English Training Lesson | Understand English Effortlessly—How to Learn English with Movies and TV

Today you're transforming your spoken English by studying a scene from the movie, First Man, with me.

This is the story of Neil Armstrong, and the thing I love about this,

he's in an interview and he speaks very thoughtfully, very intentionally. We're going to go in-depth,

studying how he expresses himself, and we're also going to study how the melody of a sentence can

change the meaning. When you study scene the way we're going to in this video, you'll be

able to understand American movies and TV effortlessly without subtitles.

Does anyone have anything else?

We're going to be doing this all summer, June through August, stick with me every Tuesday,

they're all great scenes and there's going to be so much to learn that can transform the way

you speak and understand English.

And as always, if you liked this video or you learn something please, like and subscribe with notifications.

You're going to watch the clip, then we're going to do a full pronunciation analysis together.

This is going to help so much with your listening comprehension when it comes

to watching English movies in TV. But there's going to be a training section.

You're going to take what you've just learned and practice repeating it, doing a reduction, flapping a T,

just like you learned in the analysis. Ok, here's the scene.

I don't know what space exploration will uncover, but

I don't think it will be exploration just for the sake of exploration.

Does anyone have anything else?

Yeah. You know, I was sorry to hear about your daughter.

Do you think it will have an effect?

I think it would be unreasonable to assume that it wouldn't have some effect.

And now, the analysis.

I don't know what space exploration will uncover, but I don't think it will be

exploration just for the sake of exploration.

So he has a pretty long sentence here, but he breaks it up into a lot of smaller thought groups. The first one

is after the word what, he pauses, let's look at these first four words.

I don't know what,

It's a little bit unclear, isn't it? It certainly doesn't sound like: I don't know what.

I don't know what,

I don't know what. Uhhh. It's just one big phrase with one peak. I don't know what. Uhhh.

And everything glides together really smoothly. I don't know.

So the T is dropped, and these two words connect with a single N sound. K of course is silent in this word. I don't know what.

I don't know what,

And the OH diphthong in don't, OH

changes here to the UH, that's somewhat common in the phrase: I don't know, becomes: don't know.

I don't know, I don't know, I don't know.

I don't know,

So I would actually write this: doh know, with stress on know. I don't know. I don't know.

And because of the AI diphthong before, this D is just a flap, dadadadada.

I don't know what. I don't know what.

I don't know what,

What, the vowel on what, what, what, what, what, what. To me, he's darkened it a little bit. It's not quite uh,

uh, uh, it's almost a little bit like push.

What..

I don't know what, what, uhuhuh.

Definitely he does a stop T at the end there, because it's a T at the end of a thought group,

and he does pronounce the word what, without that wh sound in front.

So WH words can be pronounced with the pure W, or with a what, escape of air before.

He does not do that escape of air.

What, what, what.

What..

I don't know what.

I don't know what.

space exploration will.

Space exploration will,

and then a little bit of a pause here as he continues to think about how to articulate his answer.

So let's look at these three words and is there just one peak of stress like I don't know what?

Or do we have more than one feeling of an up-down shape?

Space exploration will,

Space exploration. I feel two stressed syllables there.

Space exploration will.

Space and ay, the AY diphthong here in exploration, TION is the SH, shwa N ending.

Tion tion tion, space exploration. We have an ending S in space, and ending S sound,

and it links right into the beginning vowel of the next word, EH, space eh, seh, seh, sexploration.

Space exploration,

So there's no break in sound there. Everything connects really smoothly.

Space exploration..

will.

Exploration will. Will, And then he holds this out a little bit while he's thinking.

Will, doesn't reduce the vowel. Sometimes, we do, sometimes, we might say: space exploration will,

will, will, but he doesn't do that, he keeps the IH vowel. Space exploration will.

Space exploration will,

uncover but.

Uncover but, he does a little break here, he makes a stop T, he does not connect it to the AI diphthong,

that would be: but I, but I, and that would be pretty common to connect, but he is breaking this up a lot,

and so he breaks it up here. He is speaking slowly, intentionally. Uncover but.

Uncover but,

What's our stressed syllable there?

Uncover but,

Uncover but.

Just one, and it's uncov, uncover. So we have the letter O but it's the UH as in butter vowel.

