English Pronunciation: The Drive Thru!

Let's analyze real conversation to find out what  makes American English sound American and how you  

can improve your listening comprehension. In this video, I'm ordering lunch at a  

drive-thru and yes it's just as hard for me to  understand through the speaker as it is for you. 

At the end, I'll even put in an imitation  training section so you can work on mastering  

the American accent. First, here's  the whole conversation we'll analyze. 

Uhm, we just need one second to decide. In the meantime do you have any milk. 

Yes we do we have white milk and chocolate milk. I would like non-chocolate, just regular old milk. 

Alrighty, anything else? Yes hold on please. A number one? 

You like cheese on it? No thank you, but extra pickle please. 

Alrighty, and what's the drink with that meal? Coke. 

Would you like that medium size? Yes anything else for you?

salt, pepper, ketchup in the bag. Should we get him a chicken nuggets or something? 

Yeah. Uh what else is there? Alrighty. Anything else for you? 

Yeah. Do you see it there? Yeah maybe a, 

Four-piece. Okay. 

A four-piece chicken nuggets for kids. No we just need, 

For what? What was 20 cents more? 

A 10 piece. 10 piece, no. No thank you.  

We're just getting it for the baby. Alrighty. Anything else? 

Do we want any fries for him? No right. Yeah that's it. 

Now let's do the analysis.

Uh, we just need one second to decide. 

Uh, we just need one second to decide. But, I hear  the words one and second. Being really stretched  

out, really stressed. One second. I think I  stressed them even more than I normally would  

and I was speaking louder than I normally would  because I was talking to this machine. And these  

pickup windows and order machines are always a  little bit off. You're not that close to them,  

they're not that good. It's hard to understand  what the people are saying to you. And so that  

makes me want to speak extra clearly. But even  though I am trying to be extra clear, I still do  

some reductions because they're just so natural. 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.

Uh, we just need one second to decide. 

First, I drop the T in just ,we just need, we do  this all the time. We just, when the next word  

begins with a consonant. Then I also reduce the  word to. Second to decide. Tə, tə, tə, tə, schwa. 

Second to dec- Second to decide, but, 

In the meantime, do you have any milk? But. True T, could have made that a stop.  

I think we tend to make Ts more true Ts rather  than stops and flaps when we are speaking  

into a microphone. In the meantime, do you  have any milk? Again, I really make that K  

sound whereas if I was speaking to somebody in  my room who is close by me, I would probably say,  

“Do you have any milk?” An extremely light  release. But here it was milk, overexaggerated. 

Milk?

Honestly, I don't  

even like fast food., Do you? If so tell me your  favorite thing to order and from which restaurant  

in the comments below. I love reading them.

But, in the meantime, do you have any milk? 

Do you have any milk? But, in the  meantime, do you have any milk? These  

are my longer stressed words in this sentence.

But, in the meantime, do you have any milk? 

Yes we do we have white milk and chocolate milk. I would like non-chocolate. 

So he says, ‘yes we do, we have white milk and  chocolate milk.’ Now, I wasn't quite sure what  

he said, white milk? I'm not used to hearing  non-chocolate milk described that way. I would  

maybe have called it plain milk or regular milk,  so I wasn't sure what word he said but that was  

what I wanted. So I said non-chocolate.

I would like non-chocolate. 

I would like non-chocolate. Non-chocolate. Again,  longer more stressed. If he had said white milk  

and had given me a good true tea there,  through the microphone through the speaker  

I probably would have understood. But since he  didn't, I knew that was the one that I wanted,  

I didn't want chocolate so I said non chocolate.  Let's look at the word chocolate. Choc-o-late. It  

looks like it should be three syllables because a  vowel or a diphthong is what defines a syllable,  

but we pronounce this just as two.  Chocolate. Chocolate. Chocolate milk. 

Chocolate.

Just regular old milk. 

Just regular old milk. Okay, so here a couple  more reductions, just regular. T coming between  

two consonants, it's dropped, just regular old  milk. Old. Okay, so I dropped the D in ‘old’.  

Why did I do that? Sometimes we do this with the  word old when we are talking about something that  

is very normal, very everyday, not fancy, not  special, we'll call it ‘regular old’. Regular  

old milk. I don't need something fancy, just  give me regular old Budweiser beer for example.  

Regular old milk.

Alrighty, anything else? Yes hold on please. 

He says, ‘Alrighty, anything else?’ and  I say yes, yes. Up down shape statement.  

Yes. hold on please. So here I still need to hear  what David wants to order. So I need a an extra  

minute because I don't know what he wants. So  I say hold on please. That's like saying please  

wait a second. Hold on and I do a link ending  consonant to beginning vowel. Hold on, hold on. 

Hold on

Hold on please. 

Number one. A number a number one. 

David tells me what he wants, I say, ‘a number  one.’ Now notice what my intonation is doing here.  

