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Let's study fast English to improve  our listening comprehension. Today,  

we're going to study a conversation I had with my  friend and we're going to see lots of interesting  

things like how Americans link words together  when one word ends in a sound and the next word  

begins in the same sound. We're going to look  at different T pronunciations like stop T’s,  

true T’s and when a T is totally dropped. Oh,  and also, of course the flap T, all four kinds  

of T’s in this sentence here we're going to  really hear the difference between flat pitch  

and the pitch that changes in a stressed syllable. We're going to study a couple different reductions  

of the word ‘to’ and of the word ‘should’  and ‘can’. We'll look at different ways that  

Americans link words together in a phrase  for really smooth English, this will help  

you with your listening comprehension. Why do all these words slide together  

in American English anyway? Stick with  me this is going to be a great lesson. 

First, here's the short scene that we'll study. So we got ten there, we're trying to get 24 total. 

No, you're right, this sucks dude. It's just, I think it's I mean it's a goopy dough. 

Yeah. It's hard to handle, it's annoying. Can I, so I should do another layer of.. 

Mhm, parchment. Should we put it,  

ball it up and put it in the freezer for like, I think we should. 

Now let's go through the conversation  with a full in-depth analysis. 

So we got ten there, we're trying to get 24 total. Sort of a long thought group there, let's go ahead  

and write out twenty-four so we can talk about  the pronunciation a little bit more easily. 

So we got ten there, we're  trying to get twenty-four total. 

So we got ten there, so wait, wait, pretty  unclear. Ten there, to me those are the two  

most stressed words, ten. So we got ten there, 

I'm Rachel and I've been teaching the American  accent on YouTube for over 15 years. Go to  

rachelsenglish.com/free to get my free course:  The Top Three Ways to Master the American Accent. 

Ten there. Definitely a clear true T there on  ten, tt, tt, tt, so you need that crisp escape,  

we don't want tt but tt, ten there. ten there— 

Both of these words have more length. Ten there. Ten there, 

we're trying to get 24 total. What about the rest of the sentence?  

A little bit less clear.

So, wait, we’ve got-- 

We can think of this as a true T, sorry as  a stop T in got, got ten but then it links  

right into a true T so you might just want  to think of it as a single T sound. Got ten,  

got ten but give me that little lift  there to separate it. Got ten, got ten. 

We’ve got ten— So, wait, we’ve got ten. 

So, wait, we’ve got. So, wait, we’ve got. Okay,  what is happening first of all I notice ‘we  

have’ is grammatically correct but there's no V  sound there, it's been totally dropped. We got,  

we got. That's pretty common. So, it's just  W consonant E vowel linking right into the G  

consonant. We got, we got. So, wait, we’ve got-- 

So, wait, so, wait, to me, so wait is that so  wait, so wait, so wait, so, wait, we got. We can  

think of this as being a stop T, I certainly don't  hear a true T release. So, wait. And you know,  

I might even just put schwas for both of those. So, wait, so, wait. Not very clear all. 

So, wait,

These are very flat, so wait,  

we got and then we've got, that's also  flat. This is flat lower, this is flat higher,  

then we've got ten there, a little bit more of  that up down shape of stress, so really lean into  

that when you're working with this audio. So, wait, we’ve got--

You're going to have to simplify a lot  to get your syllables in that quickly,  

which is what we want. So, wait, we’ve got--

ten there, we're trying to get twenty-four total. Ten there, we're trying to get-- 

We're trying to get. So ‘trying’, this is a stress  syllable but rather than going up down the stress  

is going down up, we're trying to get. we're trying to get— 

We are, we're, the contraction said really  quickly, we’re, we’re, we’re. Flat, low,  

unclear, quiet. The T cluster does become  CHR, chr, chr, chr, trying, we're trying. 

we're trying— we're trying to get— 

Trying to get, trying to. So the ing  ending changes and it's just an N sound,  

not an NG sound at the end, trying to. And then  we drop the T in two and it's just the schwa.  

Why is that? Dropping T after N is something  that we do sometimes and so here the t comes  

after the N because we're not doing the NG  sound and trying to becomes tryna, tryna,  

tryna. This is a pretty common reduction in casual  spoken English. Tryna, tryna, trying to get. 

trying to get— trying to get twenty-four. 

