. The enemies are coming from above.

Coming from above.

Let’s listen to this whole conversation one

more time

You want to get personal.

Where were you born?

Huntsville, Alabama. But technically, I don’t

remember that part.

>> First job?

>> Soldier. Straight out of high school.

>> Left the ranks a full bird colonel.

>> Then?

>> Spy.

>> Where?

>> It was the cold war, we were everywhere.

>> Now?

Been riding a desk for the past six years,

trying to figure out where future enemies

are coming from. Never occurred to me they

would be coming from above.

Too tight?

Uhmmm

A little?

No. Leave it for now. We’ll see.

‘kay.

If it feels too tight later, I’ll let you know.

So, do you have a vision?

Mm-hmm.

What is it?

I want to take with your permission, I’d like to go to here.

What do you think David? I don’t know. That might be too much.

You should try it. It’ll always grow.

I know, but in the meantime, what if I hate it?

Well, it won’t be too short. I think it’ll be good because it’s going to have layers

and movement.

Can you do one inch longer than that?

Okay, fine.

Okay, thank you.

Darn it.

Darn it (laugh). I just don’t have the balls.

Well, but you could grow a set.

I know, I could, but I’m too busy feeding a baby and building a business and all that.

Yep.

And now the analysis

Too tight?

Too tight? Tight? Pitch going up at the end. She was asking me a question.

Too tight?

Too tight? Notice she had a clear stop T at the end of the word tight.

Tight?

Tight. So, that sounds different than the word tie, which has the same sounds only no T.

Tight. Tie. Tight.

Tight?

The word tight is a lot more abrupt because of this stop than tie, which has more of a curve in the voice. Too tight?

Too tight?

Umm…

A little?

Then she said “a little?” as in a little too tight? A little? Again, her voice went up in pitch at the end.

Umm…

A little?

A little? Little is a really tough word. The double T is a flap, so it sounds like the American D.

It might sound like the R in your language. Little. Little. Little.

A little?

It also has a dark L, and when I say this word, I don’t move the front top of my tongue

away from the roof of the mouth between the flap and the L. Little.

I go from using the front of the tongue to the back, but I don’t actually move the front of the tongue.

A little? A little?

A little?

No. Leave it for now. We’ll see.

‘kay.

No. Leave it for now. Leave it for now. A couple things to note. How did I pronounce the word for?

For now.

With the schwa. So, the schwa is absorbed by the R sound.

For. For. Leave it for. Leave it for now.

Leave it for now.

Also, a stop T in it. Less time to pronounce it. No release. It for. It for. It for.

Leave it for now.

Leave it for now. Leave it. Leave it.

One way that can help you connect these two words is to maybe think of the V sound as beginning the word it.

Vit. Leave it. Leave it. Leave it for now.

Leave it.

Leave it for now. We’ll see.

We’ll see. We’ll see. We’ll see. How did I pronounce we will?

We’ll see.

The contraction. We’ll. We’ll. We’ll.

I made a schwa sound here, and then the dark L was the dominant sound.

We’ll. We’ll, uhl,uhluhl. Where the back of the tongue pulls back. We’ll. We’ll see.

We’ll see.

I don’t lift the tip of my tongue to finish the dark L. We’ll, ul.

I can leave it down. I’m just using the back of my tongue to make the dark L. We’ll see. We’ll see.

We’ll see.

‘kay.

My sister-in-law said a really quick, ‘kay. ‘kay, ‘kay.

‘kay.

This is short for the word okay.

You’ll hear it shortened to K a lot. K. K. K.

‘kay.

Now let me show you what makes exercises like these special in the academy. You not only have the analysis but you have a soundboard where you can play with listening and repeating. As you do this you can really improve your skills in linking, reductions, perfecting vowels and developing a feel of American English.

Each conversation is broken down into little phrases and you can listen to them over and over doing the play it, say it method which will really help you sound more natural.

Do you have a vision?

You can listen at a regular pace.

Do you have a vision?

And slow motion, this helps you figure out what exactly is being said, what exactly you hear, which is so important for the flow of conversation. So let’s just try this now. I’m going to play this three times. After each time, you repeat it back just like you hear it.

Do you have a vision?

I’ve found when my students work like this with the play it, say it method that they’re able to make corrections to themselves without me even saying anything. Their ears and their mouth,

their body just starts working together to make corrections in a way that makes them sound so natural.

Leave it for now.

So if this is something that looks interesting to you,

I’d like to go to here.

As a training tool then head over to RachelsEnglishAcademy.com

What if I hate it?

Oh, I don’t think you’re going to hate it?

Repeating like this builds those pathways in your brain, builds your understanding of the American sound and builds your American voice. Now let’s jump back to that analysis.

If it feels too tight later, I’ll let you know.

If it feels too tight later, I’ll let you know. If it feels. The word feels was longer. It had that up-down swell. If it feels. If it feels.

If it feels—

The word if was really short. F-feels. F-feels.

There was almost no vowel, just a very quick —ih, but if I had just said f-feels and just made the F sound attaching it to the next word, she would have known what I meant. Another stop T here, because the next word begins with a consonant. F-feels. F-feels.

If it feels–

too tight later–

Too tight later. Too tight later. So, unlike the word T-O, which can often reduce, the word T-O-O never reduces.

It will have the -ooh as in boo vowel. If it feels too tight later.

If it feels too tight later–

What do you notice about tight? Again, a stop T. The next sound is a consonant. Too tight later. Later. Later. How did I pronounce that T?

Too tight

later.

That T was again flap T. Later. Later. Later.

Later

I’ll let you know.

I’ll let you know. The word ‘I’ll’ reduced. So it sounds like the word ‘all’. I’ll let you know. I’ll let you know.

I’ll let you know.

I think you’re probably noticing the strong -ch sound instead of a T. Let you. Let you.

I’ll let you know.

Let you know.

This often happens in American English when the T sound is followed by the word you or your.

Let you know.

What else about the word you? The -ooh vowel was reduced to the schwa. Let you. Let you.

I’ll let you know.

I’ll let you know. This is a pretty common phrase. I’ll let you know. Practice that a couple times.

I’ll let you know.

I’ll let you know. I’ll let you know.

So, do you have a vision?

Mm-hmm.

So. I kind of drew that word out a little bit.

So,

So.This is a diphthong. The OH as in No diphthong.

So, make sure that your lips do move they will round more. So. For the second half of the diphthong.

So,

Do you have a vision?

Do you have a vision? Do you have a vision?

The -ooh vowel in do was very fast. It could even be interpreted as a schwa.

Do you have? Do you have? Do you have?

Do you have?

a vision?

Also, the word ‘you’ is very fast.

Do you have a vision?

And it could have been the schwa, but I think I actually am hearing a real -ooh vowel there

although it’s fast. Do you have a vision?

Do you have a vision?

Have a. Have a. Here we have an ending consonant linking into a beginning vowel.

Remember, we’re talking about sounds when we deal with these rules of linking and other things, not letters.

So, even though the letter E is here, it’s silent. The final sound is the V sound.

Have a. Have a. Have a. So, we can link that really nicely into the article -ah. Have a vision?

Do you have a vision?

Vision. Here the letter S makes the -zh sound. Vision. Vision.

Vision?

Do you have a vision?

Do you have a vision? And my voice is going up in pitch at the end. I’m asking her a yes-no question.

Do you have a vision?

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. This is a common response. Yes. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Do you have a response like that in your language?

That’s sort of just a grunt that doesn’t even involve opening your mouth? Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. That’s a common one in American English.

Mm-hmm.

What is it?

I want to take with your permission.

What is it? What is it? How did we say that so quickly and link things together?

First of all, the T here comes between two vowel sounds. So, I linked those words with a flap T.

What is it? What is it?

What is it?

And also, the letter S makes the Z sound in this word, and the Z did connect into that next word.

Zit. Zit. What is it?

What is it?

What is it? So, we linked all three of these words together by an ending consonant to beginning vowel link.

What is it? What is it?

What is it?

Try that with me and follow the same stress pattern where ‘is’ is the most stressed.

What is it?

What is it? What is it?

What is it?

I want to take, with your permission.

I want to take. I want to take. So, you can probably notice that she is saying wanna, not want to.

I want to–

I want to take.

So, she’s combining these words, dropping the T sound.

Want to. Want to. With the schwa at the end. I want to take. I want to take.

I want to take

with your permission.

With your permission. She’s hesitating here a little bit.

With your permission. With your permission.

Because she knows she needs my permission to do this. Your permission.

How does she pronounce the word ‘your’?

Your

permission.

It’s reduced. Schwa R. Your. Your.

Your–

permission.

Your permission.

With your permission, I’d like to go to here.

What do you think, David?

I’d like to go to here. Okay, a couple interesting things here.

I’d like to go to here.

So, she’s saying I would like. I’d.

She won’t do this if I don’t give her permission, but this is what she wants to do.

I’d like–

So, she’s using the contraction I would to I’d. I’d.

I’d like–

to go to here.

I’d like to go to here. Okay. The word to. It appears twice. Both times, she uses the schwa.

The first time it’s a clear true T. Like to. I’d like to.

I’d like to.

T-T-T. But the second time you barely hear it. I’d like to go to here.

I’d like to go to here.

It’s a light flap. So, she made a true T here

because the sound before was unvoiced, an unvoiced consonant K. K.

I’d like to go to here.

And because this sound is unvoiced, she’s going ahead and making the T sound unvoiced as well.

Like to. Like to.

I’d like to.

So, it’s a K sound. She’s stopping the air and she’s not releasing the K. Like to.

She’s going straight from the stop of air into the true T sound. Like to. Like to.

I’d like to. Like to. Like to.

So, you might not even hear the K. I’d like to. I’d like to.

But the back of her tongue is moving up to the soft palette to make the K.

A native speaker will hear that as a K sound even though the K isn’t released before the T.

I’d like to go to here.

What do you think, David?

What do you think, David? Okay, that was really unclear. Very mumbly. What do you think? What do you think?

What do you think? With a flap T here, dropping the D sound and just making a flap

to connect these two words, but my flap was pretty sloppy. What do you. What do you. What do you.

What do you think?

Not a clear flap against the roof of the mouth at all. The word ‘you’ was reduced.

Instead of the -ooh vowel, I used the schwa. What do you think?

That is a very common phrase. What do you think?

What do you think?

What do you think? This is how you ask somebody’s opinion. What do you think?

What do you think, David?

I don’t know. That might be too much.

You should try it.

Okay. Then I got really mumbly before that might be too much.

Listen to just that little bit again while I tried to figure out what I wanted to say.

I don’t know. That might be too much.

I don’t know. That might be too much. Very unclear. A native speaker would definitely understand aow as I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. That might be too much. But I basically didn’t make a D sound.

I don’t know. I don’t know.

I don’t know.

That might be too much.

I don’t know. I don’t know. Would be a much clearer way to pronounce that.

I was mumbling. I didn’t want to do what she wanted to do.

I felt bad about it. I was trying to figure out what to say about it.

I don’t know.

I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. A very unclear way to say I don’t know,

but Americans will certainly do that. I don’t know.

I don’t know. That might be too much.

And I’m continuing my mumble here. That might be too much.

That might be too much. That might be too much.

I’m really only saying an -ah or an -uh kind of vowel here.

That might

be too much.

I’m not really saying the -th, and I am not even really making a T sound.

That might be too much. Eh-Eh-Eh-Eh. That might be too much.

That might–

be too much.

That might be too much. I am making a stop T at the end of might. Might be.

That might be too much. That might be too much.

You should try it.

You should try it. You should try it.

Okay, what about the word should? She’s not really making the final D sound.

Now, the L in the word should is always silent.

You should

try it.

It’s not part of the sounds, but the D usually is or sometimes is, but we often drop that in conversation,

especially when the next sound is a consonant. You shuh-shuh-shuh.

Uh. So, just the -uh vowel. You shuh. You shuh.

You should.

Try that. You shuh. You shuh. You should try it.

You should–

try it.

You should try it. You should try it.

You should try it.

Now, so often, people make a -tr sound and make it a -chr sound. Try.

But my sister-in-law actually didn’t do that. She made a pretty clear tr sound. Try it. Try it.

Try it.

You should try it.

You should try it. Try it. Vowel to vowel link here, and then a stop T. Try it.

Try it.

So, she made everything there really smooth, really connected. You should try it. You should try it.

You should try it. You should try it.

You should try it.

It’ll always grow.

It’ll. It’ll. This is just like the word little that we discussed earlier.

It’ll–

It will. And it’s a flap that comes between the -ih vowel and the schwa L or the dark L here,

but you don’t need to bring your tongue back down after the flap. You can just put it up to the roof of the mouth for the flap and then move the back of your tongue for the dark L. It’ll. It’ll. It’ll always grow.

It’ll–

always grow.

Always grow. Always grow.

Notice she doesn’t really make an L sound there. It’s more just a clear al, al. Always.

Always–

Always instead of always.

So, that’s a shortcut you can use for that word. Always. Always. It’ll always grow.

Always–

It’ll always grow.

I know, but,

I know, but. I know, but. Really stressing the word know, there. I know, but.

I know, but.

Stop T at the end of but. An abrupt end there.

I know, but in the meantime, what if I hate it?

In the meantime. In the meantime. This is a pretty common phrase.

Mean is very stressed there compared to the other words. In the. In the.

In the meantime–

In the meantime. In the meantime. This means until then.

In the meantime.

Shortcut with a phrase like ‘in the’. You have an N and the voiced -th sound.

In the meantime.

You can make the N with the top part of the tongue touching the roof of the mouth,

even with the tip of the tongue out. So the tip of the tongue can already be making the -th shape

with the tip through the teeth. Nn the. In the.

You can make the N with the part of the tongue that’s further back while the tip of your tongue

prepares for the next sound.

This will help you make that more quickly. In the. In the meantime.

In the meantime,

what if I hate it?

What if I hate it? What if I hate it? How did I say that so quickly and link those words together?

What if I hate it?

Well, there’s only one word that was really stressed there, that was really long, and that was the word ‘hate’.

What if I hate it?

What if I hate it? The rest of the words were very fast.

And we linked together the words what and if with the flap T.

What if. What if. What if I.

What if I–

What if I. The F linked right into the I diphthong. What if I.

What if I–

What if I hate it?

What if I hate it? What if I hate it? And again, we had a flap T linking hate and it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it.

Hate it?

And a stop T at the end of it. What if I hate it?

What if I hate it?

I think you’re probably starting to notice that we very rarely make true Ts.

