Learn English with Songs | TAYLOR SWIFT WILDEST DREAMS | Rachel's English

227,356 views ・ 2019-10-15

Rachel's English


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This song got the most votes on what song to learn English with next.
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Taylor swift, wildest dreams.
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What song do you want to see next? Put it in the comments below.
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But if the song is already there, just like that comment.
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Alright, let's get started.
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He said, "Let's get out of this town"
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So she put a little brake here. So, we'll call that two separate thought groups.
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So in this first three-word thought group, what word has the most stress?
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He said, "Let's"
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He said, "Let's"
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He said, "Let's"
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He said, "Let's"
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Let's-- has much more stress, more volume, the up-down shape. Da da da. It's longer.
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So that's the same as it would be in spoken English. He said, "Let's"-- He said, "Let's"--
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The three words are smoothly connected, there are no breaks between them
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the sound just flows right through that phrase.
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He said, "Let's"
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He said, "Let's"
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He said, "Let's get out of this town..."
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Now we have two T's in the phrase, in the words, get and the word out. And she pronounces them differently.
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So a T is usually a flap T which sounds sort of like an American D.
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Outta, outta, outta, if it comes between two vowels or diphthongs, so they both do.
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Get out of-- get out of-- dadadada--
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So in spoken English, it would be really common to make both of those a flap T,
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but she doesn't do that with the first. The first, she makes a stop T, the second T is a flap T,
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smoothly linking those. Get out of-- The word 'of' is reduced, it's just the schwa.
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Out of-- out of--
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Get out of--
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Get out of--
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Get out of--
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Now, the word 'get' is pronounced, how?
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Get out of--
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Get out of--
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Get out of--
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Get, get, get, get, get.
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That's a stop T. You might think: I don't hear a T. That would sound like this: get, but a stop T: get, get,
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is different from no T at all.
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No T at all would sound like this: geh, geh, the voice would go down in pitch, it would be a little bit longer,
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the stop T is an abrupt stop, and that is what signifies the T. Get, get, get.
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We don't hear a T sound, but because there's an abrupt stop, our minds as native speakers, hear that as a T.
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Get, get, out of, get out of.
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So she puts a break there by making that stop T, and then she reattached
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the phrase on the OW diphthong rather than linking with a flap T.
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Get out of--
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Get out of--
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Get out of this town.
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Out of this town. And then the rest of the words link together really smoothly.
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Out of this town. The two most stressed words there. They're longer, they're stressed.
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Out of this town.
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Out of thi s town.
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Out of this town.
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So 'of' and 'this', of this-- of this-- of this-- lower in pitch, have an unstressed feeling.
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Out of this town.
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Out of this town.
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Out of this town.
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The word 'town' has the OW diphthong, and the N consonant.
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I have noticed this combination can be tricky for non-native speakers, especially my students from China,
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tend to say town.
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And they nasalized the vowel and don't make an N, but that's not what we do in American English.
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Tow-- ow-- The OW diphthong is not nasalized at all, and then the tongue comes up for the N.
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Town. Town. Town.
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So make sure your tongue is making contact with the roof of the mouth, the tongue tip does lift, that's the N.
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If you feel like your tongue tip isn't lifting, then you're probably nasalizing the vowel or the diphthong here.
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Town, town. We do not want that. Town. Town. Nnnn. N consonant at the end.
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Town.
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Town. Drive out of the city.
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What do you hear as the most stressed words in this next phrase?
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Drive out of the city.
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Drive out of the city.
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Drive out of the city.
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Drive.
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Drive out of the city.
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Drive and 'ci' the stressed syllable of city, have the most stress.
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Da-da-da-da-da-da. They're longer.
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That rhythmic contrast of long and short is important in singing, but also in spoken English.
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All of these words linked together really smoothly, there are no breaks, drive out of the city--
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dduuuhhhh-- smooth connection, the V sound right into the OW diphthong of 'out'.
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That is a flap T again.
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Out of, out of, out of, out of the, out of the.
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And the schwa vowel just links right into the word 'the'. Of the, of the. Out of the, out of the.
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Drive out of the city.
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Drive out of the city.
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Drive out of the city.
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Drive out of the city.
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City.
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What's happening with this T? It is a flap T, isn't it? City. Da-da-da-da-da.
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The tongue flaps against the roof of mouth, that's because it comes between two vowels: city.
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City.
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City. Away from the crowds.
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Away from the crowds.
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The stress of how it's sung is exactly like the stress of how it would be spoken.
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Away. Stress on 'way', from the crowds, stress on 'crowds'. Away from the crowds. Away from the crowds.