Trying to get twenty-four. So the word get, get,  get. I think I pronounced that with more of an ih  

vowel instead of e, a little bit of a reduction  there gi, gi, gi, and that's a stop T for sure,  

no release trying to get twenty-four, then I have  more stressed words. So, we are, were, to, get,  

all of these words shortened, reduced,  smoothly linked into the line. 

we're trying to get— we're trying to get twenty-four total. 

Twenty-four total. So we start with one peak  of stress on ‘twe’, twenty. We have another  

peak of stress on four, four. It's less high  though. Twenty was higher. Twenty-four total.  

And then another peak of stress, again less  high on total. Twenty-four total. Let's look  

at our T pronunciations. True T in twenty,  dropped T in twenty. Look, it comes after N,  

it's exactly what happened here. We dropped  the T after an N, twenty. Twenty is definitely  

the most common pronunciation of that word. Twenty-four total. So when a T starts a stress  

syllable when it's not part of a TR cluster it  is a true T. We're getting that here and here.  

We got it in ten, tt, tt, total. So the first  T there is a true T, the second T is a flap T,  

the tongue just bounces against the roof of the  mouth, total, total. After the tip bounces up,  

the tongue tip comes down and this is a dark L  made with the back of the tongue. Total, total. 

Twenty-four total.  

No, you're right,

No, you're right, no, you're right. One stress  word there and it's right. Everything else  

leads up to it. No, you’re right. Change in  direction of the melody, stop T. The word no,  

not a very clear O diphthong there. No, you're right. 

No, you're right. No, no. I would write that  with schwa. No, no, no. I can say that without  

moving my lips at all. You are. You’re reduces  becomes yer, no yer, no yer, no yer, no yer, no,  

you're right. No, you're right. You’re and right  linking with a single R sound, so smooth. No,  

you're right, no, you're right, no, you're right.  When you agree with somebody: No, you're right. I  

had said something, she commented back, I agreed  with her. No, you're right. No, you're right. 

No, you're right. No, you're right, this sucks dude. 

This sucks, dude. Okay, I'm frustrated with  this cookie dough. This sucks. So the word  

sucks is stressed, this is not, it just comes as  the energy builds into the sucks, this sucks dude.  

It all links together. Dude, and then down up also  stressed. These two words link together with a  

single S. So when you have a word that ends in one  sound and begins in the same sound the next word,  

you're going to link with one sound. We've done  it here, we've done it here, we've done it here,  

this sucks, this sucks linked together. this sucks— 

this sucks, dude. It's just,  

I think it's, I mean it's a goopy dough. Okay so, she has a lot of little starts  

before she gets out her sentence. But let's look  at them, they're interesting from a pronunciation  

standpoint.

It's just— 

This is a really common thing to say. We add  just a lot. It's just, it's just, and it's never  

pronounced just. It's always unstressed, said so  quickly. It's just, just, it's, it's, it's just,  

so I would write that, I mean I almost feel it  with no vowel at all, just, just, but I'm going to  

write it with schwa, the J sound which we write  in IPA with this symbol, jj, jj, I'm going to  

write the schwa and the S because it's so common  to drop that t. We don't drop it if it links into  

a vowel but here it doesn't. She's starting a new  thought so it doesn't link, it's just, it's just, 

it's just— I think it's, 

It's just, I think it's. I think it's. So one  stressed word there, it's think it's our verb.  

I think it's. Again, not it's just or I think  it's but it's it's it's it's, said very quickly,  

the vowel so fast, no jaw drop really, it's it's  it's it's it's. The K in think links into the I of  

its to make that utterance very smooth. I think it's— 

The K is not very strong. I think it's.  We're not getting k, a lot of contact there. 

I think it's— I mean it's a— 

If you listen to just those four words, you  can really hear how there's no pitch change.  

I mean it's a, and that's what we usually have on  our unstressed syllables. They're super flat or  

they're going in one direction up or one direction  down and to me these sound so flat. I mean it’s a. 

I mean it's a— It almost sounds like a song.  

I mean it's a. So they're unstressed, everything  links together very smoothly, then we have longer  

syllables with change in pitch and that's how we  know oh, this is our anchor, this is the stress. 

I mean it's a— goopy dough. 

Goopy dough, goopy. We've got  pitch changing there, goopy

dough and then pitch changing there.  Goopy double oo making the U vowel,  

means kind of sticky a little bit wet,  goopy, goopy dough. Really different  

than ‘I mean it's a’, those words that are  said so quickly and flatly. I mean it's a. 