Okay, maybe very rarely is an exaggeration, but more often than not,

a T is either a stop T or a flap T.

What if I hate it?

Well, it won’t be too short.

I think it’ll be good because it’s going to have layers and movement.

Well, it won’t be too short. It won’t be. It won’t be. What about those Ts again?

Well,

it won’t be–

She is making her sentence more smooth. She’s linking words together more easily by making those stops.

Well, it won’t be. It won’t be too short.

It won’t be–

too short.

Again, too with the OO vowel not reduced. We don’t reduce that word.

Too short.

She’s stressing the word too. It won’t be too short. It’s the main word, the main stressed word of that sentence.

Well, it won’t be too short.

It won’t be too short.

All of the words before are leading up to it, and the word after it is falling away from it.

It won’t be too short.

So, she’s saying, it might be short, but it won’t too short.

It won’t be too short. I think it’ll be good.

I think it’ll be good. Again, the ‘it

will’ contraction, it’ll. It’ll. With that flap it’ll.

It’ll be good.

I think it’ll be good.

I think it’ll be good. Think and good. Longer than I. It’ll be. I think it’ll be good.

I think it’ll be good–

cuz it’s going to have layers.

Cuz it’s going to have. cuz it’s, it’s. cuz it’s.

So, she changed the word because to just cuz. Cuz.

Cuz it’s,

Cuz it’s, cuz it’s, cuz it’s. And she linked the Z into the next word, the vowel, it’s.

Cuz it’s, cuz it’s, cuz it’s. Because it is. Cuz it’s.

That’s how Americans will pronounce those three words very often. Cuz it’s, cuz it’s.

Cuz it’s–

going to have layers and.

Going to have layers and. You probably noticed ‘going to’ was pronounced ‘gonna’.

It’s going to have. It’s going to have.

It’s going to have

layers and.

Going to have layers and. Okay, which word there is the most clear, the longest, the most stressed?

Going to have layers and—

Going to have layers and. Definitely the word layers. Layers and.

Layers and—

The next word, and, was reduced to just the N sound. Layers and.

Layers and–

And the Z sound connected into the word and. S pronounced as a Z here.

It’s going to have layers and movement.

Can you do one inch longer than that?

Movement. Movement. Here she does make a nice true T. Movement.

Movement.

Can you do one inch longer than that?

Can you do one inch longer than that? I’m really stressing the word one.

Can you do one inch longer than that?

I don’t really agree with her, so this is what I’m asking for as the compromise.

Can you do one inch longer than that?

What did you notice about the word can?

Can you?

That was reduced. Can. This is usually how we pronounce this word.

When it’s a helping verb and it’s usually a helping verb, that means it’s not the main verb in the sentence. The main verb is do. So, I’m going to reduce can. Can. Can. Can you do one inch longer? One inch longer?

Can you do

one inch longer

than that?

Longer than that. Longer than that.

Longer than that?

What about the word than? Reduced. It had the schwa. Longer than. Longer than.

Longer than–

that?

Longer than that. And again, a stop T at the end of that. Longer than that.

Longer than that?

Okay, fine.

Okay, thank you.

Darn it.

Okay, fine. She’s kind of saying it quietly. She really didn’t want to agree with me at all.

Okay, fine. Okay, fine.

Okay, fine.

Okay, fine. Pitch falling off. She’s a little disappointed.

Okay, fine.

Okay, thank you.

And I said, okay, thank you. I reduced the word okay to just K. K, thank you.

Okay, thank you.

I’m also speaking quietly here. It was like painful for us to come up with something we agreed on here.

We both kind of gave up more than we wanted. So, we both kind of mumbled our agreement.

Okay, fine.

Okay, thank you.

Darn it.

Darn it. Darn it is like, oh man, I’m disappointed. That’s not how I wanted that to go.

Darn it.

Darn it. She makes a stop T at the end of it.

That’s because it’s at the end of a thought, the end of a sentence.

Darn it.

Darn it. (laughing)

I repeat what she says. Darn it. Even though I’m not disappointed.

I just don’t have the balls.

Well, but you could grow a set.

I just don’t have the balls. Okay, a couple of things. The word just. So often, we drop the T.

We do this when the next word begins with a consonant. I just don’t. I just don’t.

I just don’t—

I just don’t. This helps up connect the word.

We drop the T when it comes between two consonants all the time. I just don’t have.

I just don’t have–

Don’t have. Don’t have. Don’t. Very quick stop here.

So, it’s not a dropped T, but it’s sort of a weak stop. I just don’t have. I just don’t have.

I just don’t have–

the balls.

I just don’t have the balls. I’m stressing the words don’t and balls, and notice that the S is a Z there.

I just don’t have the balls.

Well, but you could grow a set.

Well, but you could grow a set. But you could. But you could. Again, ending T.

The word you becomes a -ch. But you. But you.

But you–

could grow a set.

And did you notice the L is silent in ‘could’?

But you could

grow a set.

Grow a set. With a stop T.

Grow a set.

If you’re unsure what these idioms mean, check out the lesson that goes with this video,

Vocab, Idioms, and Phrasal Verbs.

I just don’t have the balls.

Well, but you could grow a set.

I know, I could, but I’m too busy feeding a baby and–

I know, I could.

So, these two mini phrases have that up-down shape.

I know, I could. Again, the L in could is silent.

I know, I could–

but I’m too busy.

But I’m too busy. But I’m. But I’m. Connecting those two words with a flap T. But I’m. But I’m.

But I’m–

too busy.

Too busy. Again, the word too, not reduced. It’s got the pure -ooh vowel. Too. Too. But I’m too busy.

But I’m too busy.

Did you notice the word busy has a letter S, but the S is pronounced as a Z? Busy.

Busy.

Busy. Also, the letter U represents the -ih sound here. That doesn’t happen too often. Busy. Busy.

Busy–

feeding a baby and–

Feeding a baby and. Feeding a baby and. Stressing the stressed syllable of feed.

Feeding a baby. They both have first syllable stress.

Feeding a baby, all connected with the schwa for the word ‘a’.

Feeding a baby and–

Feeding a baby and. Baby and. The word and was reduced to just the schwa N sound.

So, it just kind of sounds like an N sound at the end of the word before. Baby and.

Baby and–

Feeding a baby and.

I’m too busy feeding a baby and building a business and all that.

Yep.

Building a business and all that. So, just like feeding a baby.

Feeding a baby,

Building has stress on the first syllable. Building a business.

Building a business.

Business also has stress on the first syllable.

So, again, these two words were linked together with the article a, pronounced shwa -uh.

Building a business. Business.

Just like in the word busy, the letter S here makes the Z sound and the letter U makes the -ih vowel.

Biz. Busy. Business.

Business

Building a business and all that.

Yep.

Business and. Again, reduce the word ‘and’ to just the schwa N sounds,

which just sounds like an N. And all that. And all that. All that. Stop T.

And all that.

Yep.

She agrees with me. She doesn’t like it, but she agrees. Yep. Yep. Very abrupt.

And all that.

Yep.

Stop P, not releasing it. Yep. Yep.

This is my sister-in-law, who cuts everyone’s hair in the family.

She has very good ideas. She’s very good at it,

but I tend to like my hair long, and she wanted to go just a little shorter.

Let’s listen to the whole dialogue again.

Too tight?

Umm…

A little?

No. Leave it for now. We’ll see.

‘kay.

If it feels too tight later, I’ll let you know. So, do you have a vision?

Mm-hmm.

What is it?

I want to take, with your permission, I’d like to go to here.

What do you think David? I don’t know. That might be too much.

You should try it. It’ll always grow.

I know, but in the meantime, what if I hate it?

Well, it won’t be too short. I think it’ll be good because it’s going to have layers and movement.

Can you do one inch longer than that?

Okay, fine.

Okay, thank you.

Darn it.

I just don’t have the balls.

Well, but you could grow a set.

I know, I could, but I’m too busy feeding a baby and building a business and all that.

Yep.

What did you do today?

Ah, Stony slept in. And that was a miracle.

And you beat my dad at golf. that has, has that happened before?

Probably not.

Dad says he’s just gotten terrible.

Today he was a little bit terrible, for him.

He says that that’s his new normal.

Maybe.

That’s unfortunate.

That’s too bad.

Now we’ll study how words reduced, linked together, how sounds were dropped to improve your listening skills and American accent.

What did you do today?

There’s one stressed word in this phrase. Can you feel what it is? Let’s listen three times.

What you do today?

What did you do today? It’s always where the pitch change happens. We have a peak of stress, a peak of melody on the word do. What did you do today? And everything either leads up to that or falls away from that.

What did you do today?

What did you, what did you, what did you, what did you. These first three words said really quickly, what did often becomes wud, we drop the T link and then just leave the D, What you do, what you.

What did you–

Whadju. So, we drop every sound except for the D what did becomes wud but then d plus j can make a j sound, jj, jj, jj, so what did you becomes whadju. Let’s write the whole thing out in IPA.

Whadju

What did you do.

What did you do today?

Do today. Do today. So the word ‘today’, the first vowel is always the schwa, never make that to. Always make that t. But the first T can be a flap if it links into a word that ends with a vowel or diphthong and that’s what I’m doing here, I’m making that a flap oops, let me write that a little bit more clearly. A flap t, do today. And then this is also a flap because it’s a d between two consonants. Flap T and flap D sound the same.

Do today.

Ah,

Ah, thinking. Sort of a mix between uh as in butter and a as in father. Ah.

Ah,

Ah, Stony slept in.

Stony slept in. Two stress syllables there. First, the first syllable of the proper noun. Stony slept in. Then, the second part of the phrasal verb. And it’s all smooth and connected.

Stony slept in.

So the word slept ends in the PT cluster. A cluster that ends in t if the next word begins with a consonant, we usually drop it if the next word begins with a vowel or diphthong, we usually say it. Let’s try to listen really closely and see what David is doing.

Stoney slept in.

Oh man, I I don’t even really feel like I hear it but slept in, slept in.

That’s not sounding right to me, so even though I’m trying to isolate a t sound, I don’t really hear it. I still think you should think of that as a true T. Super light, slept in, slept in, slept in.

Slept in.

And that was–

And that was. Little break here, breaking up thought groups thinking about what to say and the A vowel held out a little bit. A as in bat followed by n, d is dropped. And. When we have A followed by N, it’s not an but ae, a little bit of a more relaxed sound going into the uh as in butter or you could think of it as the schwa. And.

And that was–

So the N right into the th sound of that, no break. Then we have a as in bat, stop T. And then was. I would definitely say that’s reduced it’s not uh as and butter but it’s the schwa, was, was, was .

And that was–

a miracle.

A miracle. A miracle. Little two-word thought group the article. A schwa, just links right in the word, a miracle. So, no break there Miracle first syllable stress. Miracle. Miracle.

A miracle.

Now if you look this word up in IPA, you’ll see I as in sit vowel in the stressed syllable. Mir-acle.

A miracle.

Miracle when the I as in sit vowel is followed by R, it is not I as in sit. It’s more like e as in she, so it’s not me like in miss, miss, miracle me but it’s me, ee, ee meer. Miracle. Ending in a dark L don’t lift your tongue tip for that. Make that with the back part of the tongue, uhl, uhl, uhl, miracle.

A miracle.

And you beat my dad at golf.

Okay, then my sentence. What are the stress syllables there? Let’s listen three times.

And you beat my dad at golf.

And you beat, and you beat. Stop t, beat my dad at golf. So, we have stressed, unstressed, stressed, unstressed, stressed. [flap]

And you beat my dad at golf.

And, again, D dropped. And, and, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you. Smooth connection.

And you–

beat my dad at golf.

And you beat my dad at, dad at. The word at reduced stop T and the vowel reduces to the schwa, this sounds a lot like the word ‘it’ even though it’s ‘at’. Bad at, bad at golf.

bad at golf.

Golf. This word is tricky. It can be written with either the ah as in father or ah as in law vowel, I think a is a little bit more common so we have G vowel LF. So the L comes after the vowel in this syllable that means it’s a dark L. Golf. And really it blends with that vowel doesn’t it? It’s not golf but golf.

Golf.

So it can be a little bit more open for the ah vowel then a little bit more closed the back of the tongue gets even closer to the back of the throat for the dark l.

Golf. But the tongue tip never lifts.

Golf. And then finally the F. Golf.

Golf.

that has–

Stressing that and then moving up because I’m asking a question that has stop T, the ending sound in has is a Z but I change what I’m going to say. So there’s a little lift here a little break. That has, that has, that has.

that has–

That has, has that happened before?

That has, has that happened before? So then I rather than making the statement that has never happened before, I asked the question, ‘has that happened before?’ And haa, haa, has this stress, we’re going up because this is a yes no question and yes no questions generally go up and pitch which means our stressed syllables towards the end will go down and up instead of up and down.

Has that happened before?

Has that, has that. I would say the word has is reducing to the schwa, has, has, has. So then it can kind of sound like the word his, his, his, his that, has that. Stop T, not releasing it. Has that happened, happened.

Has that happened–

before?

Happened before? And my intonation is just going up and I really do get pretty high there at the end. For? For? For? Happened before?

That happened before?

Mmm,

Mmm, another thinking sound we make, Mmm, just the M consonant, Mmm.

Mmm

Probably not.

Probably not. Two stressed syllables there. Pro, probably not. Stop T to N, probably. It’s really common to reduce this to probably so we drop that. It’s just two syllables probably. Probably.

Probably not.

Dad says he’s–

Dad says he’s. Dad says he’s. So I’m stressing says dad says he’s. Now of course we say, say but when we add an S the a diphthong changes to E, says. And this letter S is a Z sound. Says. Dad says he’s.

Dad says he’s–

And I do pronounce that H there. I could have dropped it dad says he’s but I said dad says he’s, he’s, he’s. And this is short for he has, he has gotten and that letter s is a z so this letter s is going to be a z.

Dad says he’s–

Dad says he’s. So the D here in Dad it’s not released dad, but we do vibrate the vocal cords for that. Dad says he’s.

Dad says he’s–

Just gotten–

Just gotten. Stressing just, just gotten, just gotten. Even though that word is stressed, the t is still dropped. St ending cluster linking into a consonant so, so common to drop that T. Just gotten.

Just gotten–

Let’s look at the word gotten. We have g consonant, a vowel, t schwa n. When we have these sounds together, t schwa n, we do a stop T got n and we go right into the n so you can think of there as being no vowel here. Gotten, got, gotten. Not gotten. That’s not a very common pronunciation in American English but gotten, gotten.