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So the first syllable of 'away', we see the letter A, but it's just the schwa.
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Uh, uh, uh.
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Away. Away from the-- They're not that clearly pronounced, are they?
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Away from the crowds.
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Away from the crowds.
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Away from the crowds.
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From the-- from the-- from the--
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She reduces the vowel, we would do this in spoken English, too.
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It's the schwa: from, from, from, from the, from the.
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And all of these words in this phrase link together really smoothly.
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From the--
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from the crowds. I thought heaven can't help me now.
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I thought heaven-- A little bit of length on 'thought', da-da, I thought--
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but then more stress, more volume in the voice, heaven can't help me now, in those three syllables.
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I thought heaven can't help me now.
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I thought heaven can't help me now.
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I thought heaven can't help me now.
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What about the T in 'thought'? Do you hear that released?
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Tttt..
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I thought--
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No. There's no release. It's a stop T.
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I thought-- I thought--
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I thought--
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A T is a Stop T when the next word begins with a consonant as it does here.
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Sometimes, the beginning H is silenced, like in the word 'hour'.
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But in the word 'heaven', it's not silent. We do say that H, that's a consonant sound.
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So the T before is a stop T.
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I thought heaven--
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I thought heaven--
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I thought heaven--
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I thought heaven can't help me now.
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What about the T in 'can't'? Do you hear tttt, a released T?
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Can't help me--
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Can't help me--
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Can't help me--
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No. T is not released that often, actually, a true T, it's not all that common.
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And in N apostrophe T contractions, there are a couple of different ways that T will be pronounced.
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Sometimes, it's totally dropped, and sometimes, it's a stop, and it's a stop here.
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Can't help-- can't help-- can't help--
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It's not: can't help-- and it's also not: can't help-- but it's: can't help--
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Little tiny lifts in the voice there. That stop signifies the T to Americans.
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Can't help--
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She is using a little bit more breath on the two h's, and if we exaggerate the first sound,
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the first consonant of a word that brings a little bit more stress, a little bit more drama to it,
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heaven, help--
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Heaven can't help--
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Heaven can't help--
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Heaven can't help me now.
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Help me now.
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Help.
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What happens to that P? Help. Right? It's released. Help. But just like T, P is also a stop consonant.
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So the lips come together. They close. That cuts off the air. Help. And then they open, and some air escapes.
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That's called the release.
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But, it's common in American English when the next word begins with a consonant
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like it does here to skip the release.
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So you would close your lips for the P, help me,
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but then when you open them, you go right into the next word rather than releasing that air first.
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So she's also making that a stop consonant.
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The L in the word 'help' is a dark L because it comes after the vowel in that syllable.
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Help. Help.
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You actually don't need to lift your tongue tip for that.
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You've probably learned that to make an L, you lift your tongue tip.
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Uhl. But that's only for a light L.
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For a dark L, we usually don't lift our tongue tip.
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And in fact, if you do, it makes it sound too forward in the mouth and it doesn't sound quite right.
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Help, hel, hel, help.
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We don't want that. We want hel hel help.
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And to make that uhl, dark L sound, we don't lift the tongue tip.
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We'd leave the tongue tip down and with the back of the tongue, we press down and back a little bit.
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Uhl.
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Hel-- help. Help me. Help me now.
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Help me now.
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Help me now.
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Help me now. Nothing lasts forever.
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We're really learning a lot about consonants in this, aren't we?
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And the way she sings them is exactly like how we do them in spoken English, too.
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Let's look at the next phrase. Because again, something interesting is happening with some ending consonants.
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Nothing lasts forever.
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Nothing lasts forever.
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Nothing lasts forever.
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Nothing lasts forever. So first of all, our stress more volume,
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a little bit more length.
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Nothing lasts forever.
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The middle syllable of 'forever' is what's stressed.
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Let's talk about the NG ending here. Nothing. What do you hear?
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Nothing--
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Nothing--
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Nothing--
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Nothing--
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So it's a little bit different. The NG sound gets changed to an N sound. Nothin. Nothin.
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It's fairly common to do that with ING ending words, especially in sung English.
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You don't want to do it all the time and spoken English, because then it would start to sound
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a bit like a regional accent, but definitely, everyone does it some in American English.
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Nothing--
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Nothing--
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Nothing lasts forever.
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Nothing lasts forever.
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Lasts.
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STS cluster and then an F right next to it. So we have four consonants in a row. How does she pronounce it?
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Nothing lasts forever.
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Nothing lasts forever.
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Nothing lasts forever.