There's no lip rounding for that. Uncover. Cover. Just like in the word love, ove, ove, cove, cover, uncover but.

Stop T.

Uncover but,

I don't think it will be.

I don't think it'll be, and then he holds out the EE vowel a little bit here at the end of 'be', while he's thinking.

I don't think it will be.

I don't think it will be.

I don't think it will be. Don't and be both have that uhhhhh, up-down shape.

And then we have, we have a really beautiful rhythm here. Dadadadada, dadadadadada,

I is shorter, think it will, shorter, actually 'it will' is contracted, it's not it will, but it's it'll, it'll,

so I would write that with the IH vowel, flap T, schwa L. It'll, It'll,It'll, It'll, It'll, It'll, It'll, It'll,

just like the word little, but without the L. It'll, It'll, It'll. I don't think it'll.

I don't think it'll.

I don't think it'll be.

I don't think it'll be.

Now here, ourN apostrophe T in don't.

The word don't just pronounced quite differently than it was the first time he said it.

We actually have a stop. So we do feel that as a T. I don't think. I don't think.

It's not dropped. That would be: I don't think, I don't think,

but it's: I don't think-- up that little break of air, that little stop, is the stop T.

Now what about this sound? Is it the OH diphthong? Or is it the UH vowel like in don't know?

I don't think.

I don't think. I don't, don't, don't, don't. Oh, oh, oh, oh.

I definitely hear that as the Oh diphthong. Not reduced. So the first time he said it, the diphthong changed,

and the T was dropped. Here, the diphthong doesn't change, and the T is a stop T.

I don't think.

Notice here the stress was, the peak of stress was on the word know,

so it makes sense that some of those sounds changed, that that word was reduced a little bit.

Here, it's stressed, so it makes sense that we wouldn't reduce the vowel,

or the diphthong, rather and that we would leave the T on as a stop T.

I don't think it'll be.

I don't think it'll be.

And these three unstressed words said so quickly. Let's hear just those words.

Think it'll,

be.

Think it'll be. Think it'll be.

Really different than the word be, which is longer, more stressed.

Think it'll be.

exploration just.

Exploration.

This is a three syllable word, again with, sorry, four syllable word, with stress on the third syllable.

Exploration.

Now this unstressed syllable is actually supposed to be a schwa R.

Explora, he does a little bit more of a vowel. Explore, plore, plore.

And I think that's because it's related to the other form of the word,

so we have the verb: to explore,

and then we have the noun: exploration.

Verb, noun. So in the verb Explore, the IPA would be Ek, the letter X makes the KS sounds here,

Explore,

and in the noun, exploration, actually the opening vowel is a little bit more open, it's EH,

although honestly, if you said the verb

explore with the EH vowel, that would sound very natural and normal too.

Then we have another unstressed syllable. Splo-- with the schwa, stressed syllable,

Oops. We make that over here.

AY, and then unstressed, tion. So the noun, exploration.

Has a schwa here, I hear him doing more of an unstressed AA plus R, that's okay.

Exploration.

So he's seeing more of exploration, explore, explore, explore, exploration.

Exploration,

He is speaking more slowly and more intentionally I think than what is normal conversational English.

And even though that pronunciation isn't what you'll see in the dictionary,

it makes a lot of sense because of the verb.

Exploration--

Notice how on this stressed syllable, he nods his head. It's not uncommon as you study speakers to see

that they do a physical gesture sometimes on a stressed syllable.

When you're practicing with the audio later in this video, do that too. Do your head like he does.

Exploration,

just for the sake of exploration.

Just for the sake, some up down stress there. Sake of exploration. And again,

stress on that third syllable.

Just for the sake of exploration,

You're going to get really comfortable with the word exploration, aren't you?

He says it's three times in this opening phrase.

Now, between our stressed words exploration, and sake, we have three unstressed words, and then also,

the unstressed syllable here, tion just for the, and I want to look at this. He really holds out the S

while he's still thinking being thoughtful, speaking slowly, even so, he drops the T.

Just for the sake,

And that's because it's just so common to drop the T when the next word begins with a consonant.

Just for the, for the,

and it's not for, is it? It's fer, fer, fer, schwa R. Fer, just fer the.

Just for the,

sake of exploration.

Just for the sake of exploration.

Now we have another unstressed syllable here 'of', an unstressed word.