Gotten–

Terrible.

Terrible. Three syllable word, first syllable stress, terrible. And I’m giving that a really clean clear true t and I’m even pausing just a bit before to let the stop air build up, terrible, to let that t be even more exaggerated because this is not a word that has a meaning that sort of in the middle. It’s extreme. He’s not just a little bit bad, but he’s really, really bad now, he’s terrible. Which is why there’s a little extra stop, a little extra air in that t to stress it.

Terrible.

So for this word we have a true t starting a stressed syllable e as in bed r, schwa and then b schwa dark l, ter. So I want to talk about this e followed by r. The r consonant changes some of our vowel sounds when they’re in the same syllable together like they are here and r does change a so it’s not quite te, te, but it’s te, ter, so not as much jaw drop, not as much space between the tongue and the roof of the mouth, a little bit more closed down. Teeeer, ter, terrible. And of course this is a dark l, don’t lift your tongue tip for that, bull, bull, bull. No kind of vowel sound there just b dark l, bull, bull, terrible.

Terrible.

Today he was a little bit terrible.

Today he was a little bit terrible. so we have today, quite a bit of stressed there. Today he was a little bit. Then these are more unstressed.

Today he was a little bit terrible.

Tiny bit of stress on li, little bit terrible, stress on terrible again, a true t there starting our stressed syllable.

A little bit terrible,

for him.

For him and then a little add-on for him with one stressed syllable and the word for reduced. So not for him but for, for, for him, for him, for him, for him.

For him,

today he was a little bit terrible, for him.

Today, today so very very light true t here. Earlier, I made it a flap T because the word was linking into a vowel, here it’s the beginning of his sentence really light true T but again as always schwa in that first syllable ttt today.

today —

today he was a little bit terrible, for him.

So if we listen to Just he was a little bit,

he was a little bit–

You can see how that’s all lower in pitch, less clear, less vocal energy, that is unstressed. He was up becomes he was a, he was a, he was a. The E vowel linking smoothly into the w. That’s not was, that’s was, was reduced. And that ending s is a z sound, that z links right into the schwa, he was a, he was a, he was a.

He was a little bit–

He was a little bit, he was a little bit, he was a little bit, little, little, little, little, said quickly that’s a tricky word we’ve got a flap t followed by schwa l. Little, little, little, little, little. Oops, I didn’t write that as schwa did I? Let’s change that. That should be written like this. Little, little, little, little.

He was a little bit–

The way I do this sequence, flap t schwa l is I don’t actually flap my tongue because I don’t bring it down. Li, this is a true sorry a light l starting so you do lift your tongue tip there. Li, so I lift the tongue I bring it down for the vowel then I put the tongue tip back up for the T sound. Little, but I don’t release it. I tend to leave the tongue tip up and then make the dark l sound at the back of the tongue with the tongue tip up. So if I say little my tongue starts up for the light L and it ends up for the flap T dark L. Little. It’s kind of confusing to explain because the flap t is made with the front of the tongue so it goes up but rather than flapping it down I do something with the back, I bring the back of the tongue down and back a little bit for that dark l. Little, little, a little bit.

a little bit.

It’s tricky and you might want to just work on that sound by imitating it and I know that we do have that in the soundboards I believe in the consonants chapter. Sorry the consonants course in, it’s either the T chapter or the L chapter. We have a soundboard with this sequence, flap T dark L little, a little bit, a little bit.

A little bit.

terrible.

Now we have ending T beginning T you can think of it as a stop T true t or a drop T true T little bit terrible but we stop the air once and we release it once. Bit te, bit terr, and that’s the true T sound.

a little bit terrible.

a little bit terrible for him.

He says that that’s his new normal.

He says that that’s his new normal. A couple stressed syllables there. He says that that’s his new normal.

He says that that’s his new normal.

He says. Again it looks like it should be says but it’s say as in bed he says. now I love this. We have the same word twice in a row once it’s contracted for that is. But we have that that and the first one is reduced, that, he says that. So we have the schwa and then that t is a stop t because the next word begins with a consonant. He says that, he says that. He says that.

He says that–

that’s his new normal.

He says that that’s. So we have that that’s, that that’s. The second time the vowel is not reduced it is the a as in that vowel.

He says that that’s–

He says that that’s .The that’s. So it looks like same word same pronunciation but no. One of them is functioning as a function word and the other one is being stressed. That that’s.

He says that that’s–

his new normal.

He says that that’s his, that’s his. I’m dropping the H in his. Now we’re watching a tennis match here and you can hear that racket hitting the ball. I hope that doesn’t mess you up too much when you’re working with this soundboard here. That that’s his, that that’s his.

That that’s his–

New normal.

Uhhuhuh. Those two up down swells of the intonation. Those are our two stressed syllables. New normal.

New normal.

Normal. We just talked about how r changes the e as in bed. It also changes ah as in law. So the first syllable of normal would be written with these sounds, the ah as in law vowel, this is very much so changed by the r consonant so it’s not law, no normal but it’s no,uhuhl. Lips round more, tongue shifts back a little bit more maybe even up a little bit getting in towards that r. No- o, o, or nor, nor, this is in quarter. Normal. Horse, o, o, o, changed a vowel.

Normal.

And we end with schwa L dark L, do not lift your tongue tip for that. Normal. Uhl,uhl,uhl, uhl.

I’m just making that with the tongue tip down pressing the back of the tongue down and back a little bit. Uh,uh,uhl, normal.

Normal.

Maybe.

Maybe, maybe. First syllable stress we’re sort of giggling it’s just the pits getting older guys. My dad at this point he was probably 73, 74. For a while, he kept getting better at golf and now he’s starting to get worse.

Maybe.

It’s unfortunate.

That’s too bad.

So then we both make a comment starting with that’s. That’s unfortunate and that’s too bad.

It’s unfortunate.

That’s too bad.

It’s unfortunate.

That’s too bad.

It’s unfortunate.

That’s too bad.

So David does the reduction where he just uses the ts sound and links it into the next word. The th and the a vowel totally dropped it’s unfortunate. We do this quite a bit, ts can mean it’s. It can mean lets like if I was to say let’s go, let’s go, that would be let’s go and that’s. It can also mean what’s like if I was going to say what’s up, what’s up. So all of these can be reduced to just the ts sound and that’s what he’s doing. It’s unfortunate.

It’s unfortunate.

Sun, sun, sun. So it’s linking right into the vowel. It’s unfortunate. Stress on the second syllable it’s unfortunate. Stop t. It’s unfortunate.

It’s unfortunate.

That’s too bad.

And then I don’t really reduce it. That’s, that’s, that’s, that’s. It’s not super stressed or anything but I’m not really changing or dropping any of the sounds. that’s, that’s, that’s, that’s. I definitely do reduce this to just ts sometimes but I’m not here that’s, that’s, that’s, that’s too bad. T-o-o never reduces, it’s always a true t and the u vowel to, to, that’s too bad.

That’s too bad.

And that is my stressed word, everything leads up to it. That’s too bad, and then falls away from it. Bad, bad, bad, the ending d there not bad, d, not released but I do make the sound with the vocal cords, bad.

That’s too bad.

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

What did you do today?

Ah, Stony slept in. And that was a miracle.

And you beat my dad at golf. that has, has that happened before?

Probably not.

Dad says he’s just gotten terrible.

Today he was a little bit terrible, for him.

He says that that’s his new normal.

Maybe.

That’s unfortunate.

That’s too bad.

Seizures create anxiety, which can trigger aggression.

Yeah, but like randomly attacking other people?

Uh, it’s not random.

You know, it was your flash, That’s what set him off.

>> Hey.

>> Well.

How’s he doing?

He’s much better.

I imagine that I owe you all an apology.

Now, the analysis.

Seizures create anxiety, which can trigger aggression.

Okay so there’s a little bit of a cymbal crash, a little bit of leftover music, or sound effect as he begins speaking.

But he says the word ‘seizures’ and then there’s a little bit, a little bit of a lift.

Seizures create anxiety, which can trigger aggression.

Seizures create anxiety– so I would maybe separate that into its own little thought group.

What’s the stressed syllable in the word ‘seizures’?

Seizures create anxiety–

Seizures– first syllable stress. Seizures. A little curve up, then a curve down, and the second unstressed syllable

just falls into that line. Seizures, zures, zures, zures.

Seizures.

That’s sort of a tricky word. We have the DJZ sound, which isn’t too common. So first syllable stressed,

sei– zures, zures, zures, then the DJZ sound right into the schwa R sound. Zures, zures, and a super light,

light Z at the end, you could even think of that as being a super light S, seizures, seizures.

Seizures.

Seizures create anxiety, which can trigger aggression.

Create anxiety, which can trigger aggression.

What are our stressed syllables here?

Create anxiety, which can trigger aggression.

We have a few stressed syllables. Create anxiety, which can trigger aggression.

Those are the four syllables that are a little bit longer, and have more of that up-down shape.

The other syllables are flatter, lower in pitch, and said more quickly.

Create anxiety, which can trigger aggression.

So a lot of those other syllables are actually unstressed syllables within the stressed word.

Like the first syllable crea– crea– crea– in the word ‘create’.

So even when we’re talking about stressed words, we only ever mean the stressed syllable

that has that up-down shape. Unstressed syllables in a stressed word are said quickly and more simply.

Create, create, create, create, create.

Create anxiety,

create anxiety,

create anxiety.

Now, here we have a T that links the two words together.

Create anxiety, create an– create an– And that is a flap T, to connect.

Create anxiety.

Create anxiety,

create anxiety,

create anxiety.

Another word that’s a little tricky, that you may not be sure how to pronounce by looking at the letters.

So we have AN, but actually, the letter N here makes the NG sound so we’re making that

with a back of the tongue: an– an–

Create anxiety.

Anxie– the stressed syllable, the letter X makes the Z sound here. Anxie–

And we have the AI as in buy diphthong. Anxi– iety, iety, iety, iety, and then two unstressed syllables.

IH vowel, flap T, which I write as the D because the flap T sounds like the American D between vowels,

and then an ending EE sound. Unstressed, and make a quick flap with your tongue there:

iety, iety, iety, iety, iety, anxiety.

Practice that word with me. Four syllables, second syllable stress:

An– xie– ety, anxiety, anxiety.

Create anxiety.

Create anxiety, which can trigger aggression.

So then we have two more unstressed words, which can, before our stressed word ‘trigger’.

So how are these two words pronounced?

Which can trigger–

which can trigger–

Which can– which can– which can– which can–

Very fast, low in pitch, flat, remember, we really need this contrast of this kind of word.

Which can– which can– which can– against words that have that up-down shape,

that stressed syllable like ‘anxiety’.

So ‘which can’, it’s a clean W sound, there’s no escape of air, but just: which, which, which,

with the IH vowel said very quickly, ending CH sound, which can– which can– which can–

goes right into the K sound of ‘can’ and you’re probably noticing that vowel is reduced,

it’s the schwa: can, can, can.

Which can– which can– which can–

When ‘can’ is a helping verb, meaning it’s not the only verb, it reduces.

Can trigger, trigger is the stressed word so it becomes: can– can trigger, can trigger, trigger is the main verb.

Which can trigger–

which can trigger–

The TR cluster can be a CHR and usually is, here, I think he is making a clean T sound:

trigger, trigger, trigger, trigger. Try that: trigger, trigger, trigger, instead of:

trigger, trigger, trigger, trigger, trigger, trigger.

Trigger,

This word is tough. We have two R sounds. Trr— if you’re having a hard time with the word, practice it

slowing down the R. Trrrrigger. Both times. Holding out the R will help you fine-tune the position,

your ear and your mouth can work together to make a sound that’s more accurate.

Trrriggerrr. Trigger.

Trigger

aggression–

Trigger aggression– trigger aggression– Two stressed words in a row, but again, it’s only the stressed syllable

that has that up-down shape. The other syllables said simply, quickly, unstressed.

So we have the ending schwa R sound, the schwa beginning the word aggression.

Tri– gger a– gger a– gger a– gression.

Trigger aggression–

trigger aggression–

Trigger aggression– So make sure that you really feel that change in intonation,

that up-down shape on your stressed syllables. Aggression–

Here, the double S is making the SH sound, schwa N is the ending: sion– sion– sion–

Aggression–

aggression–

Yeah, but like randomly attacking other people?

Okay, she’s feeling like hmmm… Aggression is one thing, but randomly attacking is another thing,

and can siezures really cause that? So in this thought group, what are her stressed words?

Yeah, but like randomly attacking other people?

A little bit of length on ‘yeah’ a little bit more height, yeah, but like, but like, much flatter, lower in pitch.

Yeah, but like randomly attacking other people?

Rand– and tack– are most stressed syllables there. Even though ‘other people’ could both be content words,

they’re not said with stress, I would say, they sound flatter, less energy.

Yeah, but like randomly attacking other people?

Listen to just ‘other people’. Listen to how quietly they’re said.

Other people–

There, at the end of the sentence, she’s lost her vocal energy, she’s not stressing these words.

The words that are most important are ‘randomly’ and ‘attacking’.

Yeah, but like randomly attacking other people?

Whoa, different day, different outfit, important announcement.

Did you know that with this video, I made a free audio lesson that you can download?

In fact, I’m going this for each one of the YouTube videos I’m making this summer,

all eleven of the Learn English with Movies videos.

So follow this link, or find the link in the video description to get your free downloadable audio lesson.

It’s where you’re going to train all of the things that you learned about pronunciation in this video.

Back to the lesson.

Yeah, but like randomly attacking other people?

As you imitate with the audio that goes with this video lesson, make sure that you’re really paying attention to

things like volume as well. One thing that I work with my students on sometimes is taking the energy and

volume out of the voice towards the end of a thought group.

That really helps bring an American feeling to what they’re saying.

Yeah, but like randomly attacking other people?

Let’s talk about a few other things. We have a stop T in ‘but’. Yeah but like, but like, but, but, but, but.

Because the next word begins with a constant, the L consonant. Then we also have a stop consonant,

the K sound, and it’s not released. She doesn’t say: like randomly– like randomly– like–

We do not hear that release, that’s also a stop. Like randomly, like, like, like.

The back of her tongue probably goes up into position for the K very quickly rather than releasing the air

and going into the R. She just goes right to the R. Like randomly– So we don’t hear that little escape of air.

It’s common to do this with stop consonants, to drop the release when the next word begins with a consonant.

But like randomly– but like randomly–

Yeah, but like randomly–

Yeah, but like randomly attacking other people?