Goopy dough. The word dough pronounced D consonant O diphthong,  

that's it. There's no G sound, there's no H sound,  make sure you round your lips for that diphthong. 

Dough. Yeah. 

Now that's sort of quiet, said pretty  quickly but it's not flat. Yeah,  

yeah. We still have an up down shape of  stress, so that is a stressed syllable. Yeah. 

Yeah. It's hard to handle. 

It's hard to handle. Two stress syllables  there, two up down waves. It's hard to handle. 

It's hard to handle.

It's hard to, it's hard to.  

Couple things, first ha-, make sure you give me a  vowel with some jaw drop there before your R. Ha,  

a, the ah as in father. Hard to. Now, we've seen  a couple cases here where the T gets funky and  

here's another place where it gets a little bit  strange. We have the word to. Now we know this  

is a common reduction. The word before ends in  D. We did this with ‘trying to’ where the word  

before ended in N, we saw that the T dropped.  Here it happens as well. Hard to. It's like the  

D the t turns into a single D and they link with  a D, hard to, hard to, not hard to. That could  

be how I pronounced it, but I'm reducing  and linking even more here. It's hard to,  

It's hard to handle. Hard to.

It's hard to handle. 

Handle. My voice is getting a little whiny,  isn't it? Hand, what's the vowel there? Ae,  

it's the a as in bat followed by N in the same  syllable which makes it not pure. A, no way. it's  

AE. So your tongue starts a little bit lifted and  arched in the back, AE, and then it relaxes down. 

Handle.

Then we have a D  

and another dark L tongue tip down for that.  Sound made at the back of the mouth. Handle. 

Handle. It's annoying. 

The word, it's barely heard. It's  annoying, it's annoying, it's,  

lets, that's, these are all words that can  reduce to just a quick light TS sound. It's  

annoying. So it's becomes, it's annoying,  linking into the vowel of the next word,  

it's annoying. We have one peak of stress there,  it's on the stress syllable, oy, it's annoying. 

So we sort of have a Y sound because  it's an IH as the second half of the  

Oy diphthong and then an IH for the -ing ending, annoying so that Y sound might help you link all  

of those vowels together. Annoying. It's annoying. 

Can I, so, I should do another layer of.. Can I. So, again, doesn't start a full sentence  

right away, has a couple false starts. Can I, but  we can still see the reductions that we do. Can,  

so often just becomes kn, kn, and links into the  next word, in this case it's I and that n links  

really smoothly into the I diphthong. Can I, can  I, can I, can I, can I. Try that. Can I, can I. 

Can I— So, 

So, so. Another kind of filler word, just  like just, is so and it becomes so or so,  

said quickly and it's flat. So, 

I should do another layer of… I should do another layer of,  

I should do another. So we have up down  shape of stress on I. I should do another,  

little bit on the middle syllable, ano-uh, that's  the UH as in butter vowel, another layer of. 

I should do another layer of— Let's look at should and do. 

I should do— Should do, should do,  

should do. Linking together with the single  D sound, should do, should do, and really we  

can just think of this as being sh and schwa. Sh,  sh, should do, should do, should do, I should do,  

should do, should do, should do another. I should  do another. Very linked together and smooth. 

I should do another— I should do another layer of… 

Another layer of. The R linking right  into the, hm, do I want to say UH as in  

butter? Layer of. It's either UH or schwa,  kind of depends on how stressed it feels. 

Another layer of— Actually, now that I think  

about it it's not super smoothly connected layer  of but it's layer of, layer of, almost a little  

lift there and I am going to say that feels like  an UH vowel to me. She can't think of the word.  

So she does a hand gesture instead. Do you ever do  that? What she's thinking of is parchment paper. 

Another layer of—  

Mm-hmm.

Very, very common response means yes. Mm-hmm. Up  down shape of stress, mm-hmm, I'm even nodding my  

head, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 

Parchment? Parchment. And then it's got that  

questioning intonation. The word is parchment,  first syllable stress. As a statement, we would  

think of, think of it as going up and down but  I'm confirming that this is what she meant to say,  

I'm asking, I'm offering that word. Parchment. So  it has the opposite intonation. Parchment. Just  

like previously when we were studying A plus R,  make sure you do give a good AH as in Father vowel  

before that consonant. R, par, parchment. Parchment? 

