Speaking English with FRIENDS: English Lesson for the Holidays!

As we practice speaking English it’s fun to watch our favorite shows together! In this English lesson you’ll learn exactly why the characters’ English pronunciation on Friends is the way it is.

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Video Transcript:

I love Sweater Weather and the holidays. Today we’re studying English by analyzing a scene from the TV show, Friends. What exactly makes American English sound American? We’ll look at the music of English. What words might change in a full sentence?

First, here’s the scene we’ll study.

It doesn’t even have to be a big relationship, you know?

Just like a fling would be great.

Really? I didn’t think girls ever just wanted a fling.

Well. Let me tell you something. It’s been a long time since I’ve been flung.

You know what? There’s some nice guys at my office. You want me to set you up?

Yeah. No accountants. Oh. And no one from, like legal. I don’t like guys with boring jobs.

Oh. And Ross was like, what, a lion tamer?

Let’s study the music of speech together. I’m Rachel, and I’ve been teaching the American accent here on YouTube for over 15 years. Get my free course, the Top Three Ways to Master the American Accent at rachelsenglish.com/free. It will give you some killer tips on speaking natural English.

Now, the analysis.

It doesn’t even have to be a big relationship, you know, you know, just like a fling.

In this scene, Rachel is single, and she’s talking about wanting to be in a relationship; have a boyfriend, have a fling, and she says a lot of words before she takes any kind of break. All the way from here at the beginning, to the word fling, with no breaks. All connected.

It doesn’t even have to be a big relationship, you know, you know, just like a fling.

So, we always like to look for our stressed syllables that’s going to help us find our anchors. So what are the longest syllables in this phrase –

It doesn’t even have to be a big relationship, you know, you know, just like a fling.

It doesn’t even have to be a big relationship. So does has some length. It does it doesn’t even have to be a big relationship.” So we have three up-down shapes of stress. Longer words, louder words, clearer words. The other words are said so quickly.

Let’s take the word it, for example, at the beginning.

It doesn’t…

“It—” So fast.

It—

Super quick I vowel, and then an abrupt stop of air for the stop T. “It, it, it, it, it doesn’t. It doesn’t.”  So we’re not hearing it doesn’t but we’re hearing “It-doesn’t,” “It-doesn’t,” “It-doesn’t.” Just a super quick I before our stressed word. Doesn’t–that’s with the “uh” as in butter sound, and remember the s in does and doesn’t is a Z sound.

It doesn’t…

It doesn’t even have to be a…

 It doesn’t even… Now I have a video on N-apostrophe-T contractions, check it out if you haven’t already. But what I’ve noticed is, when N-apostrophe-T is followed by a vowel, like it is here, E, it’s pretty common to drop the T, and that’s what she’s doing. She’s going straight from N into E. Doesn’t even, with no T, no break, no stop.

It doesn’t even…

It doesn’t even have to be a…

It doesn’t even have to be a… So all of these words are lower in pitch. Less clear, don’t have that up-down shape of stress, aren’t as long. Even have to be a—flatter in pitch.

I’m Rachel, and I’ve been teaching the American accent on YouTube for over 15 years. Go to Rachel’s English.com-slash-free to get my free course, The Top Three Ways to Master the American Accent.

even have to be a—

Wow. So fast. Even have to be a, Even have to be a, Even have to be a. So I’m not hearing the H. I’m thinking that that is totally dropped, so we’re going right from N into A, even-a, even-a, even have to, even have to, even have to…

even have to—

Have to, have to, have to, have to. So the ending consonant V, the beginning consonant T. What am I hearing? I’m playing it a bunch of times and I think I’m hearing a very weak V and a very weak D or flap sound. Have to, have to, have to, have to, have to before the schwah. Not very clear. Have to, have to, have to, have to. HAVE TO becomes have-to, have-to, have-to, have-to, have-to, have-to. And then BE A becomes be-a, be-a, be-a, be-a. Put them all together and you get, have-to-be-a. Put it with the unstressed word even and you get even-have-to-be-a, even-have-to-be-a, even-have-to-be-a.