Okay, let’s talk about our two stressed words here. Randomly attacking.

So first of all, I want to say, in the stressed syllable, ran–, we have the AA vowel followed by N. Ran–

We don’t say it like that, we put an UH sound in between even though you won’t see that in the dictionary.

Raauh– that’s what happens because the back of the tongue relaxes before the front of the tongue lifts,

so we get a UH sound in there. Raa– Raa– Ran– So not ‘ran’, not pure AH. Raa– Raa– Ran– ran– randomly.

Now, the D sound, a little hard to detect here. It’s followed by schwa M, dan-dmm–

and I don’t think she really lifts her tongue and brings it back down for a D sound.

Randomly, dom– dom– dom– dom– you want to go right into an M sound from that D.

Try to make that as fast of a transition as possible. And because it’s schwa M,

we don’t need to try to make a vowel here. We have four consonants that take over the schwa: RL, M, N,

and that means they’re called syllabic consonants, that means you don’t try to make a vowel,

they overtake the schwa. Whenever you see schwa M, just think M, random, dum-dum-dum-dum.

Randomly–

attacking other people?

Attacking– attacking– listen to how unstressed the first and last syllables are.

Attacking–

Ah-ttack-ing– Really focus on that as you practice this word. Actually, just practice it right now. Break it up.

Ah-ttack-ing– attacking– attacking– Here, the T is a true T because it begins a stressed syllable.

And a T that begins a true syllable is always a true T, unless it’s part of the TR cluster,

then you might make it a CH. Attacking– attacking– make sure that first syllable is a schwa, uh–

attacking–

Attacking–

attacking other people?

And again, we’ve already discussed it, but just make sure that this is low in volume,

simplify your mouth movements, these words are unstressed.

Attacking other people?

Other people– other people. And the pitch goes up a little bit at the end it’s a yes/no question.

Attacking other people?

Uh, it’s not random.

Okay then we have the word ‘uh’, just a little filler word as he’s thinking, and then a three word thought group.

Talk to me about the stress here. How do you feel the stress goes?

Repeat it, feel it, and find the most stressed syllable.

Uh, it’s not random.

I think ‘not’ is the most stressed word there. Not random. So here she’s saying

‘randomly’ and he’s saying it’s not random, not, contradicting that, so that’s gonna have the most stress.

It’s not random. Stop T after ‘not’ because the next word begins with a consonant. Not random.

And remember, just like with randomly, try not to make a vowel here: random– dom– dom– dom– random–

Random– random– random–

You know, it was your–

Okay, so the way that I’ve written it with the commas which makes sense grammatically is not actually how

he broke it up with his thought groups. He put a little break after ‘your’.

You know, it was your–

You know, it was your– you know– You know, it was your–

So ‘know’ the most stressed word in that thought group, and actually, ‘you’ is reduced, its yuh with the schwa,

not the OO vowel but ye– ye– you know– We say the word ‘you’ this way a lot.

In the phrase ‘you know’, it becomes: ye know, ye know.

The word ‘you’re’ also reduces: yer, yer, not: you’re, but yer.

You know, it was your–

Z sound in ‘was’, Y sound in ‘your ‘ or yer. They sound together a little bit like the DJZ.

It was your– was djz– But I probably wouldn’t tell my students to practice it this way.

In that case, it would probably end up sounding too heavy. Was your– was your– was your–

I would still concentrate on making a light Z sound connecting to the Y. Was your– was your–

Was your–

It was your– It was your– Stop T in ‘it’, was, I would write that with the schwa. Was, was, was.

Instead of was, less jaw drop, different kind of vowel. Was– it was your–

It was your–

flash–

Flash, then he puts another break here, so the word ‘flash’ is its own little thought group here,

it’s a single syllable, and it is stressed, has that up-down shape.

Flash by putting that stop before, and separating it into its own thought group,

we bring more emphasis to that word.

Flash,

That’s what set him off.

Okay, now in the rest of the thought here, the last thought group, what is our stressed word?

That’s what set him off.

I would say our stressed words are: That’s what set him off. ‘What’ has a little bit of length too.

But ‘that’s’ and ‘off ‘ are our most stressed, highest pitch, up-down shape.

That’s what set him off.

What set him– what set him– what set him– A little bit lower in pitch, a little bit flatter,

what set him– what set him– Stop T in ‘what’ because the next word begins with a consonant.

Now, you may think stop T in ‘set’ because the next word begins with a consonant, but actually,

he dropped the H sound that’s a really common reduction, so now the word ‘him’ begins with a vowel.

It’s um, um, um. So the T does come between two vowels, he does use it to link, and it’s a flap T.

Set him, set him, set him.

That’s what set him off.

Set him off– set him off– So two words that are flatter, lower in pitch, unstressed, compared to ‘off’.

Set him off– set him off– set him off–

Set him off–

set him off–

>> Hey.

>> Well.

Hey. Hey. Okay, so compared to ‘set him off– ‘ which is lower in pitch, hey, hey, is a lot higher in pitch, isn’t it?

It’s more friendly, he’s greeting the person who had an issue.

Bringing the pitch up, friendly tone. That’s a lot different than: hey. Hey! Hey!

More upbeat, more positive sounding.

Hey.

>> Hey.

>> Well.

Well. Well. Single word in a thought group, up-down shape. Well. Well.

The L isn’t too clear, that’s a dark L. She did not lift her tongue tip for that.

Well. Uhl, uhl, uhl, uhl.

That dark sound at the end of the dark L is made with a back of the tongue, tongue tip stays down.

If you bring your tongue tip up, you’re making too much of this L. Well, uhl, uhl. Well. Well. Well. Well.

Try that, practice it, tongue tip down.

>> Hey.

>> Well.

>> Hey.

>> Well.

>> Hey.

>> Well.

The back of the tongue, uhl, uhl, uhl, pushes down and back a little bit. That’s how we get the dark sound.

>> Hey.

>> Well.

>> Hey.

>> Well.

>> Hey.

>> Well.

How’s he doing?

Okay, now he speaks quietly, and the door is opening, so it’s a little bit harder to hear what’s going on.

But listen to it again and tell me what you think the stressed words are.

How’s he doing?

How’s– How’s he doing? ‘How’s’ and ‘do’ the most stressed syllables there. How’s he doing?

How’s he– how’s he– What’s happening in the word ‘he’? How’s he–

The H is dropped. So then it’s just the EE vowel, ending Z sound, links right into the EE. How’s he– how’s he–

How’s he doing?

And it’s a little hard to tell because the end of the word is really covered by the door,

but I think he is dropping the NG sound and making just an N sound.

Doin, doin, doin.

How’s he doing?

He’s much better.

And she responds, three words, stress on the middle syllable. He’s much better. Smoothly linked together.

The H here isn’t dropped, but it’s pretty light, so keep that in mind.

He’s much better.

And also keep in mind that ‘much’ is the peak of stress, and the word ‘he’s’ leads up to that peak,

and the word ‘better’ falls away from that peak. So it’s all smoothly connected.

And what are you hearing for the T’s in this word?

He’s much better.

Flap T. Double T, a single flap T, because the T sound comes between two vowels.

Now here, we have schwa R. Remember, R is a syllabic consonant, so you don’t need to try to make

a vowel sound, it’s just: rrrr. But even though the R takes over the vowel, in IPA it is written schwa R,

you do make a flap T, you do count that as a vowel when you’re thinking about is this a flap T or not?

T does come between vowels even though in practice the are absorbs the vowel.

Is that confusing enough for you? Better, better.

The thing with these rules is it can be useful to know them, but what’s ultimately the most useful

is to listen to how native speakers do it, and really imitate that.

He’s much better.

I imagine that I–

Imaa– maa– longer, more stressed, I imagine that I–

Now, the unstressed syllable at the end does continue to go up, I think. I imagine, imagine that I–

And then it comes back down, but the length is definitely on the stressed syllable ‘ma’ with the AA vowel.

I imagine that I–

Make sure you link ‘I’, the AI diphthong with the vowel IH: Ai-ih– Ai-ih– Ai-ih– smoothly.

Sometimes when it comes to linking a vowel or diphthong to another vowel or diphthong,

students don’t feel comfortable with that. Feels too sloppy, too connected, and they want to restart the voice:

I imagine– but don’t do that. Really try to link those together: Ai-ih– Ai-ih– Ai-ih– I imagine–

I imagine that–

I imagine that I–

What’s happening with ‘that’ and ‘I’? Can you hear that?

That I– that I– that I–

That I– that I– that I– Definitely a flap T linking those two words.

Also, the vowel AH, that, is reduced. It’s a schwa: that I– that I– that I–

So the word ‘that’ becomes: duh, duh, duh, duh, schwa flap: that I–

That I– that I– that I–

owe you all an apology.

Okay, let’s just listen to this final thought group a couple times on a loop. Listen to the music of it.

Owe you all an apology.

The more I listen to something like this, the more I hear the music, the more I just think life is an opera.

We sing everything we say.

Owe you all an apology. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

You could dance to that, couldn’t you? Da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

Owe you all an apology.

I love exploring that, and that really helps us find the stress.

Owe you all an apology. When we listen on a loop, I think it really makes the stress super obvious.

‘Owe’ and ‘pol, our two stressed, longer up-down shape syllables there.

Owe you all an apology.

Owe you all an apology. Owe you all an a– Owe you all an a– Then these four syllables here, you all an–,

and the first unstressed syllable of the stressed word ‘apology’, flatter in pitch, you all an a–, you all an a–

And all really linked together, very smooth. Owe you all an a– Owe you all an a– Owe you all an a–

you all an a– you all an a– you all an a– Can you do that? Just imitate those four syllables.

You all an a– you all an a–

You all an a–

You all an a– Now, the word ‘all’ ends in a dark L, and you generally don’t need to lift your tongue tip for an–

a Dark L. However, when it links into a word that begins with a vowel, like here, we have the schwa

in the word: an, an, an, then I think it is useful to lift the tongue tip.

You all an a– you all an a– you all an a– It helps to find the dark L moving into a word that begins

with a vowel or diphthong. So you can lift your tongue tip here.

You all an a–

If it was the end of the thought group, or it linked in to a word that began with the consonant,

I probably wouldn’t lift the tongue tip. I owe you all. I really owe you all. Owe you all. Owe you all.

There, I’m making a dark sound, light, subtle at the end, but I’m not lifting my tongue tip.

But because we’re linking into a word that begins with a vowel, let’s do go ahead and lift the tongue tip there.

You all an a– you all an a– you all an apology.

Owe you all an apology.

The L in ‘apology’ is a dark L because it comes after the vowel in the syllable.

But again, it’s followed by another vowel here, another vowel sound, so I would lift the tongue tip.

Apol– llluh– apology. Apology.

Apology.

Mmm… I love that. I love listening to the music of the speech. This was a great little snippet of conversation,

just 15 seconds but so much to study.

Flap Ts, linking, difficult words, breaking them down by syllables, the music of speech.

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

Seizures create anxiety, which can trigger aggression.

Yeah, but like randomly attacking other people?

Uh, it’s not random.

You know, it was your flash, That’s what set him off.

>>Hey.

>>Well.

How’s he doing?

He’s much better.

I imagine that I owe you all an apology.

Girl 1: I’m sorry.

Girl 2: I just saw Meredith. Jackson left

without talking to you? He just left?

Girl 1: I wish I could blame this on him but

I told Link about you before I even knew.

Girl 2: Jackson left?

Girl 1: I was really kind of awful

to Owen. I was really… I was really awful

to Owen.

Girl 2: Jackson left.

And now, the analysis.

Girl 1: I’m sorry.

Rachel:

I am sorry. She uses the contraction ‘I’m’

which would be written in IPA with the AI diphthong,

I’m. But she doesn’t really say “I” does she?

like mm, mm, mm sorry, mm sorry.

Girl 1: I’m sorry.

Rachel:

I’ve definitely noticed this before in the

I AM contraction. People will take just the

M sound and link it on the next word. msorry,

msorry. Try that.

Girl 1: I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.

Rachel:

So it’s short little 2 word thought group

and the stressed syllable is sorr. Mmsorrry.

And then the voice falls in pitch as it comes

off that stressed syllable. There are no skips

or jumps. Everything is smoothly connected.

Mmsorry, mmsorrry. The ending unstressed syllable.

Just a really quick E as in SHE vowel -y, -y.

Mm sorry.

Girl 1: I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.

Girl 2: I just saw Meredith.

Rachel:

Okay then we have a 4-word thought group.

I just saw Meredith. What are the stressed

syllables there?

Girl 2: I just saw Meredith.

Rachel:

I just saw Meredith. Just and Mer are the

most stressed syllables there. Now, “saw” is

a verb and that’s a content word those are

sometimes stressed but in a sentence with

multiple content words, they’re not all going

to have the same stress. And I would say “saw”,

even though it’s not reduced or anything like

that, it is lower in pitch compared to the

other stressed syllables. I just saw Meredith.

All linked together. Smooth pitch changes, no skips, no breaks.

What about this T? How does she pronounce that?

Girl 2: I just saw Meredith.

Rachel:

She drops it. It’s common to drop the T between

two consonants. So here it comes between S

and S. And so actually these two words link

together with just a single S sound. Just

saw, just saw, just saw.

Girl 2: I just saw, I just saw, I just saw

Meredith.

Rachel:

I’m going to stop here for a minute guys because

I have something important to tell you really

quick. If you would like this kind of analysis,

I’m going to do 11 videos in a row starting

June 18. It’s the summer of blockbuster movies.

We’re going to be learning English with movies

and I’m going to make and extra free audio

lesson to go with each video lesson. If you

want that, you’ll have to sign up. I’m not going

to bombard people with emails so I only want

to send people these free downloadable audio

lessons if you want them. So if you want to

study English movies this summer follow this

link here or in the video description below.

Pass it on to your friends, we’re going to

be doing this together, it’s going to be so

fun, I cannot wait to spend my summer with

you. Okay now, back to this analysis.

Girl 2: I just saw Meredith.

Rachel:

Meredith. Merrredith. Make sure your tongue

is not flapping for the R in “Meredith” or “sorry”.

The tongue never flaps for the R in American

English so it does not bounce against the

roof of your mouth. It should be pulled back

a little bit. The tip is pulled back a little

bit within the mouth. It’s not touching anything.

Sorrry. Merrredith. And then the 2 unstressed

syllables are lower in pitch. Edith, edith,

edith. And then they have a different feeling,

a different shape than ‘Mer’ which has that

up-down shape. Now this does end in an unvoiced

th sound, tongue tip does come through the teeth

for that, Meredith. That can be a tricky sound

for some people.