Schwa V, you can drop that V, but I definitely hear him saying it.

Sake of exploration.

It's weak, and it's subtle, but I don't sense that it's: sake uh.

I sense that its: sake of, sake of exploration.

Sake of exploration,

So we have after the stressed syllables sake, we have three unstressed syllables in a row.

Of explo-- of explo-- of explo-- of explo--

And you got to try to keep your mouth really relaxed,

keep your movements released simple, and minimal in these unstressed syllables.

Of explo-- of exploration.

Of exploration,

Of exploration. And then let your mouth come more to life in the stressed syllable,

more jaw drop therefore the AY diphthong, explo-- explo-- exploration, exploration.

Of exploration,

Does anyone have anything else?

Yeah.

So one of the men interviewing him asks the panel a question.

What is the shape of stress here? What are the most stressed syllables?

Does anyone have anything else?

Does anyone have anything else?

Does anyone have anything else?

Does anyone, anyone, have anything else?

I hear those as being the most stressed syllables, and the pitch goes up because it's a yes/no question.

Let's look at how he pronounces this first word does.

Does anyone,

In IPA, that would be written with the D, UH as in butter and Z.

But he drops the first two sounds. Does anyone, Does anyone, Does anyone.

And just links the Z into the EH as in bed vowel, which is the first sound of the word anyone,

Does anyone, Does anyone, Does anyone?

Does anyone,

It's not uncommon to do that. Have you ever heard anyone take 'does that' and change it to 'zzaat?'

I have heard people do that. It's like they drop the first two sounds of does,

the first sound of that, and in IPA it becomes: zzaat, zzaat, zzaat, zzaat.

Does that mean you're going to be late? Does that , Does that , Does that?

It's funny how we make these reductions, isn't it? So here he's taking the word does,

he's reduced it to the Z sound, and he's attached it to the word that comes after anyone.

Does anyone? Does anyone?

Does anyone,

have anything else?

Everything just links together so smoothly, doesn't it?

Does anyone have anything else?

Does anyone have anything else?

I want to talk about the word else. In IPA, it's written EH as in bed, LS,

else, so the L is a dark L because it comes after the vowel in the syllable. This is a one syllable word.

El? So we make that dark sound with the back of the tongue and I'm not lifting my tongue tip.

Ell, uhl, uhl, uhl, uhl, uhlse.

So don't lift your tongue tip for that L, it will get in the way, it's an extra movement,

it will probably make the dark sound less clear.

So you do the EH vowel, then you take the back of your tongue, you pull it back and down a little bit, uhl, uhl,

ell-- and that's it, don't lift your tongue tip, go right into the S.

Else?

Yeah.

And then we hear really quietly: yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Up-down shape. Not much of vocal energy. Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, I was sorry to hear about your daughter.

Okay, one thought group. Every word linked together. No stops. What are our peaks of stress?

You know, I was sorry to hear about your daughter.

You know, I was sorry to hear about your daughter.

You know, I was sorry to hear about your daughter.

You know, I was sorry to hear about your daughter.

Okay, now I have to talk about this. When I first wrote the transcript for this, I used this word.

You know, I was sorry to hear about your daughter.

Then when I listened to it again, I thought it sounded more like this:

You know, I was sorry to hear about your daughter.

And now that I'm listening to it a third time, I think it sounds like Neil again.

And it's just, it's crazy to me that I'm having a hard time telling the difference here.

Because these words are so different.

We have Neil, which I would probably write with the schwa L. Neil. And then,

you know, which I would write: yuh know. I mean talk about different sounds.

Neil. You know. Neil. You know. If I'm saying them more clearly, it's obvious, but he's

using less vocal energy, and it's just less clear.

You know, I was sorry to hear about your daughter.

And so I'm actually having a hard time deciding. I think probably this is what he is saying,

but it also sounds just like this, and this is just what's so crazy about American English,

is they just, when something is unclear, the sounds become more neutral.

And usually in context, we can understand exactly what's being said.

But here, there's no context, really for this utterance.

And either one of these would make sense to say before a comment. Either you know, or the person's name Neil,

so we'll keep going with this phrase, though I now think it's probably this phrase.

You know, I was sorry to hear about your daughter.

You know, I was sorry to hear about your daughter.

Know, sorr, hear, daugh-- All the most stressed peaks there.