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Well, it's definitely not: lasts forever, lasts forever.
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I think what she's doing is dropping these two. I think you can get away with that. Lasts forever.
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Nothing lasts forever.
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Everyone would know that you had said 'lasts' even though you didn't say that.
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It's just the way that we would sometimes shorten a word.
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It's not uncommon to drop a consonant like T between two other consonants,
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and here we have T and S between S and F, and it's just natural to drop them and link it into the next word.
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Lasts forever. Nothing lasts forever.
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Natural and spoken English, as well as sung English.
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Nothing lasts forever.
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Nothing lasts forever.
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Nothing lasts forever.
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The word 'forever' you see the letter O, you might want to say 'for'
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but that's not how it's pronounced it's pronounced: fer-- forever, forever.
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So I would write that with the schwa: for-- eh-- and then the stressed syllable is next.
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So that syllable is not stressed, it's not: for, its: fur, fur, forever-- forever--
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Forever.
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Forever. But this is gonna take me down.
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But this is gonna take me down. Okay, lots of stress on 'take',
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much more up-down shape there, higher pitch, some stress on 'this' but: this-- more volume, more intensity.
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Take me down.
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But this is gonna take me down.
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But this is gonna take me down.
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But this is gonna take me down.
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Let's look at the T in 'but', what happens here?
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But this--
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But this--
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But this--
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But this-- but this-- but this-- It's not but.
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It's but, but, but, but.
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Said really quickly, it's an unstressed word,
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I'd write that with a stop T. But, but, but this, but this,
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but this is gonna--
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but this is gonna--
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but this is gonna--
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but this is gonna--
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'Gonna', of course, short for 'going to' and all of these words linked together really smoothly.
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This is gonna take me down.
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No breaks.
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In American English, things link together really smoothly.
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Now, we have the word 'down', just like 'town'.
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It's the OW diphthong, and the N consonant.
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I know a lot of my students say something like: down, with a nasalized diphthong, we don't want that.
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Dow-- no nasal quality at all. Dow-- and then the N sound. Dow--nnn-- Dow--nnn-- Down. Down.
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Down.
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Down.
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Down. He's so tall and handsome as hell. Now, let's listen to just the words: Down.
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He's so--
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Down. He's so--
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Down. He's so--
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Down. He's so--
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Do you notice there's no H in 'he's'?
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Down. He's so-- He's so-- He's so-- Just the EE vowel.
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That's a fairly common reduction. We drop the H in some of these function words like he, his, him/her,
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that are really common.
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So she's dropped to the H there. This happens in spoken English, too.
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Down. He's so--
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Down. He's so--
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Down. He's so--
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The apostrophe S in 'he's' is a light week Z sound, but when it links into an S, which is stronger,
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then the S tends to just take over that Z.
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So you can think that Z is not actually there. It's the EE vowel and then S. He's so-- He's so-- He's so tall.
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He's so tall.
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He's so tall.
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16:20
He's so tall.
266
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16:22
Tall. Higher pitch. That word is stressed. He's so-- He's so tall.
267
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4980
16:27
He's so tall.
268
987300
1580
16:28
He's so tall.
269
988880
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16:30
He's so tall.
270
990680
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16:32
Tall.
271
992180
1680
16:33
Also down here, hell and well, these are all Dark Ls.
272
993860
5700
16:39
They all come at the end of the word.
273
999560
2820
16:42
And you don't need to lift your tongue tip for that. Tall, hell, well. Uhl, uhl, uhl.
274
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16:50
That ending sound, that dark sound does not require tongue lift. Uhl.
275
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16:55
And if you do lift your tongue, there is a chance you will mess up the dark sound.
276
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17:00
He's so tall.
277
1020260
1640
17:01
He's so tall.
278
1021900
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17:03
He's so tall and handsome as hell.
279
1023660
3380
17:07
He's so tall and handsome as hell.
280
1027040
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17:10
And-- that word is reduced. Nnnn-- you could write that schwa N, there's no D sound.
281
1030140
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17:17
And handsome. And handsome.
282
1037800
1740
17:19
And handsome.
283
1039540
1080
17:20
And handsome.
284
1040620
1240
17:21
And handsome.
285
1041860
1000
17:22
What about the D in handsome? Not there. Handsome. Handsome.
286
1042860
5700
17:28
And handsome as hell.
287
1048560
1700
17:30
And handsome as hell.
288
1050260
2060
17:32
And handsome as hell.
289
1052320
2140
17:34
And handsome as hell.
290
1054460
2220
17:36
Hell with a little bit of extra breath in that H, just to bring a little bit more stress and drama to that word.