Girl 2: Meredith. Meredith. Meredith. Jackson

left without talking to you?

Rachel:

Stressed syllables? The stressed syllable

of the name. Jackson left without talking

to you? And the pitch goes up in the end because

it’s a yes/no question. And that is usually

how we deal with the intonation with a yes/no question.

It’s how we show it’s a yes/no question.

Jackson left without talking to you? It’s different

than “Jackson left without talking to you.”

Pitch goes down, that’s a statement. Here,

pitch goes up, it’s a question.

Girl 2: Jackson left without talking to you?

Jackson left without talking to you? Jackson

left without talking to you?

Rachel:

The letter o here is the schwa son-Jackson,

Jackson, son, son, son. So you’ll say that

quickly with no jaw drop. Don’t try to make

a vowel there. Just s into n sound. Son,

the schwa will happen on it’s own. Schwa gets

absorbed by the n. Now what about this T? I

said we usually drop the T when it comes between

two consonants. Here’s the F consonant and

here’s the W consonant. How does she pronounce

that?

Girl 2: Jackson left without…

Rachel:

She does release it with a very light true

So even these rules we usually do this,

they’re not always. There’s always some exception

that some will make. So she articulates that

Girl 2: Jackson left without, Jackson left

without, Jackson left without talking to you?

Rachel:

Ta without Ta. We have a word that ends in

a T the next word begins in a T in these cases

we link with a single T. And it is a true

This T starts a stressed syllable and when

every T starts a stressed syllable that’s

not part of the TR cluster, it is a true T.

Girl 2: Without talking to you? Without talking

to you? Without talking to you?

Rachel:

Without talking, without talking. Now are

you noticing what’s happening here? It’s not

talking with the ng consonant. She drops the

ng consonant and instead makes it an n consonant.

Talkin’, talkin’, talkin’, talkin’ to you?

Girl 2:

Talkin’ to you? talkin’ to you? talkin’ to you?

Rachel:

Talking to. So she says talkin’. But then

what does she do with to? How is this word

pronounced? Fully pronounced it would have

the true T and the U vowel. But what do you

hear?

Girl 2:

Talkin’ to you? talkin’ to you? talkin’ to you?

Rachel:

Talkin. Talkin. It’s actually reduced to just

the schwa sound. So sometimes we’ll make it

a true T. Tu, tu. And then the schwa. We do

that when the sound before is unvoiced. Sometimes

we make it a flap T. Talkin’ to, talkin to.

to to to to. The tongue bounces against the

roof of the mouth. And I have noticed sometimes

when it comes after an n, the T sound is dropped

altogether and it becomes just a schwa that

links the word together. So she straight goes from

the N sound into the schwa and then right

into the JU diphthong. Talking to you, talking

to you. Reductions like this, reductions and

linking. It’s just everywhere in spoken American

English practically every sentence.

Girl 2:

Talkin’ to you? talkin’ to you? talkin’ to you?

He just left?

Rachel:

He just left? He just left? What do you

think is the stressed syllable in that thought

group?

Girl 2:

He just left?

Rachel:

He just… flatter in pitch. Left? That’s where

we get more energy in the voice. And it does

go up again because again, it’s a yes/no question.

That makes it different from a statement.

He just left. He just left? “He” and “just”: unclear,

lower in pitch, lower in volume and what happens

to this T?

Girl 2:

He just left? He just left? He just left?

Rachel:

It’s totally dropped. Comes between two consonants,

the S sound links right to the L sound. He

just, he just, he just, he just. See how simply

you can make that. You don’t want to use a

lot of mouth movement because they’re unstressed

words, you want to say them quickly so we

simplify things. He just, he just, he just.

Girl 2:

He just left? He just left? He just left?

Rachel:

He just left? And then we do have a very light

release of a true T here. We often release

a true T when it’s in a cluster. Here it’s

in an ft cluster, unless it links to another

word. Here it’s in the end of a thought group.

So that will generally be released with a light

t sound.

Girl 2:

Left? Left? Left?

Girl 1: I wish I could blame this on him but

I told Link about you before I even knew.

Rachel:

That’s a long thought group. There’s a little

bit of a lift here. Maybe between where I

put the comma for grammatical purposes. But

it’s a lot of words. Let’s look at the first

chunk. What do you think are the stressed

syllables there?

Girl 1: I wish I could blame this on him,

I wish I could blame this on him, I wish I

could blame this on him..

Rachel:

I…wish I could blame this on him. And the

pitch going up signals I’m not done talking,

there is more I would like to say. Remember

these stressed syllables, these longer syllables,

are our anchors in the sentence and we need

those clearer stressed syllables in contrast

to the unstressed syllables that are said

much more quickly, much more simply.

Girl 1: I wish I could blame this on him…

Rachel:

So I is lower in vocal energy, lower in pitch

I, I, I wish. I wish I. I could, I could,

I could. These words also unstressed, lower

in pitch, lower in energy.

Girl 1: I wish I could, I wish I could, I

wish I could blame this on him..

Rachel:

This and on also unstressed, less clear. This

TH is really unclear. It’s unvo.. it’s voiced.

And the voiced TH in an unstressed word can

be made without the tongue tip coming through.

Blame this, this, this, this. It just touches

behind the bottom or actually both the bottom

and top teeth in the front. This, this, this,

this. Doesn’t have to come all the way through.

But I almost feel like she drops it. That’s

how unclear it is. Blame this, blame this,

blame this on him? blame this… So you could

try it with a very very light TH or you could

try it dropping it, and linking it in, and see

how that sounds.

Girl 1: I wish I could, I wish I could, I

wish I could blame this on him…

Rachel:

On him, on him… We sometimes drop the H in

him. She doesn’t. The S goes right into the

AW vowel. On him. And then the N goes right

into the H, everything smoothly linked together.

Girl 1: On him, on him, on him but I told

Link about you before I even knew.

Rachel: But I told Link about you before I

even knew. I think those are the most stressed

syllables in the 2nd half of this thought

group. Everything linked together so smoothly.

But I, but I but I but I but I but I. The

T becomes a flap T between two vowels or vowels

and diphthongs. That’s what happens here.

We have the uh vowel, the AI diphthong, that’s

a flap T and it links the word smoothly But

I, but I. Here it’s beginning, the T is beginning

a stressed syllable so it’s a true T. But

I told. I told. I told, I told. Right from

the AI diphthong into the T sound, no brake.

Girl 1:

But I told, but I told, but I told Link about

you before I even knew.

Rachel:

So we have L,D,L. I don’t know that I would

say she drops the D but it’s very very subtle

and I think you could drop the D. I told Link,

I told Link, I told Link. I think you could

probably get away with that.

Girl 1:

But I told, but I told, but I told Link about

you before I even knew.

Rachel:

Link about, Link about, k k k. Ending K link

right on to the next sound the schwa. Link,

k k k. Link about, link about.

Girl 1:

Link about you.

Rachel:

About you, about. Stop T, about you. So a

little lift there to signify the stop .This,

the break in sound. Signifies the stop T.

Now another common way to pronounce a word

that ends in T followed by U is a ch, about

you, about you. Have you ever heard that?

She doesn’t do that. She makes a quick stop

T about you, about you

Girl 1:

About you, about you, about you before I even knew.

Rachel:

Before I even knew. A little bit of length

also on the stressed syllable before. Before

Smoothly linked together. I even. Sometimes

when we have a word that ends in a vowel diphthong.

Here it’s the AI diphthong and a word that

begins in a vowel diphthong. Here it’s the

E vowel. People want to put a little brake

there. Restart their voice because they feel

like linking two vowel sounds is too unclear

but we wouldn’t do that. We would say I even,

I even.

Girl 1:

Before I even, before I even, before I even.

Rachel:

Listen to how she links I and even

Girl 1:

Before I even, before I even, before I even.

Rachel:

Really smooth. And then here we have the ending

N sound. Even knew. Beginning N sound linked

together with the single sound. So, I just

really want to stress how smooth everything

Before I even knew.

Girl 1:

Before I even knew.

Girl 2:

Jackson left?

Rachel:

And she asks her question again, Jackson

left? And it goes up because again she’s asking

it as a yes/no question. Jackson left? And

a very light release of a true T there.

Girl 2:

Jackson left? Jackson left? Jackson left?

Girl 1:

I was really kind of awful to Owen.

I was really…

Rachel:

Again a longer thought group, starts really

quietly. And I was, and I was, and I was…

Girl 1:

And I was, and I was, and I was really kind

of awful to Owen.

Rachel:

Then we have a little bit more volume on “really”,

which is more stressed here. And I

was really.

Girl 1:

And I was really…

Rachel:

And I was. All unstressed, very soft. The

word “and” gets pronounced just as schwa n.

And I, and I, and I. Links right into the

AI diphthong, links right into the word ‘was’

which was actually pronounced ‘was’. Was,

was, was, was. Very fast. Reduced with a schwa.

Let’s practice just those 3 words together.

And I was, and I was, and I was, and I was.

So if you’re trying to fully pronounce everything

and say ‘and I was’, It’s going to sound really

different isn’t it? And I was, and I was,

and I was. That makes the anchor of the stressed

syllable really a little bit more clearer.

Girl 1:

And I was really, and I was really, and I

was really kind of awful to Owen.

Rachel:

Really kind of awful to Owen. And again pitch

goes up, she’s not done talking, she keeps

right on going.

Girl 1:

Really kind of awful to Owen, really kind

of awful to Owen, really kind of awful to

Owen. I was really…

Rachel:

I was really. Again, big time “was” reduction.

Was, was, was, was, I was, I was, I was really.

Girl 1:

I was really, I was really, I was really…

Rachel:

Kind of. How does she pronounce that? She

drops the D sound kinda, kinda. nd she changes

the whole word of to just the schwa. Kinda,

kinda, kinda. It would not be weird to make

the D sound kinda, kinda. I think that’s actually

more common to pronounce the D and then link

it to the schwa, but it’s unstressed, it’s

low in pitch, it’s got less energy. And she does

drop that D. Kinda, kinda, kinda.

Girl 1:

Kind of awful, kind of awful, kind of awful to Owen.

Rachel:

What about the word ‘to’ here? She does make

that a true T and then a schwa. She could

have made that a flap T, awful to, awful to,

awful to. But she makes it a light true T,

awful to, awful to, awful to.

Girl 1:

Awful to Owen, Awful to Owen, Awful to Owen.

I was really…I was very awful to Owen.

Rachel:

Now, I was very awful to Owen. Ver and O get

the most stressed, awful gets some too. Another

“was” reduction. It’s not was but it’s was,

was, was said very quickly. I was, I was,

I was.

Girl 1:

I was very awful to Owen.

Rachel:

Actually, you know what? I don’t even hear

the word I. I wrote it when I was originally

typing this up. I thought I heard it. But

it might just be the I thought that because

I knew it was there grammatically. But now

when I’m hearing it. When I’m listening and

really listening for that I, I don’t hear

it.

Girl 1:

I was very awful…

Rachel:

Maybe just the quietest, lowest in pitch little

vowel before was. What about to?

Girl 1:

I was very awful to Owen.

Rachel:

Again super light true T and then a schwa.

Awful to Owen. And again there’s no brake.

Everything, every word glides smoothly into

the next word within this thought group.

Girl 1:

Awful to Owen. Awful to Owen. Awful to Owen.

Girl 2:

Jackson left.

Rachel:

Okay now what’s different about this?

Girl 2:

Jackson left. Jackson left. Jackson left.

Rachel:

Jackson left. Now it’s a statement because

the pitch goes down. So the firs two times

she said it as a question Jackson left? and

now she says it as a statement. Jackson left.

She wants this woman to acknowledge what that

means ‘Jackson left.’

Girl 2:

Jackson left. Jackson left. Jackson left.

Rachel:

And again a very light release of a true T.

So much to study in this short, short scene.

Girl 2:

Jackson left. Jackson left. Jackson left.

Rachel:

Let’s listen to the whole conversation one

more time.

Girl 1: I’m sorry.

Girl 2: I just saw Meredith. Jackson left

without talking to you? He just left?

Girl 1: I wish I could blame this on him but

I told Link about you before I even knew.

Girl 2: Jackson left?

Girl 1: And I was really kind of awful

to Owen. I was really…I was really awful

to Owen.

Girl 2: Jackson left.

Hey. How’d the interview go?

Ugh. I blew it. I wouldn’t have even hired me.

Oh. Come here, sweetie. Listen. You’re going to go on, like, a thousand interviews before you get a job.

That’s not how that was supposed to come out.

It’s just the worst Christmas ever.

You know what, Rach, maybe you should just, you know, stay here at the coffee house.

I can’t. It’s too late. Terry already hired that girl over there.

Look at her, she’s even got waitress experience. Ugh.

And now the analysis.

Hey. How’d the interview go?

Chandler starts out up down shape of stress hey, hey, uh, uh. Hey. How’d the interview go?

Hey. How’d the interview go?

His H is not very clear or loud here hey, hey, hey.

Hey. How’d the interview go?

How’d the interview go?

The stressed syllable of interview is the most stressed syllable in that whole thought group,

how’d the and the first two words lead up to that peak. How’d the interview go,

and the last three syllables come away from that peak.

Now, are you noticing how that T is pronounced? Interview, it’s totally dropped.

It’s fairly common to drop the T when it comes after N like an interview, internet, international.

How’d the interview go?

The apostrophe D here is the word did.

We can also do would, how’d you do that, how would you do that but in this case it’s did, how’d, how’d, how’d.

Just a D sound at the end: how’d the.

Now, we don’t release the D. We have the OW, diphthong OW and D voiced TH. How’d the–

So the D is subtle. The tongue is in position, the vocal chords make the noise but then

the transition goes quickly into the voiced TH, how the, how the–

and Chandler does say the E as in she vowel for the word the instead of the.

That’s because the next word begins with a vowel or diphthong and that is the rule.

If the next word begins with a vowel or diphthong the final sound of this word is the E as in she vowel

however I have noticed Americans don’t follow that rule very closely.

But Chandler does here, the interview.

How’d the interview go?

Ugh. I blew it.

Ugh. Ugh. Just a sound of exasperation ugh but even that has an up-down shape ugh.

Ugh.

Ugh. I blew it.

I is really hard to hear almost imperceptible; I blew it.

I know it’s there grammatically, but we really barely hear it.