There's a lot of interesting stuff going on with the unstressed words though.

And everything links together so smoothly. Uuuhhhhhh.

You know, I was sorry to hear about your daughter.

You know, I was sorry to hear about your daughter.

You know, I was sorry to hear about your daughter.

No abrupt changes in pitch there. Everything links together. When you're working with the audio,

do it in slow motion. Really feel that up/down smooth transition in pitch. Continuous flow of air and sound.

You know, I was sorry to hear about your daughter.

You know, I was sorry to hear about your daughter.

You know, I was sorry to hear about your daughter.

You know, You know, You know. The word 'you' is reduced. It's just yuh. You know, you know, you know.

You know,

I was sorry to hear about your daughter.

You know I was. Okay, AI diphthong. We have the OH diphthong in no,

and when we have an OH diphthong that links into a word, that begins with a vowel or diphthong,

we can feel like we go through the glide consonant W to help us link. Wii, wii, know I, know I was, knowwww-I was.

That might help you smoothly link those two words know and I.

The word was, I would write that with the schwa, it's unstressed. I was, I was, I was.

You know, I was.

And actually even though the word was has a Z sound,

when ending Z links into beginning S we drop the Z and the S takes over.

I was sorry. So you don't try to make a Z and then an S. Just one S sound.

I was sorry. I wa, I wa, I wa, I was sorry.

I was sorry..

to hear about your daughter.

Sorry to, two unstressed syllables. Ry, to, and that word 'to' is pronounced with a flap T, and the schwa.

Rarara, sorry to, sorry to, sorry to hear.

Sorry to hear..

about your daughter.

Hear about your, quick ,subtle stop T there. The word your, isn't your, it's your, about your, about your,

about your, about your daughter.

About your daughter.

And of course a flap T in daughter. Now the T is a flap T when it comes to between two vowels.

Well but H isn't a vowel, but we don't mean letters, we mean sounds.

And AUGH here all make a single sound,

AW as in law, that is a vowel. So the T here does come between two vowels.

The AW and the schwa. Daughter. Daughter. Daughter.

So it's just a single, quick flap of the tongue.

Daughter.

Do you think it will have an effect?

Do you think it, think it. He holds out it a little bit more, while he's thinking about what exactly to say.

Almost the idea of a break there. Do you think it.

Do you think it,

Do you, not reduced, but unstressed. Do you, do you, do you, do you, do you think it.

Do you think it,

will have an effect?

Will have, stress there, will have an effect.

Okay, a couple things here. Earlier, we talked about how the word 'will' can reduce.

The first character didn't do it, this character is, it's not will, its wuhl, wuhl, wuhl, wuhl have, wuhl have.

Listen to just those two words.

Will have an--

effect.

Will have an effect.

So the letter A, a schwa, the letter E here in the unstressed syllable, a schwa,

an uh, an uh, an uh, an effect.

Will have an effect.

Okay, now the pitch goes down. This is a yes/no question.

Yes/no questions almost always go up in pitch. Why doesn't this one?

He really says a lot with his intonation here. If the pitch had gone up, do you think it will have an effect?

That makes it a true yes/no question, he's asking. But by putting this question with the pitch going down,

he's saying it as a statement, as if he thinks it will have an effect. He is giving his opinion

even as he asks this question by his intonation. Do you think it will have an effect?

By making it go down shows the assumption, he's presenting it as a statement, not really as a question.

So that's an interesting thing I think to do with intonation.

Ask a yes/no question with a pitch going down, and it makes it sound like you're not really asking,

you're stating something but it's not as strong, it's a little sly, to put it in the form of a question,

when your intonation goes down,

and it's like you're going to give your opinion even as you ask this person his opinion.

Will have an effect.

I think it would be...

And again he breaks it up with some long pauses, a long pause here, breaks us up into two thought groups.

I think it would be,

I think it would be. Uuhhhhh. Our stress, our up-down shape on think and be.

I think it would be.

It would, it would, I, I. These other words all a little flatter in pitch, said more quickly. It would, it would, it would.

There's a stop T there in it because the next word begins with the constant.

Remember, the L is always silent in should, would, could.

It would, it would, it would be, it would be. The D here, not released. It would be. It would be.