even have to be a—

So this is how American English works. We have unstressed words said so quickly, and then we contrast that with longer stressed words like the word big. If everything was as fast as the unstressed words it would be un understandable. But the contrast with the longer stress syllables, that gives us the rhythm of the music of American English, and that’s how we understand it. You’ll have to really simplify your mouth movements to get through all of these sounds quickly enough to match the pace of Rachel Green.

even have to be a—

even have to be a big relationship…

Big relationship, big relationship. Now it slows down a little bit with these two stressed syllables big relationship. So notice T, I, O, N–this ending has a couple different pronunciations, and in this word it’s SH-schwah-N – shun, shun, shun, relationship, relationship.

relationship, you know–

Y’know, y’know, y’know. You know added on at the end not pronounced you know but pronounced y’know. Reduced YOU becomes Y and it links right into the word know which is said so quickly, y’know, y’know, y’know, and it’s going up in pitch. Y’know

just like a fling—

Then we go right from the O diphthong into the J sound, no stop.

You know?

just like a fling.

Just like a fling. Okay, here we have two stress words. Just like a

Fling. Longer, up down shape of stress. Make sure you imitate that.

just like a fling.

The word just when followed by a word that begins with a consonant almost always pronounced with a dropped T. Just like, just like, just like.

just like—

a fling.

Just like a fling. Like and uh, said so quickly, the article uh pronounced as a schwa, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a. Flat. So fast. Fling. So she stresses the F a little bit. Fling, all she wants, a fling. When we stress the first consonant, make it a little louder and a little bit longer, it adds even more stress to that word. And the pitch change the difference in the top and the bottom pitch, fling, also the more exaggerated that is, the more stress the word feels.

just like a fling.

A fling is a very casual short-term relationship with somebody. Sometimes romantic but often just physical.

Just like a fling—

would be great.

Would be great. So. three more words, only one stressed. Would be, flatter, great. Up down shape of stress and she does release that with a true T. Sort of stressing that word. Great. would be great.

The L in W is silent the D is voiced but not released. It’s not would be, but it’s would be, would be, would be, would be, would be great.

would be great.

Really? I didn’t think—

Really?

Not too clear. Questioning intonation going up. Really? Really? Really? Really? So both syllables said very quickly. R consonant R, I would say he’s using the IH vowel here. An unclear L and the E vowel. Really? Really? Really? So the tongue tip doesn’t make a super clear L, doesn’t to me seem like it goes all the way to the roof of the mouth. Really? It’s a little bit mumbled.

Really?

I didn’t think girls ever—

I didn’t think girls ever, and then a teeny tiny break. And again not that clear just like the L here was a little bit sloppy and lazy and not too clear. That to me is happening with other sounds here as well.

Really? I didn’t think girls ever—

I don’t think girls. I didn’t, I didn’t, I didn’t. The word didn’t, much less clear than that. I didn’t think.

I didn’t think—

To me, this whole word is pretty unclear. Didn’t, didn’t, didn’t. Little bit mumbled. We do see the tongue tip come through for the TH. I didn’t think, I didn’t think, I didn’t think, think, think, think, think, think, think. Notice it’s not think. Up down shape of stress longer, it’s still flat. Unstressed feelings said quickly.

I didn’t think—

girls ever—

I didn’t think girls ever. So our first real stresses on ever. I didn’t think girls ever. First syllable stress there. The E vowel as in bed. Girls-e. The ending S in girls, this plural is a Z sound and that links into the a vowel no break. Girls-e

I know this word is super tricky. G consonant ur, that’s the R vowel consonant together it’s just one sound. G-R. Then we have the dark L, so hard. This is made without the tongue tip. This is made with the back of the tongue. Girls. So your tongue tip is pulled back a little bit for the R, then it goes back to the front of the mouth touching the backs of the bottom front teeth for the dark L. Uhl. Because we make the dark L with the back of the tongue.