Blew, I blew it, blew is the stressed syllable there.

I blew it.

I blew it, blew it. She does release a true T here and the two words link together very smoothly.

If you blow something that means you do a poor job at it.

You can blow an interview, you can blow a test, you can blow a project, you can blow a first impression.

Ugh. I blew it. It did not go well.

I blew it.

I blew it. I wouldn’t have even hired me.

Okay. In her next sentence what are our most stressed words?

I wouldn’t have even hired me.

I has a lot of stress there. That’s a little unusual.

I wouldn’t have even hired me. High and a little bit on me too.

So, usually we don’t stress I but for the meaning in this sentence, she is.

I wouldn’t have even hired me.

Let’s listen to just those three words wouldn’t have even.

…wouldn’t have even

Wouldn’t have even, wouldn’t have even, wouldn’t have even, wouldn’t have even.

A little bit hard to tell that’s wouldn’t have even if you hear just that.

So, wouldn’t have becomes wouldn’t have, wouldn’t have, wouldn’t have, wouldn’t have.

…wouldn’t have

…wouldn’t have even.

Wouldn’t have even becomes wouldn’ have even.

So, the T. I listened to it a bunch of times to decide. Did I think it was totally dropped or did I think it’s a little bit of a stop T?

I think you could do either. You could do a really light stop T, or you could just drop it: wouldn’ have–

Wouldn’ have even, wouldn’ have even, wouldn’ have even.

The H is dropped, the word have is reduced to SCHWA V wouldn’ ‘ave even,

wouldn’ ‘ave even, wouldn’ ‘ave even, wouldn’ ‘ave even, wouldn’ ”ave even.

…wouldn’t have even

These kinds of simplifications are key in American English.

They provide contrast to the stressed syllables the stressed words like the word hired.

…wouldn’t have even hired me.

The ed ending in hired is a D sound because the sound before was voiced it was the R consonant,

hired me. So, we have the R sound, the D sound and the M sound.

The D is very subtle. I actually don’t think I really hear it.

I feel like it’s more dropped hired me, hired me hired me.

…hired me

If anything, it’s just a very subtle D sound in the vocal chords

just like up here the D sound before the voiced TH. So, it’s not a clear D.

It’s not hired me but it’s hired me, hired me.

If anything, it’s just d, d, d a very quick subtle D sound not released.

Just the vocal cords vibrating with the tongue in the position.

…hired me.

>> …hired me.

>> Oh.

Oh. Oh. His voice sort of has a nasal quality to it here I’m just noticing.

Oh, oh, a little bit of sympathy, oh.

Oh.

Oh. Come here, sweetie.

What is our stress in this three word thought group?

Come here, sweetie.

Come here, sweetie. Come here becomes c’mere, c’mere, c’mere.

The word come reduced. I would write that K SCHWA M

and actually M takes over the SCHWA. It’s a syllabic consonant so it’s really just like KM, k’m here, k’m here.

The H is dropped, come ‘ere, come ‘ere, come ‘ere, come ‘ere, sweetie, come ‘ere sweetie.

Come here, sweetie

Come here, sweetie.

And stress on that k’m ‘ere sweetie.

Sweetie with a flap T because the T comes between two vowels sweetie,

k’m ‘ere sweetie, k’m ‘ere sweetie. So, it’s not come here it’s k’m ‘ere.

That’s a very common way to pronounce those two words together, k’m ‘ere, k’m ‘ere sweetie.

Come here, sweetie.

Come here, sweetie. Listen.

Listen.

First syllable stress we have that up-down shape

listen and the second syllable just comes

in on the way down.

The T in listen is silent.

That’s just the pronunciation, it’s not

something Americans do,

it’s the actual official pronunciation.

Up here the actual official

pronunciation of here is

with the H but every once in a while we

drop it like in this phrase

but in this word it’s just not ever

pronounced, listen.

Listen.

Listen. You’re going to go on, like…

Okay. So, he puts a little break here.

So, in this thought group

what do you hear as being the

most stressed syllable.

You’re going to go on like…

You’re going to go on like.

You’re going go- I hear go, the verb as the most stressed.

You are going to becomes you’re gonna,

you’re gonna, you’re gonna.

You are you’re becomes yer, yer, yer.

Just a Y sound and a R sound.

You don’t need to try to make the SCHWA.

R is also a syllabic consonant, it

overpowers the SCHWA yer, yer, yer.

Going to becomes gonna so you are going to is

you’re gonna, you’re gonna,

you’re gonna, you’re gonna

You’re going to…

You’re gonna go, you’re gonna go.

You’re going to go….

You’re going to go…

You’re going to go on like…

On and like just falling in pitch away from

the peak of stress at go.

Go on like, go on like.

…go on like…

…go on like a thousand interviews

before you get a job.

Okay and in this next thought group what

is the most stressed syllable?

…a thousand interviews before you get a job.

… a thousand interviews before you get a job.

A thousand. I think thou has the most stress.

A thousand

interviews before, a little bit of

stress here as well,

before you get a job,

but I think the most stress is on thousand.

So, that word begins with an unvoiced TH.

You do need to bring your tongue tip through the teeth for that a thousand.

…a thousand…

And the letter A here just a SCHWA.

A thousand, oops I just realized

there’s a typo here isn’t there?

There’s an A in that word a thousand.

…a thousand…

…a thousand interviews…

Interviews, interviews, again he drops the T it’s a very normal and natural pronunciation interviews.

…interviews…

It’s so weird I have never noticed this about Ross before and yes I’ve seen this show

but his R in interviews and before is a little weak

which is a little bit of a New York accent

interviews before.

…interviews before…

…interviews before you get a job.

I definitely recommend you stick with a

standard American accent

which does have a bit of a stronger R sound in those words interviews before you get a job.

…interviews before you get a job.

… interviews before you get a job.

Before you get a job, before you get a job.

You can really feel that stress before you

get a job, da-da-da-da-da-da.

It starts to feel like a music a little bit when you study the stress before you get a job.

You get a, all lower in pitch flatter.

Again, the letter A is just a quick SCHWA

linking the words together.

The T in get is a flap T.

It comes between two vowels,

it links those words together, you get a job.

…you get a job.

That’s not how that was supposed to come out.

So, of course what he meant was it takes

a lot of tries to actually get a job.

What it sounded like was she’s

not going to interview

very well and is going to have to do it a

thousand times before she gets a job.

So, that’s what he meant when he said that’s not how that was supposed to come out.

We say that if we say something and the meaning didn’t quite come across right.

That’s not how that was supposed to come out.

That’s not how that was, that’s not how that was supposed to come out.

Come out, a phrasal verb.

That’s not how that was supposed to come out.

That’s not how that was…

So, we have a full A vowel in that’s

both times it doesn’t reduce that’s not how that was.

We have a stop T in this word that.

That was, that was, that was.

It’s not released, that would be that was, that was over pronounced. We don’t release our T’s very often.

This is a stop T because the next word

begins with a consonant.

The word was is not pronounced

was, that’s stressed.

It was pronounced waz, waz.

That’s unstressed that waz, that waz.

That’s not how that was supposed to come out.

Supposed to,

these two words go together pretty frequently, and we don’t say supposed to, we say spose to, spose to.

…supposed…

…supposed to come out.

Listen to just supposed to come.

…supposed to come…

Supposed to come, supposed to come,

supposed to come.

So, we lose the first syllable, we lose the vowel and it’s really just an SP, spo, spo

then we have the O as a no diphthong and the stressed syllable spose to, to

then we have S, a true T or a flap T. Honestly

his T sounds weak to me

so I wouldn’t write it as a true T, spose to, spose to.

I would say that was more of a flap T D sound sposed to, sposed to, sposed to and then a SCHWA.

SO, supposed to, three syllables becomes

two sposed to, sposed to.

…supposed…

…supposed to come out.

And a stop T at the end of out because it’s

at the end of a thought group.

…was supposed to come out.

This is just the worst Christmas ever.

So, Phoebe

she’s not feeling good about Christmas I wrote this is but I actually think it’s,

it’s, it’s just the, it’s hard to hear, people

are laughing and it’s not very stressed

but really I think I’m just hearing an S sound or a TS sound

which means it’s would have been it instead of this is, it’s just, it’s just, just, just, just.

It’s just the worst…

It’s just the worst, t, t, t, t.

Just a quick TS sound.

We do reduce the word it’s this way.

We also reduce the word let’s this way, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go

and we reduce the word that’s this way,

that’s okay for example.

That’s okay can become ‘s okay, So, we have a few words also what is, what

that can reduce to just the TS sound.

It’s just the worst.

It’s just the worst…

It’s just the worst Christmas ever.

What is the stress of this phrase? We know it’s is not stressed because it’s reduced, it’s low in pitch

and it’s kind of hard to hear

but what are the stressed syllables, the ones that are the clearest, the easiest to hear?

It’s just the worst Christmas ever.

Worst and ev’ have the most stress.

Now let’s look at our Ts.

We have a bunch that are dropped.

When a T is part of an ending cluster like the ST cluster and the next word begins with a consonant

like it does here with the, that T is dropped, jus’ the and that’s what she does take a listen.

It’s just the worst Christmas ever.

Then even in the stressed word worst it’s dropped because the next word begins with a consonant.

So, in both of those cases even though the word just

and the word worst even though those

words do have a T sound

the T was dropped because in this case the T came between two consonants.

Now, in the word Christmas the T also comes between two consonants and it’s also dropped

although, I guess I shouldn’t say it’s dropped because dropped means that it’s normally there

and it’s actually not normally there. There is no T sound in Christmas even though there is a letter T

because it comes between two consonants.

Chrismas, Chrismas.

So, we have just the worst Christmas but all with a no T’s. Jus’ the wors’ Chrismas ever.

It’s just the worst Christmas ever.

You know what, Rach, maybe you should just…You know what, Rach… You know what, Rach…

Know, definitely the most stressed word of that three word thought group.

You know what, Rach…

The word you, I actually think that that was reduced. I think not the OO vowel, but I think it was actually

reduced to the SCHWA yu, yu, yu know, yu know what.

That’s a pretty common reduction for the word too.

Yu know, Yu know what.

You know what…

You know what, Rach, maybe you should just…

And all of those words linked together really smoothly,

you know what.

Stop T, end of the thought group.

Rach, again up-down shape. It’s a stressed syllable.

You know what, Rach…

You know what, Rach, maybe you should just…

Maybe you should just and then the thought group ends here. There’s a little pause.

Let’s look at these four words.

Maybe you should just…

Maybe you should just, stress on may and just.

Maybe you should just…

You should just.

Okay. We have a couple reductions here. The word should is pronounced sh,

just SH and a SCHWA said quickly linking

right into the next sound

which is the J sound of just.

So, the L is always silent, but the D was

also dropped there.

I’ve noticed we do this sometimes when

the next word begins with a consonant

you should just, you should just, you should just.

Then we also have a dropped T. Now, why?

Before we dropped the T in just because it linked into a word that began with a constant.

Here it doesn’t but it’s just such a habit to

not pronounce the T in just

that we don’t do it sometimes

even when we pause.

Maybe you should jus’.

It simply ends in an S sound.

Maybe you should just…

Maybe you should just, you know…

You know, what’s the stress there

…you know…

You know, it’s definitely on no the word you again is reduced

just like it was up here in the phrase you know what,

you know, you know.

…you know…

…you know, stay here at the coffee house.

And in the rest of this sentence in this thought group what are the most stressed syllables?

…stay here at the coffee house.

… stay here at the coffee house.

I’m getting stay, a little bit on here, stay here at the coffee house.

So, four words that are a little bit longer.

In the word coffee the stressed word it’s only the stressed syllable that has that length.

The unstressed syllable will still be very short but at and the are not fully pronounced like that.

They are lower in pitch at the, at the, at

the, flat and the word at reduces,

the vowel changes to the SCHWA, the T is a stop T at the, at the, at the, here at the, here at the.

…stay here at the…

>> stay here at the coffee house.

>> I can’t.

Her voice is really breathy here.

She’s a little bit I don’t know if desperate is the right word exasperated but she’s just

she’s frustrated and that’s what’s

coming out in her voice.

That’s what this extra breathiness is doing.

I can’t.

I can’t, stress on the word can’t. She does

do a True T release.

We often don’t do that so she’s really stressing it by making that a True T.

I can’t.

I can’t. It’s too late.

It’s too late.

Too and late both stressed and again she

does a True T release here

where we would often make that a stop T because it’s at the end of a sentence.

So, by making these all True Ts she’s showing her desperation, her frustration.

The T in the word too is always a True T.

It’s too late.

Terry already hired that girl over there.

What’s our stress in this sentence?

Terry already hired that girl over there.

Terry, the name, the stressed syllable of Terry.

Terry already hired that girl over there.

Those are the most stressed syllables.

Also, the word Terry also has a True T.

We’re actually getting some True T practice here because it begins a stressed syllable,

Terry already hired.

Terry already hired…

Terry already hired, Terry already hired,

already, already, already.

She’s not making an L sound in the word already and that’s pretty common.

I don’t do that either.

Already, already, already, already, just a really quick vowel and then the stressed syllable already,

already, already.

Terry already…

That’s an all as in AH vowel already, already, already, already, already hired that girl.

Again, the D sound not released just a quick vibration in the vocal cords before going on to the next sound.

Hired that girl, Stop T in that because the next word begins with a consonant.

Terry already hired that girl…

Now, I know girl can be one of the trickiest words. It’s got the R vowel GU R and then a Dark L, gurl.

One thing that can help is to use the stress to your advantage, use the up-down shape

gurl and use that fall down in the pitch for your Dark L gurl, gurl, gurl over there.

…girl over there.

You do need to make sure you’re making a dark sound otherwise it won’t sound right.

It’s not a light L,

it’s a dark L because the L comes at the end of the syllable girl.

When I make that sound I don’t lift my

tongue tip at all, girl.

Now, you will lift it quickly before the O

diphthong to differentiate

girl over, over,

girl over but you want the dark sound before you lift your tongue tip otherwise it sounds like

girl and that’s not quite American girl, girl over there.

…girl over there.

If you’re a Spanish speaker make sure you’re making a V and not a B,

Vvvvv

you can see some of your teeth when you make that sound.

If your lips are closed then it’s a B. Try to work on a separate V sound over there.

…girl over there.

And she laughs a little bit as she says there, there.

…there.

Look at her.

What’s our stress in this

three word thought group.

Look at her.

Look at her. Very obvious first word stress,

look at her and then the unstressed words just come in on the way down for the pitch, look at her.