291
1056680
6220
17:42
And handsome as hell. The word 'as', not pronounced with the AH vowel. That's reduced. 'As' becomes: as, as.
292
1062900
9320
17:52
You could think of it as the schwa, or the IH as in sit vowel. Handsome as-- handsome as-- handsome as hell.
293
1072220
7040
17:59
Handsome as hell.
294
1079260
2060
18:01
Handsome as hell.
295
1081320
2120
18:03
Handsome as hell. He's so bad but he does it so well.
296
1083440
5360
18:08
Here, the second time I am hearing the H on he's,
297
1088800
3840
18:12
he's so-- again, there's no Z sound, just linked together with an S sound. He's so-- he's so-- he's so-- he's so bad.
298
1092640
8440
18:21
He's so bad.
299
1101080
1580
18:22
He's so bad.
300
1102660
1540
18:24
He's so bad but he does it so well.
301
1104200
3460
18:27
Bad, with some stress.
302
1107660
2180
18:29
A little bit more breathy there, higher pitch, longer.
303
1109840
4240
18:34
He's so bad but he does it-- 'But he does' becomes: but he-- but he-- What? That's so weird!
304
1114080
8820
18:42
It sounds like B-U-D-D-Y, buddy,
305
1122900
3400
18:46
and that's because she drops the H in 'he' so we have an ending EE vowel
306
1126300
4900
18:51
and now, the T comes between two vowels so that's a flap T.
307
1131200
4020
18:55
But he-- but he-- but he--
308
1135220
1740
18:56
But he-- but he-- but he does it so well.
309
1136960
4560
19:01
This is perfectly natural and spoken English as well.
310
1141520
3140
19:04
But he-- but he does it so well.
311
1144660
2200
19:06
Some stress on 'does' and also a lot on 'well'. She does some interesting things with the notes there,
312
1146860
7840
19:14
that is a stressed word.
313
1154700
1480
19:16
But he does it so well.
314
1156180
2280
19:18
But he does it so well.
315
1158460
2320
19:20
But he does it so well.
316
1160780
2320
19:23
But he does it so well.
317
1163100
1920
19:25
All links together really smoothly,ending Z sound in 'does' links right into the IH vowel.
318
1165020
5960
19:30
Does it-- does it-- now, what about this T?
319
1170980
3300
19:34
Does it so--
320
1174280
1420
19:35
Does it so--
321
1175700
1500
19:37
Does it so--
322
1177200
1480
19:38
Does it so-- does it so--
323
1178680
3240
19:41
Do you hear tttt?
324
1181920
2720
19:44
It's not there. It's a stop T, does it so-- does it so--
325
1184640
4520
19:49
That's because the next word begins with a consonant, the S sound.
326
1189160
3420
19:52
Does it so well.
327
1192580
1960
19:54
Does it so well.
328
1194540
1920
19:56
Does it so well.
329
1196460
2060
19:58
Does it so well. I can see the end as it begins--
330
1198520
5260
20:03
I can see the end as it begins--
331
1203780
3000
20:06
Very clear with the stress there as far as the intonation, the pitch of the song, the melody.
332
1206780
5200
20:11
I can see the end as it begins.
333
1211980
3620
20:15
'Begin', two-syllable word with second syllable stress.
334
1215600
3880
20:19
I can see the--
335
1219480
2480
20:21
Now, the vowel in 'the' is pronounced 'the' instead of 'the' because the next word begins with a vowel.
336
1221960
6920
20:28
So the rule is: if the next word begins with a vowel or diphthong, make it 'the'.
337
1228880
6440
20:35
If the next sort of begins with a consonant, make it 'the'.
338
1235320
3980
20:39
I can see the end--
339
1239300
1960
20:41
I can see the end--
340
1241260
1980
20:43
I can see the end--
341
1243240
1800
20:45
I can see the end-- I can see the-- I can, I can, I can.
342
1245040
4340
20:49
Nice 'can' reduction just like in spoken English. Can, can, can.
343
1249380
4940
20:54
When it's a helping verb, that is not the main verb, the main verb is 'see'.
344
1254320
4720
20:59
Then it's going to be reduced. It's not can, its can, I can see, I can see the end.
345
1259040
5760
21:04
I can see the end--
346
1264800
1960
21:06
I can see the end--
347
1266760
1980
21:08
I can see the end as it begins.
348
1268740
3820
21:12
Now, here, 'as it', she doesn't reduce the vowel.