A number one. That's different than my statement  ‘yes’. My intonation goes up because I know that  

we want more than just this. When my intonation  goes up, it lets him know that I'm starting a list  

and I'm not done yet. A number one.

A number one. 

Would you like cheese on it? No thank you. 

He says, ‘would you like cheese on it?’ No thank  you. So I could have definitely just said no but  

I think always ‘no thank you’ is more polite. No  thank you. All linked together, no thank you. No  

is the most stressed word there and thank you come  into the falling off of the pitch. No thank you. 

No thank you.

But extra pickle please.

But extra pickle please. So  

this is interesting. Look, the T comes between two  vowel sounds, normally I would make that a flap T.  

But extra pickle please. I don't do that here  I make it a stop T, and I think that's because  

I was trying to be more clear. Now, why didn't I  make it a true T? I don't know. That would have  

been the most clear. But I put a little break  there, but extra pickle please. Whenever we  

put a little lift before a word, it adds extra  stress to it, but extra pickle please. Extra,  

but extra. So by putting that little break  there. I'm bringing even more stress into the  

word ‘extra’ and I know David loves his pickles  so I want to make sure that they get that he  

wants extra, he wants more than normal on there. Now, when David was talking in the background he  

said, “but can I get extra pickles.” and then  I made it singular, ‘but extra pickle please.’  

It's a little strange to do that because if you're  talking about extra something more of something,  

that kind of implies a plural. But it is  also totally normal and uh, very much so  

a part of everyday speech to leave the plural  off in a case like this. Extra pickle please. 

But extra pickle please.

Alrighty, and what to drink with that meal? 

Coke.

And what to drink with that?

Coke. Coke. Again, the up down  shape of a stress syllable a statement. Coke. 

Coke.

Would you like that medium size? 

Yes.

Would you like that medium size? Yes.  Yes. Another up down shape clear statement. Yes. 

Yes.

Anything else for you? 

Salt pepper ketchup in the bag please. Salt pepper ketchup in the bag. 

Anything else for you? This is always what  they're going to keep asking you after you  

say what you want until they know you've reached  the end of your list. David wants to make sure he  

gets all the condiments he wants so he tells  me what to say and I say it back loudly and  

clearly into the mic. Salt, pepper, ketchup, in  the bag. So salt, loud and clear up down shape,  

pepper, ketchup in the bag uhuhuh. So, in and the are the only two that were  

not stressed and even so they were pretty clearly  pronounced, in the instead of in the which is how  

I might normally pronounce it because I'm speaking  into a microphone. I do notice I do a stop T here,  

salt, pepper, that's not completely normal. It's  fairly common to make the T a true T in a cluster.  

I mean that's actually the official rule but  I've noticed a lot of Americans don't do that.  

A lot of Americans still make that a stop T  when the next word begins with a consonant. 

Salt, pepper, ketchup in the bag.

Should we get him a,  

chicken nuggets, or something? Should we get him a, chicken nuggets,  

or something? Now you can see the tone of my  voice has totally changed, it's much softer  

and I'm speaking more quickly less clearly.  That's because I'm talking to David who's right  

next to me instead of into this machine that's  several feet away from me. Should we get them a,  

should we get them a. Okay, so I drop the D, the  L is always silent but I drop the D, should we,  

should we. This is really normal in American  English. Should we do this? Should we do that?  

Shu, shu, shu. Should we get them a, should we  get them a. So, get is the most stressed there  

and I end it with a flap T because I've dropped  the H in him, I've made that reduction. So I link  

get and him with a flap T, should  we get him a, should we get him a. 

Should we get him a—

chicken nuggets or something? 

Chicken nuggets or something? Chicken nuggets  or something? Pitch going up because it's a yes  

no question. Chicken nuggets. Both of those  are stressed syllables, the word or reduced,  

or something? or something? said very quickly  linked on to the next word. Or Something? 

Or Something?

Yeah. 

Yeah, yeah. David says sort of quietly from  the back seat, he's not very close to the  

microphone. Yeah.

Yeah. 

Uh, what else is there? Alrighty, anything else for you? 

Yeah. Do you see it there? Then I say, ‘Yeah’ very loudly, very  

clearly. He's asked me if I want anything else, I  say, ‘Yeah’, I do. I do want something else.

Yeah. 

Do you see it there?

Do you see it there? Do you see it there? Now,  

my tone is quieter again as I'm talking to David.  Do you see it there? Very smooth, all connected,  

it goes up at the end and intonation because it's  a yes no question. A little bit of stress on ‘see’  

and then everything is smooth and connected. Do  you see it there? It there? A stop T in it because  

the next word begins with a consonant sound.

Do you see it there? 

Yeah. Maybe uh. Four piece. 

David says, ‘yeah, maybe a,’ and I answered  ‘four piece’. I'm finishing his sentence.  

Four piece, because I know that Stony wouldn't  eat more than that. Four piece. All connected,  

smooth, smooth intonation.

Four piece. 