Now, this is a light L because it comes at the beginning of the syllable or in this case the word

so you will lift your tongue tip, look at her.

The word at what do you notice about the pronunciation.

Look at her.

It’s not AH at but it’s look at her. It almost sounds like the word it which has the /I/ as in sit vowel.

It’s the SCHWA look at her and I think that the SCHWA and the IH as in sit vowel sound pretty much the same

when the IH is unstressed and they’re said quickly, look at her and there is a stop T there, look at her.

Look at her.

That double O in look is the same vowel

as in push or sugar.

Don’t let the double-O fool you it’s not OO,

it’s U luk, luk at her.

Look at her.

Look at her. She’s even got waitress experience.

What’s the stress of this last sentence.

She’s even got waitress experience.

She’s even got, little stress on even she’s even got waitress experience.

I would say most of the stress is on that first syllable of waitress.

She’s even got waitress experience.

The apostrophe s in she’s is a Z sound

that links right into the next vowel,

which is the E vowel she’s even, even, even. She’s even got, try that. She’s even got…

She’s even got…

She’s even got waitress experience.

A stop T at the end of got because the next sound is a consonant waitress experience.

…waitress experience.

Waitress, we have a TR cluster and it’s common for that to become CHR and that’s exactly what happens here,

waichress experience.

…waitress experience.

Experience, a four syllable word with stress on the second syllable ex-pe-rience, ex-pe-rience.

When you have a longer word that feels tricky focus on the stress that can help a lot with the pronunciation.

It can help you figure out where to

simplify experience, experience.

…experience.

…experience. Ugh.

Ugh.

Even that expression has an up-down

shape, the shape of stress, ugh.

Ugh.

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

Hey. How’d the interview go?

Ugh. I blew it.

I wouldn’t have even hired me.

Oh. Come here, sweetie. Listen.

You’re going to go on, like, a thousand

interviews before you get a job.

That’s not how that was supposed to come out.

It’s just the worst Christmas ever.

You know what, Rach, maybe you should just, you know, stay here at the coffee house.

I can’t. It’s too late.

Terry already hired that girl over there.

Look at her, she’s even got waitress experience. Ugh.

Thirty plus years of service. Combat medals. Citations.

Only man to shoot down three enemy planes in the last forty years.

Yet you can’ get a promotion, you won’t retire.

Despite your best efforts, you refuse to die.

You should be at least a two-star admiral by now.

Yet you are here.

Captain.

Why is that?

It’s one of life’s mysteries, sir.

The end is inevitable, Maverick. Your kind is headed for extinction.

Maybe so, sir.

But not today.

And now the analysis.

Thirty plus years of service.

Okay to start, let’s go ahead and write out thirty and plus. It would almost always be written this way

with the digit and then the plus sign, but as we talked about the sounds, we’ll write it out.

Now you probably noticed that the T in thirty is a flap T.

This follows the rules in that it comes after an R before a vowel. Like in dirty, this is a T that we would flap.

So rather than being ttt, a true T, the tongue simply flaps against the roof of the mouth. Thirty da-da-da thirty.

Thirty. Thirty. Thirty plus–

Thirty plus–

And we have first syllable stress on thirty.

Thirty, so stressed, then unstressed, the ending unstressed EE sound. Thirty plus–

Thirty plus– thirty plus– thirty plus years of service.

Some stress on plus, then we also have stress on years, and ser–vice.

So of and –vice, are both unstressed. Thirty plus years of service.

Thirty plus years of service.

Thirty plus years of service. So those are our longer syllables with the up-down shape of stress.

The other syllables are going to be shorter, but everything links together we don’t want to feel

any separation between the words. Thirty plus years of service, would not be natural sounding American English.

We need this contrast and then we also need the linking. Thirty plus years of service. No breaks there.

Thirty plus years of service.

Combat medals.

Okay, now in this little two-word phrase, you tell me what are the most stressed syllables?

Combat medals.

Combat medals. The most stress probably on combat, the adjective here describing the kind of medal.

Combat medals. And then also some stress on the noun. Combat medals. The second syllable of combat

is unstressed, it has a stop T, bat bat bat, because the next word begins with a consonant.

So again, the T is not released. Combat medals. Medals.

Combat medals.

This D can also be a flap just like thirty, medals, rararara, because it comes between two vowel sounds.

Here, it’s the EH as in bed vowel and then the schwa L combination. Medals, medals, medals. Combat medals.

The vowel here in the unstressed syllable is AH, but we don’t want it to be AA,

that would be stressed, we want it to be ah, ah, combat, combat medals.

Combat medals.

Combat medals. Citations.

Citations. Do you feel how it’s that middle syllable that’s stressed? Citations.

The letter A here is TAY, the AY as in say diphthong. That letter A can have several different pronunciations.

Here it’s: ay, ay, citations. The letter C makes the S sound.

Citations.

The letter I makes the AI diphthong. The letter I, so many of the letters, almost all of the letters in American English

can have various different pronunciations, which makes English so hard you can’t necessarily tell

the pronunciation by looking at it. Citations. SH schwa N, and then Z, a weak ending Z sound.

Citations.

The stress is really important in American English. We want to know what stressed, and what’s unstressed,

so that we can feel that we make a peak on that stressed syllable. We definitely don’t want all syllables

to feel the same. Citations. That would have the right pitch, but not the right rhythm.

It’s not DA-DA-DA but it’s da-DA-da. The first one is very short and the last one is very short. Citations. Citations.

Citations.

Also I should point out this T in ta– is a true T because it starts a stressed syllable.

So if a T starts a stressed syllable, and it’s not part of the TR cluster, then it will be a true T. Tay, tay, citations.

Citations.

Only man to shoot down three enemy planes in the last forty years.

Okay, now we have a much longer phrase. I want you to listen to it a few times and see

what you think is the most stressed word.

Only man to shoot down three enemy planes in the last forty years.

I hear it is the last word. In the last forty years– years– he sort of holds on to the beginning Y consonant a little bit.

Years. Draws out the length and it definitely has that up-down shape. Now certainly, we have other syllables

that are stressed in the sentence, but I think this is the most stressed in the phrase.

Only man to shoot down three enemy planes in the last forty years.

Let’s look at our other stressed syllables and do we have any reductions?

Only man to shoot down three enemy planes in the last forty years.

Everything links together really smoothly. So let’s take it bit by bit.

Only man to shoot down–

Only man to shoot down– So we have stress on OH. Only man– not on the word ‘to’, that’s a preposition,

usually not going to be stressed. Shoot and down, both have some stress and length.

Did you notice that the word ‘to’ wasn’t pronounced ‘to’ it was reduced. Man to– man to–

Flap T or a D sound and the schwa. Man to– man to– only man to–

Only man to–

shoot down–

I have a friend named Amanda, and we often as a nickname, as a way to shorten it, call her just ‘Manda’.

Manda. And it sounds just like these two words together: man to– Manda, Manda, Manda,

when you make that a flap T.

Only man to–

shoot down–

Only man to shoot down–

So we have two letters T here. The first one is a flap T, or it’s sort of like a D sound, and then the second T

is a stop T. Shoot down. Which means we stop the air, but we don’t release the T, that would be shoot down.

We definitely don’t hear that. It’s just shoot down, shoot down.

Shoot down–

Now a word of caution with the word down, a lot of my students, especially students whose native language is

Chinese, but not just those students, have a hard time with the word down. It’s the OW diphthong,

OW, plus the N consonant. And they kind of mix the N into the diphthong and nasalize it. Down.

We don’t want that at all. We want it to be completely un-nasal in the diphthong.

Dow– Dow– Dow– nnn– Dow– nnn–

And then you can practice it that way splitting off the N, make sure you’re not going down,

and mixing the two into a nasal diphthong sound. Down, down, shoot down.

Shoot down– shoot down– shoot down three enemy planes.

Then we have three words, and they’re all stressed, so we have quite a few words and syllables that are

stressed in this sentence. Three enemy planes. I want to point out that even in a stressed word,

if it has more than one syllable, it will have unstressed syllables. So the only syllable stressed here is EH.

Enemy. Nemy. Nemy. Nemy. Then the rest of the syllables are unstressed and said very quickly.

Three enemy.

Now, we have a vowel to vowel link here. We have the EE vowel in three and the EH vowel in enemy.

Some students feel like they need to split that up a little bit to make it clear, the change between words,

you don’t need to do that in English. And we don’t want you to do that. We want it to glide together smoothly.

Three enemy. Three enemy.

If you have a hard time linking them together, it can help to think of, in this particular case, with this particular link,

a Y consonant. So you could think of the word as being yenemy, three enemy, three enemy, three enemy.

If you link it together, that might help you smooth it out you don’t want to make a very big heavy Y,

but a little light Y glide consonant to link those two words together,

might help you make a smooth transition.

Three enemy.

Let’s talk a little bit about the consonant cluster here. It’s TH unvoiced and R consonant.

Thr, thr, thr, thr, thr, thr. His TH almost has like a T quality in it. I think when I listen to it on repeat.

But it’s definitely not: three, three, three, that’s something that a lot of non-native speakers do, they substitute in TR

instead of THR and then it sounds like a tree, you know, like, oh, a tree. But we don’t want to be saying tree.

We want to be saying three , three , three. So let your tongue tip come lightly through your teeth,

don’t build up the air, don’t put pressure there, don’t bite on the tongue at all, that will make it sound more like a T.

We want th– the easy passage of air. Three, three, three enemy planes.

Three enemy planes-

in the last forty years.

In the last forty years. So in and the, both said so incredibly quickly.

Let’s just listen to: in the last–

in the last–

I actually think it sounds like the TH is dropped. In the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the.

It’s just IH as in sit, N linking right into the schwa. In the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the.

You can only do this if you do it very, very quickly. It’s low in pitch, it’s low in volume, try that.

In the, in the, in the, in the. You should be able to do it without moving your jaw at all.

Your lips, your face, should be totally relaxed, the only thing moving is the tongue inside the mouth.

You want to take away all the extra movement that

you don’t need so that you can say this as quickly as you need to. In the, in the, in the, in the last forty years.

The last forty years.

Okay, again, we’re going to write out the word ‘forty’.

Our T again is a flap T because it comes after an R and before a vowel.

The vowel is the EE as in she vowel. Forty, forty, forty. Thirty, thirty, thirty.

These all have a flap T which can sound like a D. Dadadada forty forty.

Forty–

years.

Now we have some stressed words other than years, let’s listen to the phrase again:

In the last forty years–

In the, in the, last forty, and then we’ve already marked years. So the unstressed syllable of forty is unstressed.

We have stress in the word last with the AA vowel. Notice the T is dropped there.

It’s very common to drop the T in an ending cluster like ST when the next word begins with a consonant,

the next word begins with F, so we’re gonna drop that T to smoothly connect. Last forty, last forty.

Last forty–

So out of all of our letters T here on this page, we have a flap T, in we have a stop T in combat,

we have a true T in citations, because it begins a stressed syllable, but then the next T is actually

part of the TION ending, and that’s an SH sound. In the word to, the reduction is da, flap T, not a true T.

In the word shoot, it’s a stop T. And in the word last, its dropped.

So out of all of the T sounds in this particular part of this conversation, there’s only one true T.

And then we even have as the T and the TH, it’s fully pronounced in one case and then dropped in another.

So you really need to study how Americans speak and what happens with reductions and linking

and dropping sounds, in order to figure out how they do things so smoothly.

But after you study this, and you look at this part of the video several times, you’ll be able to go back

and imitate that audio, and that’s when it really gets fun,

when you can not only understand what’s happening with American English, but when

you can imitate it yourself in a way that sounds natural. It really can feel freeing to do that.

And that’s what this video series is all about this summer.

Last forty years. Last forty years. Last forty years. Yet you can’t get a promotion–

Okay in this next phrase, what’s the most stressed word do you think?

Yet you can’t get a promotion–

I’m feeling can’t, and promotion, as being really stressed. Yet you, really low in volume, low in energy,

harder to hear, right? Let’s listen to just those two words together.

Yet you–

Not very clear, but that’s what we need. We need that less clear to provide contrast with our more

clear syllables. That’s what makes up the character of American English. So we have yet, with the stop T,

yet, yet, yet, yet, Yet you– Yet you– Yet you– Yet you–

Yet you–

can’t get a promotion–

Can’t get a promotion– Okay we have an N apostrophe T ending in the word can’t.

That can be pronounced three ways. One of them is can’t, with a true T, one of them is can’t, with a stop T,

and one of them is can with the T totally dropped. I’m having a hard time deciding if I think it’s a stop T,

or a dropped T, because if I listen to it three times thinking it’s a stop T, that’s what I hear.

If I listen to it three times thinking it’s dropped, that’s what I hear. So at any rate, it’s not a true T.

We’ll call it a stop T, very subtle, very quick, can’t get, can’t get, can’t get, can’t get, can’t get, can’t get.

Not a big lift but just a tiny little break there before the G: can’t get, can’t get.

Can’t get–

The vowel is the AA vowel. When it’s followed by N it’s not really a pure AA anymore, it’s not ca– ca–

but cauh– it starts with a little less jaw drop and the back of the tongue relaxes, which brings in a sound

sort of like UH. Ca-uh, ca-uh, can’t can’t can’t can’t can’t.

And we know that this is different than the word can, because if the word was you can get a promotion,

then we wouldn’t stress it, we would say, you can get, you can get, you can get.

That would be reduced to the schwa. The word can’t never reduces, always has this AA vowel in it.

Can’t get,

a promotion.

Now we have get and a, not stressed, along with the first syllable of promotion, that’s a schwa there.

Pro–

So we have get a pro– but that’s not how it’s pronounced, it’s pronounced: get a, get a, get a, get a,

flap T linking into the schwa, and the schwa links right into the PR. That’s what helps us link everything together,

is we just don’t stop the sounds. Get a, get a, get a, get a pro, get a pro, get a pro, get a promotion.

Get a promotion–

Again we have a TION ending and that is SH schwa N. Tion, tion, tion. It’s not: shen, shon, it’s shun, shun.

Try to make it with a no vowel at all. N absorbs the schwa, so just try to make SHN and say that quickly.

SHN SHN promotion.

Promotion–

Get a promotion.

Get a promotion–

you won’t retire.

I wrote the word you here, but it is so, so subtle. You, you, you, you.

I almost just hear it as a superlight weak Y sound in the throat, but

I could even see someone saying it’s totally dropped.