Girls. Practice it slowly with an up down shape of stress. I think that helps you get the change in tongue position. Then when you have that feeling kind of solid, you can speed it up.

Girls

ever just wanted a fling.

Just wanted a fling. Just wanted a. So here we said ST cluster followed by a consonant drop the T. Here we have ST cluster followed by a consonant and he drops the T, just, just, just wanted, just wanted. S right into the W. Just wanted.

Just wanted a—

Fling.

Wanted a fling. Just wanted a fling. So, up down shape of stress on our verb wanted a and on our noun, fling. Let’s look at the word wanted. Wanted. Do you hear how that t is dropped? This is the most common pronunciation of this word. It’s two syllables, the ED ending adds a second syllable, and the T is dropped. Wanid, wanid, wanid, wanid. No T, no stop there at all.

Wanted—

a fling.

And the ED ending links smoothly into the schwa, wanted a fling, which links smoothly into the FL beginning cluster. Wanted a fling.

Wanted a fling.

Well.

The word well, not really pronounced with a clear W, Well. Sort of like a laughing H sound. It does have a dark L. It’s not well, with a light L, not with the tongue tip but with the back of the tongue. Well.

Let me tell you something.

Let me tell you something. Not let me tell but let me tell, let me tell. So, tell is stressed. Let me is going up to it. Let me tell you something. Little bit of an up down shape of some on the way down. Let me becomes let me, let me, let me, let me, let me. No T, let me, linking together. Let me tell. This T is a true T. Tt, tt. That means it has that escape of air. Let me tell, let me tell. Again this is a dark L. It’s not tell, well, but it’s tell, well, it’s the back part of the tongue making that dark sound. Tongue tip down.

Let me tell you something.

The word you, reduces it becomes ya, tell ya, tell ya, tell ya, tell you something.

Tell you something.

Something, ing, ing becomes something, something. So instead of an NG ending consonant, she’s just making an ending N consonant. Something, something, something. This TH is unvoiced, you’ll want to bring your tongue tip gently lightly through your teeth.

Something.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been flung.

It’s been a long time. So it’s been a, so fast. Long has our stress. It’s been a long time. The word it’s, I don’t even really hear a vowel there.

It’s been a long—

It’s just the TS cluster. It’s been. We do that with the word it’s, with the word let’s. For example the phrase ‘let’s go’ it can become “s’go”. We do it with the word that’s. For example, in the phrase, that’s great, it becomes t’s great. So reducing these words to just the TS cluster is something you’ll notice. t’s been, t’s been, instead of it’s been, t’s been. It’s been a, it’s been a, it’s been a, it’s been a long time. So this word, the double E actually makes the IH as in sit vowel, it’s been. And the ending N links into the schwa and these are all unstressed, so they’re flatter and they’re less clear. We don’t have it’s been a or it’s been a but we have,

it’s been a,

long time.

It’s been a long time. Long. Okay, so this word is stressed. It’s longer, it’s louder, it’s got the up down shape of stress. It’s been a long time. And this T, also a true T. It has that little escape of air.

It’s been a long time—

Since I’ve been flung.

Since I’ve been, since I’ve been, since I’ve been. These words, actually time as well, coming off of that peak of stress, lower in pitch, flatter, not fully pronounced, not with that stressed up down feel. Since I’ve been, since I’ve been, since I’ve been. Again b-e-e-n, been, been, been, been. Said very quickly.

Since I’ve been—

When we have the apostrophe VE, I have been, followed by B, it’s actually pretty common to drop the V sound, since I been, since I been, since I been. And you can do that here just go right from the I diphthong into the B.

Since I’ve been

Flung.

Flung. Again, very clear up down shape of stress more length more volume. Flung with the UH as in butter vowel followed by the NG consonant.

Flung.