That makes too much of it. So he puts his tongue into position for D, dddd, his vocal cords vibrate,

but then he doesn't release the sound, he just goes right into the B. It would be, it would be, it would be.

It would be,

It's a really common pronunciation of the D.

When the next word begins with a consonant, that's probably how we're gonna do it.

We're going to vibrate the vocal cords, make a D, but not just release it with air,

we're going to go on to the next sound.

It would be,

unreasonable to assume that it wouldn't have some effect.

And we have quite a few words here with an up-down shape. Quite a few syllables.

Unreasonable to start, unreasonable to assume that it wouldn't have some effect.

Unreasonable to assume that it wouldn't have some effect.

Unreasonable to assume that it wouldn't have some effect.

Unreasonable to assume that it wouldn't have some effect.

Let's look at the word 'to' how is that pronounced?

Unreasonable to assume, unreasonable to assume, unreasonable to assume.

It's actually fully pronounced. It's unstressed, but it's got a true T, and the OO vowel, that almost never happens.

The reason why it happened here is because the next word begins with a schwa.

So if we reduced this to the schwa, then there would be no way to tell the difference between syllables.

So when the next word begins with a schwa, to does not have a reduced vowel. To assume, to assume.

To assume,

It still has an unstressed feel though, it's still lower in pitch. Reasonable to. Reasonable to assume.

So it's still in that line of that unstressed feeling, but it's not reduced.

Unreasonable to assume,

that it wouldn't have some effect.

That it, that it, that it, that it, that it wouldn't, that it wouldn't.

Two more unstressed words then between the stressed syllable ssume and would.

They link together with a flap T. That it. And then there's a stop T because the next word begins with a consonant.

That it, that it, that it, that it, that it wouldn't.

That it wouldn't have,

Wouldn't have. Alright let's look at our an apostrophe T contraction here.

So we've studied it in the word don't twice. The first time it was dropped, the second time it was a stop T,

how is the T pronounced here?

Wouldn't have,

I hear it as dropped. I hear that he's going right from the N into the H: wouldn't have, wouldn't have, wouldn't have.

With no stop or lift which would signify the stop T.

Wouldn't have, wouldn't have some effect.

Wouldn't have

some effect.

Wouldn't have some effect. Wouldn't have some effect. Wouldn't have some effect.

Ending M links into the schwa. Effect. Effect. Some effect. And a light release of the T here.

When the T is in an ending cluster like CT, and there's no word after,

it's pretty common to do a light release of a true T. Wouldn't have some effect.

Wouldn't have some effect. .

Awesome. Okay, let's take a look at this whole conversation one more time.

I don't know what space exploration will uncover

but I don't think it'll be exploration just for the sake of exploration.

Does anyone have anything else?

Yeah. You know, I was sorry to hear about your daughter.

Do you think it will have an effect?

I think it would be unreasonable to assume that it wouldn't have some effect.

Now for the fun part, you’ll look at the notes we took together

and you’ll hear a part of the conversation on a loop three times.

Then there’s a space for you to repeat.

For example, you’ll hear this:

Maybe so, sir.

Then you’ll repeat it: maybe so, sir. Try to imitate everything about this exactly so when you see this,

then you’ll repeat it. Maybe so, sir.

That’s from Top Gun: Maverick which was the first movie we studied in this summer series.

You’ll also have the opportunity to listen and repeat in slow motion.

This will be important for you if you’re more of a beginner,

or if you’re having a hard time focusing on linking or the melody.

Maybe you’ll want to do it both ways, but the important thing is here is your opportunity

to take what you learned and put it into your body and your own habit.

That’s what’s going to transform your speaking.

You might do well to work with the audio section of this video every day for a week.

Imitating the rhythm and the simplifications will get easier each time you do it.

If you can’t keep up with the native speaker, do the slow-motion imitation.

Okay, here’s our audio training section.

Don’t forget to come back and do this audio again tomorrow and the next day.

You want to build habits here, so you don’t need to think about it so much when you’re speaking in conversation,

you can focus on the words and not the expression or pronunciation.

Don’t forget, this is part of a series, all summer long, 13 videos, 13 scenes for movies, check out each one,

learn something new each time.

I make new videos on the English language every Tuesday and I’d love to have you back here again.

Please subscribe with notifications and continue your studies right now with this video.

And if you love this video, share it with a friend.

That’s it guys and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.