You won’t retire–

You won’t retire. So we have two stressed syllables there, and again, I feel like I’m hearing this

N apostrophe T as a stop T. Won’t, won’t , won’t , won’t. Won’t retire.

Be careful here, some people say something more like: won– wo, oh, oh, won– but it’s woah–

So your lips start in a circle for the W, then they loosen up a little bit for the first half of the OH diphthong,

then they have to round again. Woah– If you miss that second rounding, then you’re not gonna get the

correct sound there. Won’t, won’t, won’t retire.

You won’t retire.

Again, this T is a True T, why? Because it starts a stressed syllable. Tire, retire. Retire.

Retire–

Despite your best efforts, you refuse to die.

What do you hear as the most stressed syllables in that phrase there?

Despite your best efforts, you refuse to die.

Despite your best– A little bit of stress on best. A little bit of stress on efforts. But more on refuse and die.

Okay, let’s look at the rest of the words, the rest of the syllables, do we have any T’s that change from a true T?

Do we have any reductions? How do we link all of this together and provide the rhythmic contrast we need?

Despite your best efforts, you refuse to die.

Let’s just look at the first two words: despite– despite your– so this T is a stop T because the next sound

is a consonant sound, the Y consonant. Also we want this to be a schwa in DE, and a schwa in RE,

retire, so don’t say re– retire, say ruh– retire. Duh– despite, despite, the letter I here makes the AI diphthong.

Despite. Stop T. So it’s different from dropped T because that would be despie– the sound would be the same,

AI but it would change shape, AI, it would go up and then come down. Despie–

but when we cut it off, despite, despite.

Despite–

your best–

That cutoff is a stop of air, and that signifies the T. Now the word your, is reduced it becomes the schwa R.

Those two sounds blend together. The R absorbs the schwa.

So you don’t even need to try to make a vowel there. It’s just yy–rr– yrr, yrr, yrr, yrr, yrr, yrr.

Say that as quickly as you can. Your, despite your, despite your.

Despite your–

best efforts.

Best efforts. So we have an ST cluster. If the next word began with the consonant, we would drop that T,

but it doesn’t, it begins with the EH as in bed vowel. So we will link that with a light true T.

Best efforts, best, best efforts.

Best efforts–

We don’t want to say efforts. We see a letter O here, maybe you want to do some lip rounding,

but it’s not, it’s a schwa. Effor–

And remember just like we said here, schwa is absorbed by the R so you don’t even need to try to make a vowel

right from F into R. Effor– for for for. Efforts. Efforts.

Efforts–

you refuse to die.

Efforts, you re–

So we have three unstressed syllables here. We have the unstressed syllable of efforts, the word you,

which doesn’t reduce. He could have said yuh, but he said you, but he said it low and unstressed.

You, you, you. You re– you re–

Then again just like retire, we have refuse, with a schwa, not refuse, but re re refuse,

Refuse–

to die–

You refuse to die. Now, I listen to this quite a few times to decide, do I think this is a true T in to or a flap T?

I think it’s a true T. Refused to. But it’s got the schwa. It’s not to it’s to to to, it’s low in pitch, it’s said very quickly.

Refuse to die, before the stressed word die. Now I want to talk about this word, refuse, so it can be pronounced

two different ways, it can be unstressed, re, R schwa, actually, you know what, it’s not the schwa,

it’s the IH as in sit vowel, which brings up something interesting. This is actually an IH as well,

as is despite, if I look it up, I see it’s an IH, refuse is an IH, so why am I saying it’s a schwa?

I’ve always said to me, the IH as in sit, unstressed sounds just like the schwa.

Re re re re re refuse. Retire. Re re re re refuse. Retire.

In the word themselves, they pretty much sound the same to me. So I always tell students, don’t worry

about an unstressed syllable like this, do whichever one helps you say it more quickly.

But I love this, when I look something up and I find, oh man I’m wrong.

The official pronunciation does show an IH,

if you say it with a schwa that doesn’t really matter. What matters is that it’s said very quickly.

With this word, we actually have two different pronunciations.

Two different meanings but same spelling. So the first one is how it’s used here, it’s a verb.

We have the R consonant, IH vowel, unstressed. And then in a stressed syllable, we have the F consonant,

the JU as in few diphthong, and the Z. Refuse, refuse. That’s the verb.

And it means no way will this person do something.

Refuse–

The other pronunciation of it is a noun, and it’s refuse. So now, the first syllable is stressed,

we have the EH as in bed syllable there and then in our unstressed syllable, we still have the JU diphthong

but we have an S at the end instead, and this is the noun and this is just another word for trash.

So two different words, two different meanings, same spelling, but different pronunciation.

Refuse. Refuse.

Refuse–

to die.

You should be at least a two star Admiral by now.

You should be at least– some stress there. You should be at least a two star Admiral by not by now.

Two star Admiral by now.

You should be at least a two star Admiral by now.

Let’s look at our first four words here. You should be at–

You should be at–

You should– The D, the letter L is always silent in this word, the D is very subtle and actually, you can drop it,

you can think of it as being dropped, before a word that begins to the consonant: shuh– shuh– shuh–

So it’s SH and schwa,

you should be, you should be, you should be, you should be at– you should be at– you should be at–

Be linking right into at which reduces, at at at, I would write that with the schwa and a stop T.

Be at, be at, be at, be at, be at, you should be at, you should be at, you should be at.

You should be at–

least a two star Admiral by now.

Four less clear words before we have some of our words with stressed syllables.

You should be at least a two star–

At least a– Now, here, T in an ST cluster but the next sound is the schwa.

So we do hear a true T linking into that. Least a, least a. At least a two star.

Now this is a T starting a stressed syllable, so that will be a True T. Two star, two star, two star Admiral by now.

There we have that AA vowel again. Hope you feel pretty good about it because it’s in this sentence,

it’s in this conversation quite a bit. Two star Admiral by now.

At least a two star Admiral by now.

Admiral, Admiral. I love that word. It really is clear that the first syllable is stressed,

and the second two are unstressed. Miral, miral, miral. Don’t say MEERAL or anything like that.

Miral, miral, miral.

Admiral–

Both unstressed syllables have the schwa. Schwa followed by R. It gets absorbed by the R.

Schwa followed by L, it gets absorbed by the L. M, N, R, L. All absorb the schwa.

So they’re called syllabic consonants. You don’t need to try to make a schwa there. It’s just

Mm, rr, ll. M right into the R sound, and then a dark L. Miral, miral, miral, miral. Admiral.

Admiral–

by now.

By now, by now. A little bit of stress on now, but it’s the end of the phrase, his voice has lost some of the energy,

it’s lower in pitch.

By now–

Yet here you are.

Okay in this little four-word sentence, what is the stress?

Yet here you are–

Yet here you are.

Here and are, more stressed, everything links together very smoothly. We have a stop T in yet,

because the next word begins with a consonant, the H consonant. Yet here you are.

Yet here you are.

Captain.

Captain. Ca– again, that AH vowel in our stressed syllable. Captain.

Captain–

A light true T here. Now why would this one be a true T? The rule is if it’s part of a consonant cluster, like in PT,

that it’s a True T, although we’ve definitely seen exceptions to that, haven’t we?

ST followed by a constant, it’s dropped, but here, part of the PT cluster, it is a light true T.

And again, captain, tain, tain, captain. Don’t try to make a vowel there. Schwa N. Captain.

Captain–

Actually, I just looked it up because I was curious. Dictionary.com shows both schwa N or IH,

N, as an ending and as i’ve said before, to me, they sound the same.

Captain–

Why is that?

Why is that? Why is that? Most stress on the question word. Why is that?

And then the pitch sort of falls down from that. Why is– really link that AI diphthong, why is,

into the IH as in sit vowel.

You might need to feel like you go through the glide consonant Y to help you link them.

Why is that? Then a weak Z.

TH, AH as in bat vowel, stop T. Now why is this a stop T? It’s not followed by a consonant.

It’s a stop T because T is a stop T if it’s followed by a consonant,

or it’s the end of a thought group, like it is here.

Why is that?

It’s one of life’s mysteries, sir.

It’s one of life’s– more stress there, mysteries, sir. One has a little bit of stress, sir has a little bit of stress.

It’s one of life’s mysteries, sir.

Let’s look at the other words the word its. Vowel is dropped. It’s just the TS cluster before the W of one.

It’s one, it’s one, it’s one, it’s one. It’s not uncommon to pronounce it’s that way.

You can even do that with what’s and let’s. Like if I was going to say let’s go, I might say:

let’s go, let’s go I’m ready to go. Let’s go. That’s can also be reduced to just the TS cluster. It’s one.

It’s one of–

life’s mysteries, sir.

It’s one of– the word of, I would write that with the schwa and the V.

You can drop the V sound but he doesn’t. It’s one of life’s mysteries, sir.

It’s one of life’s mysteries, sir.

The word mysteries can be pronounced as three or two syllables, mys-ter-ies or mys-teries.

I actually think he’s doing it as three but this middle syllable is so fast.

Mysteries, mysteries, mysteries.

Mysteries–

sir.

And there’s not really a break between mysteries and sir. Mysteries, sir.

So even though an IPA, this would be written with the Z.

It’s more like an S that just keeps going into the stressed sound sir, into the stressed word, sir. Mysteries, sir.

Mysteries, sir.

Everything in this phrase really smoothly connected.

It’s one of life’s mysteries, sir.

The end is inevitable, Maverick.

Okay, our stress here. The end is inevitable, Maverick.

The end is inevitable, Maverick.

End has the most stress, I would say. Now, the word the, here is pronounced the.

The rule is that’s what we do when the next word begins with a vowel, and here the next word begins with EH,

the EH vowel. Usually it would be the, but here it’s the, the end, the end.

Now do Americans always follow this rule? No. But if you noticed it, that’s what’s going on.

The end. The end is inevitable. Inevi–dadadadada Do you hear that?

That’s a flap T because it comes between two vowel or diphthong sounds. Inevitable.

So it’s a four syllable word with second syllable stress. Inevitable. Five syllable word with second syllable stress.

Unstressed, then stressed, then three unstressed. Inevitable.

Inevitable.

And everything links together really smoothly. D into beginning IH, Z into beginning IH.

The end is inevitable.

The end is inevitable, Maverick.

Maverick. This is another word that can be pronounced as three or two syllables

depending on if you drop the middle. Ma-ver-ick. Just like mys-ter-y. Or Mave-rick.

Maverick.

Dropped, the feeling of the vowel, and make this like, feel like a cluster. Rick, Rick, maverick.

And that’s what he did. He does not release the K. K is a stop sound just like T and we can skip the release at the

end of a thought group like he does here. Or when the next word begins with a consonant.

It’s a little bit less of a strong rule. The T is almost always a stop T in these cases.

K it’s a little bit more likely to release it, but he doesn’t. Maverick. Maverick.

Maverick.

Sort of an abrupt stop of air there, signifies the K.

Maverick.

Your kind is headed for extinction.

Now let’s look at our next sentence. The word your. The last time we saw that, it was reduced.

It wasn’t your, it was your, your, does that happen again? Listen.

Your kind is headed for extinction.

Honestly, I almost don’t even really hear an R sound. Ye ye ye ye ye kind.

Your kind–

is headed for extinction.

Your kind is headed– Stress on kind, head, headed for extinction.

So the word your, definitely reduced. We have stress on kind, it’s the AI diphthong, and your links right into kind ,

then the D links right into the IH vowel for our unstressed syllable is.

Weak Z sound links right into the H.

Kind is headed–

Kind is headed. The ED ending after a D is schwa D. Headed. Headed. Could you think of that?

I’m sorry I said schwa, but I wrote IH because you can also think of it as schwa D. Headed. Headed. Headed.

Headed–

for extinction.

The word for, now I know this word usually reduces, is it for? Let’s listen.

Headed for–

Headed for, headed for. It’s not for. It is fur fur fur. I would write that with a schwa.

Fur fur, reduced, headed for extinction.

Headed for extinction.

T here starting a stressed syllable, that’s a true T. Unstressed IH, K sound, the letter X here is interesting,

it makes KS and the syllable break actually happens between K and S so it’s actually IK, and then ST cluster.

Extinction.

So in the stressed syllable, STING, I’m just gonna write this over here, we’re getting crowded there. Extinction.

Extinction.

In the stressed syllable, we have the IH as in sit vowel but that’s followed by the NG consonant.

Now here, it’s the letter N. But it’s not made at the front of the mouth, like N, it’s made at the back,

with the back of the tongue like NG and that’s because it’s followed by a K sound.

Exting—, that’s the back of the tongue lifting to the soft palate.

When IH is followed by an NG sound, it’s not really IH, it’s more like EE,

you’ll notice this in the word sing, or ring, it’s not IH, sing, but sing, sing.

Extinct, extinction. Extinction. Sort of a tricky word. You might want to slow it down as you practice it. Extinction.

Extinction.

Maybe so, sir.

Maybe so, sir. A little bit of stress on may– much more on so, a little bit of stress on sir.

And everything links together really smoothly, doesn’t it? Maybe so, sir.

Maybe so, sir.

But not today.

But not today. Okay, so I think this T is actually dropped, I don’t really hear it as a stop, but

I hear the UH going right into the N. But not, but not, but not. But not today.

But not today. Stress on not. But not today.

But not today.

But not today. Not today. So we have two Ts here. These words will link together with the true T.

But not, but not today. But not today. And it’s not to, today. It’s to, to, schwa. To to today.

But not today. But not today.

But not today.

Listen to this whole conversation one more time.

Thirty plus years of service. Combat medals. Citations.

Only man to shoot down three enemy planes in the last forty years.

Yet you can’ get a promotion, you won’t retire. Despite your best efforts, you refuse to die.

You should be at least a two-star admiral by now.

Yet you are here.

Captain.

Why is that?

It’s one of life’s mysteries, sir.

The end is inevitable, Maverick. Your kind is headed for extinction.

Maybe so, sir.

But not today

When you watch so much analysis all at once, you really start to feel those characteristics that are important to American English. You can’t deny them. You start to feel them in your body.

If you want to start training that, you’ll want to work with the audio training that goes along with these kinds of analysis videos in my online school, Rachel’s English Academy, we have thousands of students training right now to get these habits into their voices.

Visit rachelsenglishacademy.com to sign up today. Keep your learning going now with this video and don’t forget to subscribe with notifications. I make new videos on the English language every week. I love being your English teacher.

That’s it and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.

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The Sounds of American English
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Speaking English: You ACTUALLY Need This To Speak Well

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