Parchment, ment, ment, ment. That's going to  be schwa at the end, ment. So say it really  

quickly. You can think of it as being  an IH as in sit if that helps you make  

it faster. Parchment, parchment. Do you  hear that abrupt stop? Stop T. Parchment. 

Parchment? Should we put it— 

Should we put it. I love this so much. Another  should reduction. So in the first example it was  

should, was the next word, it ended with a D,  it was should do, should do, and now we've got  

should we but still the D is dropped. Should  reduction, should becoming just, should with  

the schwa linking into the next consonant sound,  in this case W. Should we, should we, should we. 

Should we put it— Notice that stop T there? Put it,  

put it, put it, not put it, but also not put it.  That abrupt stop for the stop T. Put it, put it,  

up down shape of stress. Put it. Linking with a  flap, put it. Here the letter U is the vowel uh  

like and push, P, put it like and cook, UH,  put it, should we put it? Should we put it. 

Should we put it— ball it up and-- 

So she's talking about the leftover dough,  our dough scraps and she uses a phrasal  

verb to ball up.

ball it up and— 

This is when you take something that's not a ball  shape like, say a piece of paper and you rumple it  

up into a ball shape. Ball it up.

ball it up and— 

put it in the freezer. Here she's talking about  

our lumpy mass of dough, should we ball it up and  put it in the freezer so that it can get harder. 

ball it up and put it in the freezer.

Ball it up and, ball it up and. In a  

phrasal verb, it's common for both to have  an up down shape of stress but if not,  

then definitely one of them. Here they  both have that up down shape. Ball it up  

and. The word and is reducing to just n, n, n,  and it links into the P, ball it up and, it up,  

it up. That T links the two words together.  That's a flap T. A T is a flap T when it  

comes between two vowel or diphthong sounds and  links words together. It up, it up, ball it up. 

Ball it up— This L is a dark  

L because it's at the end of the vowel in a  syllable it's after the vowel or diphthong but  

when a dark L links into another vowel, ball, you  can still lift your tongue tip there. That helps  

differentiate the syllable. But practice that. You  don't want a lot of tongue contact, you still want  

that that to be light, ball it, ball it, ball  it, ball it, ball it up and, ball it up and. 

ball it up and— put it in the freezer. 

Put it in the freezer. Put it in the. Up down  shape of stress on our verb, put it in the,  

then the rest of the words just fall into that  line on the way down. Put it in the freezer.  

Then we have another stress word our noun.  Here the pitch direction is down up, freezer,  

put it in the freezer, uh. put it in the freezer. 

Lots of smoothness and linking here, we have two  flap Ts in a row. Put it in. And they're linking  

vowel to vowel, linking words to together. Put  it in the, put it in the, put it in the freezer. 

put it in the freezer. for like— 

So, the freezer, she has a little lift here,  while she thinks about well, for how long how  

long should we do that. For like, for like. Okay,  the word for reduces, for, said very quickly. 

Like another filler word, it can  also mean about or approximately,  

so she's about to give a time like approximately 5  minutes. So the word like here does have meaning,  

but I would say it can also be considered a  filler word and it's not said very clearly. 

For like— I think we should. 

She doesn't even know her time yet and I already  agree with her. I think we should. So definitely  

stressing myself, I'm in agreement with  her opinion. I, up down shape of stress,  

I think we should. Linking together smoothly,  linking together smoothly, think and we,  

less stressed than I and should. I think we should. 

I think we should. Should. The vowel in should  is just like the vowel in put, push, cookie, it's  

this vowel, and of course the L is silent. I'm not  reducing it here. It's at the end of a sentence at  

the end of a thought. We don't really reduce words  at the end of a thought group. I think we should. 

I think we should.

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

So, wait, we’ve got ten there,  

we're trying to get twenty-four total. No, you're right, this sucks, dude. 

It's just, I think it's,  I mean it's a goopy dough. 

Yeah. It's hard to handle, it's annoying. Can I, so, I should do another layer of… 

Mm-hmm. Parchment? Should we put it,  

ball it up and put it in the freezer for like— 

I think we should. I hope you've enjoyed this  

video I absolutely love teaching about the stress  and music of spoken American English. Keep your  

learning going now with this video and don't  forget to subscribe with notifications on, I  

absolutely love being your English teacher. That's  it and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.