Okay. A four-piece chicken nuggets for kids. 

Then I say a four-piece, a little break, chicken  nuggets. A four- piece chicken nuggets for kids.  

So, even though I am speaking more clearly than  normal, making my stress words even more stressed,  

I'm still doing some reductions. The word ‘for’  gets reduced to for, for kids, for kids. Because  

even when I'm trying to be extra clear, I don't  really mess with reductions that much because  

those aren't what we need to be clear. It's the  stressed words that need to be clear. So, as those  

are longer and clearer and more fully pronounced,  the reduced words can still be reduced. 

A four-piece chicken nuggets for kids.

No, we just need...20 cents. Okay, then he says something back to me. Who  

knows what he is saying? It's a terrible system. I  can barely understand. But I know that he's trying  

to upsell me. What does that mean? He's saying  if you pay a little bit more, then you get a lot  

more. David is interested in this. No, we just need. 

I say, no we just need, no we just need, no  we just. Drop the T, just need, but in the  

background, David says, ‘sure.’ He's like for 20  cents more, why not. So he says, ‘20 cents’ and  

I say, ‘for what?’ For what? Because I don't  know. I literally could not understand the man  

through the drive-thru. For what? Reducing for,  for what? stop T at the end of what.

For what? 

For what? What was 20 cents more? 

And I think David doesn't even know  what the guy said. He just knows if  

it involves more chicken nuggets, he wants it. So then I say back to the guy into the speaker,  

‘What was 20 cents more?’ What was 20 cents  more? Again, my intonation goes up at the end,  

and what? What? was the most stressed word there,  most clear. It was the most important word. I was  

saying I do not know what you said. What? What  did you say? What was 20 cents more? With a stop  

T after what. What was,

What was— 

What was. Now, twenty, I dropped the T  here. Very common, even in a stressed word,  

even when you're trying to be extra  clear, twenty becomes tweny, tweny cents. 

What’s twenty cents— More? 

A 10-piece. 10-piece? No. 

He says a 10-piece and I say 10 piece? Intonation  goes up. 10- piece? Smoothly connected. 

10-piece?

No. No, thank you. 

No. Statement. No, thank you. Now he keeps  talking, but at this point I can barely  

understand him anyway and I know I do not  need that many chicken nuggets. So I say no,  

no, thank you.

No. No, thank you. 

We're just getting it for, for the baby.

We're just getting it for, for the baby.  

We're just getting it, just getting it.  Connecting that with no T makes a smoother  

transition. We're just getting it. Stop T,  for. I'm thinking about what exactly to say. 

We're just getting it— for the, for the baby. 

For the, for the, for, for, for, for. The word  for, reduced both times. Just the schwa, so, the  

fr sound, fr, fr, fr, fr, for the baby. For the  baby. Smoothly connected, smooth change of pitch. 

For the, for the baby.

Alrighty. Anything else? 

Yeah, that's it. So he says, ‘anything else?’ and  

I discussed a couple things with David. We decided  no, so I go yeah that's it. Now, this is a little  

bit strange because if the question was anything  else and the answer is no, I think my saying,  

yeah was growing out of something that David and  I had just been talking about deciding do we want  

this, saying you know I think we're all done  ordering, yeah, yeah we're all done ordering.  

Yeah that's it. So that's it means nothing  more, I'm done ordering. That's it. That's  

it. Smoothly connected, stress on that and a stop  T at the end of it. That's it.

Yeah, that's it. 

Let's listen to the  

whole drive-thru order one more time.

Uh, we just need one second to decide. 

But, in the meantime, do you have any milk?

I would like non-chocolate. Just regular old milk. 

Yes. Hold on, please. A number one.

No thank you. 

But extra pickle please. Coke. Yes. 

Salt, pepper, ketchup in the bag. Should we get him a,  

chicken nuggets, or something?

Yeah. Do you see it there? 

Four piece. A four-piece chicken nuggets for  kids. No, we just need. For what?  

What was 20 cents more? 10 piece? 

No. No thank you. We're just  getting it for… for the baby. 

Yeah that's it.

In this training section you'll  

hear each sentence fragment twice in slow motion  then three times at regular pace. Each time,  

there will be a pause for you to speak out loud.  Imitate exactly what you hear. Do this training  

twice a day, every day this week and see how  the conversation flows at the end of the week. 

Uh, we just need one second to decide.

But, 

in the meantime do you have any milk?

I would like 

Non-chocolate

Just regular old milk. 

Yes. Hold on, please.

A number one. 

No thank you.

But extra pickle please. 

Coke.

Yes. 

Salt, pepper, ketchup in the bag.

Should we get him a… 

chicken nuggets or something?

Yeah. 

Do you see it there? 

Four piece.

A four-piece 

chicken nuggets 

for kids.

No, we just need.

For what?

What was 20 cents more?

10-piece? No. 

No thank you.

We're just getting it for… 

…for the baby.

Yeah, that's it. 

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.