349
1272560
3500
21:16
It is the AA in bat vowel, and the Z sound. The Z sound links right into the next vowel IH. As it-- as it--
350
1276060
7900
21:23
What do you think is gonna happen with this T? The next word begins with a consonant.
351
1283960
4860
21:28
As it begins--
352
1288820
2000
21:30
As it begins--
353
1290820
2060
21:32
As it begins--
354
1292880
1800
21:34
As it-- as it be-- as it-- There's no ttttt. That's a stop T.
355
1294680
7380
21:42
As it begins--
356
1302060
2060
21:44
As it begins--
357
1304120
1900
21:46
As it begins--
358
1306020
2000
21:48
Let's talk about the word 'begin'. So the pronunciation has the IH as in sit vowel.
359
1308020
6640
21:54
Be-- be-- begin-- begin-- But in sung English,
360
1314660
5320
21:59
and sometimes in spoken English, you will hear people change this vowel a little bit.
361
1319980
3980
22:03
She doesn't say bih-- begin, she says bee-- begin.
362
1323960
4740
22:08
Begins--
363
1328700
4800
22:13
So she says more of an EE as in she vowel,
364
1333500
3560
22:17
that's not what you'll see when you look up this word in a dictionary.
365
1337060
3260
22:20
Though it does happen, in sung and spoken English too.
366
1340320
3480
22:23
But just so you know, if you're speaking, you should probably try to go with the IH vowel.
367
1343800
5480
22:29
Bih-- bih-- begin, begin.
368
1349280
3020
22:32
What's really the most important thing about this word is that the first syllable is very short,
369
1352300
5040
22:37
and the second syllable is a longer, so that we have a sense of the stress.
370
1357340
4120
22:41
Bih-- bih-- begin--
371
1361460
1660
22:43
Begin--
372
1363120
3320
22:46
begin-- My one condition is...
373
1366440
4900
22:51
My one condition is...
374
1371340
3620
22:54
So we have some stress on all of these words. One, my one condition is.
375
1374960
8960
23:03
My one condition is...
376
1383920
3640
23:07
My one condition is...
377
1387560
3520
23:11
My one condition is...
378
1391080
3680
23:14
Condition, three syllable word with middle syllable stress. So the first syllable is not
379
1394760
6000
23:20
cone-- or anything with more of a vowel. We see the letter O but it's the schwa. Con-- con-- condition.
380
1400760
7560
23:28
So just like this word 'can', which reduces to can, this syllable also reduces to: can, the same sounds.
381
1408320
7640
23:35
Con-- condition. Condition.
382
1415960
3040
23:39
T in the TION here, makes the SH sound.
383
1419000
3820
23:42
Condition.
384
1422820
1140
23:43
Condition--
385
1423960
1540
23:45
Condition--
386
1425500
1500
23:47
Condition is-- Say you'll remember me--
387
1427000
5480
23:52
Okay, the chorus. What's... What are our most stressed syllables in this first phrase?
388
1432480
5940
23:58
Say you'll remember me--
389
1438420
2840
24:01
Say you'll remember me--
390
1441260
2920
24:04
Say you'll remember me--
391
1444180
2700
24:06
Say-- Say you'll remember me--
392
1446880
6640
24:13
The stressed syllables, the longer syllables, you will, you'll, becomes you'll, you'll,
393
1453520
7340
24:20
I would write that with the schwa, it's reduced.
394
1460860
1940
24:22
Say you'll--
395
1462800
1120
24:23
Say you'll--
396
1463920
1300
24:25
Say you'll--
397
1465220
1340
24:26
Say you'll--
398
1466560
1360
24:27
Say you'll--
399
1467920
1240
24:29
And again, this is a dark L.
400
1469160
1860
24:31
You'll, you'll.
401
1471020
1920
24:32
You do not want to lift your tongue tip for this.
402
1472940
2820
24:35
You'll, lalalala-- If you lift your tongue tip, it's probably going to interfere with the dark sound.
403
1475760
6080
24:41
You'll, you'll, Say you'll-- Say you'll remember me--
404
1481840
4480
24:46
Say you'll remember me--
405
1486320
2640
24:48
Say you'll remember me--
406
1488960
2660
24:51
Say you'll remember me--
407
1491620
2620
24:54
Also note, it's not remember, ree, ree, it's rih, rih, with the IH as in sit vowel.
408
1494240
8260
25:02
Rih-- rih--remember-- remember-- EH as in bed vowel in the stressed syllable.