So, when we talk about a fling, we use that as a noun to mean a casual relationship. But here, she’s using it as a verb sort of a play on words. Playing with what the past tense would be, fling, flung. Just like sing, would be sung. In other words, it’s been a long time since she’s been in a casual fun relationship, a fling. Flung.

You know what?

So fast, one stressed word and it’s what? Going up, but it has a stop T, so it feels abruptly cut off. You know what? You know what? We’ve had a couple U reductions here and here we have it again. You, you, you know, you know, you know, you know. You know what? You know what? The O diphthong, right into the W sound. You know what? All linking together. So smooth. You know, both said very quickly. You know, you know, you know, you know what?

You know what?

There’s some nice guys in my office.

There’s some, there’s some. These words said so quickly. There’s some. If I played you just that, you probably wouldn’t even know what the words are, and actually if I played these three words in a row for a native speaker, they might not even know what the three words are. We need the context of the whole sentence to understand it. There are some becomes there’s some, there are some, there’s some, there’s some, there are some.

So we have voice TH, I would write that schwa R, then the word R, I would write that schwa R and R kind of takes over the schwa so it’s just like two R sounds in a row. So, it’s almost just like one R sound, there’s some, there’s some, there’s some, there’s some, and actually I would probably write this with schwa as well, some, some, instead of some,

there’s some,

nice guys in my office.

There’s some nice guys. So now we have nice, up down shape of stress. Nice guys at my office. Then he goes up at the end to show he’s going to continue his thought. But we have three stress syllables there: nice, guys, off. And that gives us, those syllables have a little bit more length. Let’s look at my. Those two words are unstressed. They’re going to be flat, they’re going to be quiet.

In my office.

In my, in my, in my. The word at becomes at. Schwa, stop T, at my, at my, at my, at my, at my. Pretty mumbled, said pretty quickly.

at my office.

You want me to set you up?

You want me, that’s one stressed word. You want me to set you up? So this is a yes, no question. Those usually go up in pitch at the end. That’s why our stress word up goes down and up instead of up and down. Up and down is sort of the normal shape of stress but down and up also happens. Let’s look at the word you.

You want me to set you up?

You, you. Again, the word you gets reduced so we can say it more quickly because it’s not an important word here. You, you.

You want me to set you up?

I’ve just listened to this a million times in a row and I think I’m actually hearing a really quick do and that’s also being pronounced with the schwa.

Do you  becomes do you. Do you want me, do you want me. Now, I’ve been listening to the NT ending here, deciding do I feel like I’m hearing a stop T or do I think it’s dropped, I think we can just think of it as dropped. Do you want me. Want me, do you want me, do you want me, do you want me.

Do you want me?

Now we have the word ‘to’, this is pronounced to flap T schwa, so fast, linking the E of me to the S of set, me to set, me set, me to set. So me too becomes me to, me to, me to, me to set.

Want me to set—

you up?

Set you up? Okay, so T followed by the word you or the word your. This can turn our T into a CH and that’s what’s happening here. Se, S consonant, E vowel, CH sound, setcha.

Set you up?

Actually, I’m going to write that ya instead of just uh, set you, reducing the vowel in ‘you’ to the schwa again.

Set you up. And then that schwa links right into the a vowel, set you up, set you up, set you up?

Set you up? becomes ‘setchap?’ ‘setchap?’ Try that.

set you up?

Yeah.       

Yeah. Long, up down shape of stress. Very nice, clear stressed syllable. It’s not yeah, yeah, but yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

No accountants.

So now, she tells them who she doesn’t want to date.

No accountants.

So no is stressed. No accountants. Accountants, that’s a three- syllable word, the middle syllable stressed. No. They link together. You can think of that as connecting with a W sound. The O diphthong into the schwa. No accountants. T schwa NT, kind of confusing that pronunciation. Accountants. Once you lift your tongue for this N. Accountants, you don’t need to move it back down. You just stop the air, accountants and then make another NTS ending. Accountants, accountants. So we don’t fully pronounce this T, it’s not accountants but it’s accountants, accountants, accountants, accountants. Really tricky.