409
1502500
5940
25:08
Remember, remember me--
410
1508440
2300
25:10
Remember me--
411
1510740
4040
25:14
Remember me-- Standing in a nice dress--
412
1514780
3860
25:18
Standing in a nice dress--
413
1518640
3480
25:22
Standing in a nice dress--
414
1522120
2240
25:24
Nice, the most stressed word there.
415
1524360
2760
25:27
The ING ending is again, turned into an N ending, standin' not standing.
416
1527120
6940
25:34
Standin' in a-- standin' in a--
417
1534060
4500
25:38
And and they all link together really smoothly. The letter A is just the schwa.
418
1538560
4300
25:42
Standin' in a nice--
419
1542860
3380
25:46
Standing in a nice dress--
420
1546240
2420
25:48
Standing in a nice dress--
421
1548660
2360
25:51
Standing in a nice dress--
422
1551020
2280
25:53
Lots of Ns in this phrase.
423
1553300
2280
25:55
Standing in a nice--
424
1555580
4020
25:59
Standing in a nice--
425
1559600
2000
26:01
Standing in a nice--
426
1561600
2000
26:03
Standing in a nice--
427
1563600
2260
26:05
The vowel in 'stand' is AA as in bat, but when that's followed by N like it is here, it changes, it's not pure.
428
1565860
7200
26:13
That would be stand, and that's not how we say it, we say stand.
429
1573060
5280
26:18
Uh uh. There's more of an UH vowel in the middle because the back of the tongue relaxes
430
1578340
5160
26:23
before the front of the tongue goes up for the N.
431
1583500
2740
26:26
Sta-- standin-- standin' in a nice dress--
432
1586240
7140
26:33
The letters CE here, the S sound, which goes right into the next sound, the consonant cluster.
433
1593380
8180
26:41
Standing in a nice dress--
434
1601560
2300
26:43
Standing in a nice dress--
435
1603860
2440
26:46
Standing in a nice dress--
436
1606300
2100
26:48
DR, now this can be pronounced JR.
437
1608400
4920
26:53
Jr-- jr-- dress.
438
1613320
2680
26:56
Instead of dd-- dress, dress.
439
1616000
3280
26:59
The JR sound is actually more common, and that's what she does here. Nice dress. Nice dress.
440
1619280
7100
27:06
Jjjj-- instead of ddd---
441
1626380
3920
27:10
Nice dress--
442
1630300
3260
27:13
nice dress-- Starin' at the sunset, babe--
443
1633560
3740
27:17
Starin' at the sunset--
444
1637300
4420
27:21
Okay, again, the ING ending is turned into an IN ending.
445
1641720
5760
27:27
Starin-- starin--
446
1647480
2540
27:30
Now, we have at. Is that pronounced with a full vowel? Or is the vowel reduced?
447
1650020
5040
27:35
Starin' at the sunset, babe--
448
1655060
2960
27:38
Starin' at the sunset, babe--
449
1658020
3040
27:41
Starin' at the sunset, babe--
450
1661060
2920
27:43
She does fully pronounce it. Starin' at-- at the--
451
1663980
4800
27:48
that is a stop T though because the next word begins with a consonant. Starin' at the sunset.
452
1668780
6040
27:54
Starin' at the sunset.
453
1674820
2220
27:57
Starin' at the sunset.
454
1677040
2220
27:59
Starin' at the sunset.
455
1679260
2440
28:01
Sunset is a compound word and in compound words, it's the first word that's stressed.
456
1681700
5680
28:07
So in this case, Sun-- sunset-- Okay, we have another ending T here.
457
1687380
5140
28:12
What do you think? Are we gonna hear a tttt-- released T?
458
1692520
4340
28:16
Sunset.
459
1696860
4080
28:20
Sunset. No, we did not hear a released T, that was a stop T.
460
1700940
5520
28:26
Sunset, babe.
461
1706460
2140
28:28
So the next word begins with a consonant, also this, the rule is if the T is at the end of a thought group,
462
1708600
8200
28:36
then it will also be a stop T. Now, an exception to this would be if it's in a cluster like in the word 'connect'.
463
1716800
6700
28:43
Then in clusters, it's often pronounced.
464
1723500
2620
28:46
But when it's not in a cluster, like here, and it's at the end of a sentence, end of a thought group,
465
1726120
5380
28:51
very common to make that a stop T,
466
1731500
2760
28:54
sung English, and spoken English.
467
1734260
2640
28:56
Sunset.
468
1736900
3740
29:00
babe... Red lips and rosy cheeks...
469
1740640
3560
29:04
Red lips and rosy cheeks... Our descriptor words, are a little bit more stressed.
470
1744200
6320
29:10
Red lips and rosy cheeks...
471
1750520
3380
29:13
A little bit of length on 'cheeks' as well, the word 'and' reduced, D is dropped, and, and, and.
472
1753900
7120
29:21
Red lips and rosy-- and, and.
473
1761020
3400
29:24
Red lips and rosy cheeks...
474
1764420
2700
29:27
Red lips and rosy cheeks...
475
1767120
2740
29:29
Red lips and rosy cheeks...
476
1769860
2520
29:32
Red lips. So the D sound is not released. It's not red lips. Red lips. But it's red lips.
477
1772380
8340
29:40
So the tongue goes up, the D sound is made with the vocal cords.
478
1780720
3620
29:44
Red.
479
1784340
2320
29:46
But then rather than releasing air, she just goes right into the next sound, the L consonant.
480
1786660
5820
29:52
This is true of spoken English too, if the D is followed by a word that begins the consonant, it's not red lips,
481
1792480
7680
30:00
it's not released like that.
482
1800160
1400
30:01
Red lips, red lips. There's just a really subtle D sound before the next word.
483
1801560
5700
30:07
Red lips--
484
1807260
2580
30:09
Red lips and rosy cheeks...
485
1809840
2580
30:12
The letter s in Rosie is a Z sound. Rosy cheeks. Zzzzz. Rosy cheeks.
486
1812420
6500
30:18
Rosy cheeks.
487
1818920
1720
30:20
Rosy cheeks.
488
1820640
1760
30:22
Rosy cheeks. Say you'll see me again...
489
1822400
3660
30:26
Say you'll see me again...
490
1826060
2840
30:28
Okay, now here's the first time she does something that's really different than spoken English.
491
1828900
6340
30:35
So we have: Say you'll see me again... And that is not the way that we would stress that word.
492
1835240
8800
30:44
She's just doing that for effect in her song. It's not a-gain, it's again, it's again, with second syllable stress.
493
1844040
7880
30:51
The first syllable is just a very fast schwa in spoken English. Uh, uh, uh, again, again.
494
1851920
6580
30:58
Say you'll see me again...
495
1858500
1580
31:00
Say you'll see me again...
496
1860080
2180
31:02
Say you'll see me again...
497
1862260
2240
31:04
Say you'll see me again...
498
1864500
2100
31:06
And she even... She changes the vowel, she makes it more like: ah, ah, again, ah.
499
1866600
5420
31:12
But in spoken English, it's the schwa. Uh, uh, uh.
500
1872040
4580
31:16
Again...
501
1876620
4300
31:20
You'll see me-- you'll see me--
502
1880920
1600
31:22
Again, don't need to lift the tongue tip here, this is a dark L, it's not you'll, it's yuhl, yuhl, reduced.
503
1882520
8100
31:30
You'll, you'll--
504
1890620
1460
31:32
Say you'll,
505
1892100
2000
31:34
Say you'll see me again even if it's just in your---
506
1894100
4800
31:38
Even if it's just in your---
507
1898900
3620
31:42
Even-- stress there.
508
1902520
2040
31:44
Even if it's just in your--- And then held out, building up to the title of the song.
509
1904560
11120
31:55
even if it's just in your---
510
1915680
3060
31:58
even if it's just in your---
511
1918740
3040
32:01
even if it's just in your---
512
1921780
3040
32:04
Even if it's just--
513
1924820
1180
32:06
So the stress here is the same as it would be in spoken English, stressed on the stressed vowel EE,
514
1926000
5120
32:11
then we have three unstressed syllables in a row.
515
1931120
2740
32:13
Even if it's -- even if it's-- even if it's just in---
516
1933860
5120
32:18
Now the T in 'just' is not dropped, it's part of a cluster.
517
1938980
3940
32:22
But the reason why it's not dropped is because the next word begins with a vowel.
518
1942920
4660
32:27
If the next word began with a consonant, like in the phrase: just my, just my, just my.
519
1947580
5780
32:33
Then we drop that T because it comes between two consonants.
520
1953360
3240
32:36
But in the word 'just' when the next word begins with a vowel or diphthong, you probably will hear that T.
521
1956600
5720
32:42
Just in-- ttt-- Just in--
522
1962320
3020
32:45
Even if it's just in---
523
1965340
2080
32:47
Even if it's just in---
524
1967420
2280
32:49
Even if it's just in your--
525
1969700
2880
32:52
And 'your' is not reduced.
526
1972580
3080
32:55
Your-- now, normally in spoken English, we wouldn't stress that so much.
527
1975660
4580
33:00
We would just go right into the next phrase, the next word.