No accountants.

Oh.

Quick little up down shape of stress, oh.

Oh.

and no one from, like–  

And no one from like. No is our stress word there. Everything else leads up to it or falls away from it. And no one from like, that connects in. No break there. And no one from like.

And no one from like—

And no one. Do you notice the D here is dropped? The words connect with an N sound. And no one. Very smooth and connected.

And no one from like—

From becomes from, from. I would write that with the schwa. From, from, from, from like.

From like—

From like, from like. She’s not releasing the K sound, I’m not getting from like, but just from like, from like, from like. The K can be like the stop T where we go into the position and we cut off the air. Like, like, like, but then we skip the K, release part. From like, from like, from like. That’s what she’s doing here.

From like—

Legal.

Legal. Legal. Stressed first syllable there. Legal. Then we have G, dark L, don’t lift your tongue tip for that. Gul, it’s the back part of the tongue pressing down and back. That makes the dark L. Legal. This L at the beginning is a light L, so you do lift your tongue tip for that. Legal.

Legal.  

I don’t like guys with boring jobs.

I don’t like guys. I don’t like, I don’t like, I don’t like. Wow, those words are said so quickly. I would say there’s a little bit of length on guys. I don’t like guys with boring jobs. I don’t like or you could think of it as I do not like becomes I don’t like.

I don’t like—

Pretty unclear. The N apostrophe T is just an N linking into the L. I don’t like, I don’t like, I don’t like. Just like in this word ‘like’, the K is not released. I don’t like, like, like.

I don’t like–  

I don’t like guys with boring jobs.

Guys with, guys with. So we have more length on guys. I don’t really hear the TH here. With boring, with boring, with boring. I’m really more just hearing WI or IH vowel linking into the B. With boring. Guys with boring.

guys with boring—

guys with boring jobs.

Boring jobs. Stressed, unstressed, stressed, uh, boring jobs, boring jobs.

Boring jobs.

Make sure that’s not flat, we need the up down shape of stress along with the length to make English clear and easy to understand. Boring jobs.

boring jobs.

Oh. And Ross was like, what.

Everything linking together smoothly. Oh and oh and. So the word and is reducing to just schwa N, so we’ve got the O diphthong. Oh and linking right into schwa N, Oh. And.

This actually sounds a lot like the name Owen.

Oh. And. Oh. And Ross. Oh. And Ross was like. All linked together smoothly the word was gets reduced. It’s not was, it’s was, was. Ross was.

Oh. And Ross was–  

Oh. And Ross was like, what,

Oh. And Ross was like. Love the up down smoothness that we’ve got going here. Oh and Ross was like. Again, I don’t really hear that the K is being released. Was like, was like, was like.

was like,

what, a

What, a. What, a. So, up down shape of stress some length here, a stop T, then we’ve got the schwa for a, linking right into the light L, a lion and his voice gets a little shaky, he’s putting a laugh into it.

What, a—

a lion tamer?

A lion tamer? A lion tamer? Those are two words with first syllable stress.

lion tamer?

And we’re going up and pitch, so they’re both going down and then up. Lion tamer? Lion Tamer? Very smooth, and we do have a true T here, T, where we hear that release. Lion tamer?

lion tamer?

So much smoothness and connection happening here.

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

It doesn’t even have to be a big relationship, you know?

Just like a fling would be great.

Really? I didn’t think girls ever just wanted a fling.

Well. Let me tell you something. It’s been a long time since I’ve been flung.

You know what? There’s some nice guys at my office. You want me to set you up?

Yeah. No accountants. Oh. And no one from, like legal. I don’t like guys with boring jobs.

Oh. And Ross was like, what, a lion tamer?

Don’t forget to visit rachelsenglish.com/free to get the free course, The Top Three Ways to Master the American Accent. Keep your learning going now with this video and don’t forget to subscribe with notifications on, I love being your English teacher. That’s it and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.

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