528
1980240
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33:04
'Your' is a function word, it's not that important. Just in your wildest dreams.
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Just in your-- just in your-- your-- your-- your-- your wildest dreams.
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But for the song, this word is building up to the next thing, it is not reduced, it is fully pronounced, it is longer.
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Just in your wildest dreams...
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Just in your wildest dreams...
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33:31
Just in your wildest dreams...
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33:36
Then we have the title of the song,
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Wildest Dreams, and I love how the music matches the music of spoken English.
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So the stressed syllable in wildest, is the first syllable and that one is so much longer, wildest dreams.
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So the syllables are not of equal length, and this is true in spoken English as well.
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And maybe we hear it even better in sung English
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because the stressed syllables can be even longer like it is here.
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Wildest dreams...
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Wildest dreams...
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Wildest dreams...
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Wildest. Long-short. Wildest. The L here, also again a dark L because it comes after the vowel in the syllable.
544
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So the vowel, in this case, a diphthong, the AI as in buy,
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wil-- uhl-- that is the dark sound, that does not made the tongue tip up, that's different.
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That's lll lalala, this is uhll-- uhll-- wildest.
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So your tongue tip stays down until you need it to go up for the D.
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Wildest--
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wildest--
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wildest--
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Now to sing the dark L sound, uhlll---
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it's not a sound to hold out, it's not a particularly pretty sound when we isolate it,
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so you wouldn't say wildest, you wouldn't hold that out, you would put it in at the very end,
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you would put your length of the syllable in the diphthong or the vowel.
555
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35:17
Wiiii-- And I don't even really hear much of the dark sound, she's sort of skips out a little bit. Wildest.
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Very subtle and quick at the end, but it's certainly not wildest.
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Wildest--
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wildest--
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wildest--
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Now what about the T in wildest?
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Wildest dreams...
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Wildest dreams...
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35:47
Wildest dreams...
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It's part of an ending ST cluster. Now, up here with 'just',
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we said when that cluster is followed by a word that begins the vowel or diphthong, you say the T.
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If it's followed by a word that begins with the consonant, or in this case, a consonant cluster, you drop the T.
567
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And that's exactly what she does. This is true in spoken English too.
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And again, remember the DR cluster can be JR. Dreams, dreams, rather than
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dreams, ddddd, dreams, dreams, dreams, dreams, dreams.
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A light J sound, I think that's what she does. I think it's a little bit easier.
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Wildest dreams.
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Wildest dreams...
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Wildest dreams...
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Wildest dreams...
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Then just a vowel expression, we hear that a lot in music.
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Ahh, ooh, etc.
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Aahh... Wildest dreams...
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And then again, on the repeat of wildest dreams,
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T is dropped, words link together with the S, the JR cluster 'dreams' just like the first time.
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Wildest dreams aahh...
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Wildest dreams aahh...
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37:12
Wildest dreams aahh...
583
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37:17
Okay, so this is a pretty long video. We did the first verse and we did the chorus.
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Just like when I do a scene from a movie, I don't do the whole movie.
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I don't think I'm going to do the whole analysis here because that could end up being a two hour long video.
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So we'll stop here, but I want to challenge you, if you enjoy this, and you want to know the rest of the song,
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you can do your own analysis.
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Here's what you should do. Download the song, buy it somewhere,
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open it in a program that allows you to look at the details of the song, like the volume.
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I use Audacity for this, and this allows you to go to different places in the song, play them over and over...
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Say you'll remember me...
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Say you'll remember me...
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And that kind of thing.
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When you listen to something on a loop like that, it helps you identify
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what exactly is happening and it helps you focus in on the details.
596
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And then you can write your own Ben Franklin analysis of what you hear happening.
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The stress, put your curve up and down for the stress, dropped sounds, reductions.
598
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38:23
Pay attention, write them down. You know a lot. You can do this.
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Here's an idea. If you do one, take a picture of one of your pages of your analysis,
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post it to Instagram, and use #rachelenglish so I can check it out.
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Now the important question:
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what song would you like to be the next analysis song?
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Put it in the comments. Below but if someone has already put your song, then just like that comment.
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The one with the most likes lets me most easily see the most popular request.
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Working on this video is making me think about the melody of English.
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How we speak but it's almost like a song,
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and it's reminding me of a video I made a long time ago where I talked about the shape, the vocal shape,
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the melody of a stressed syllable.
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I want to make sure you see that if you haven't already, so you can click on it right here.
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Also, please subscribe with notifications if you haven't already.
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I make a new video every Tuesday, and I'd love to have you join me every week.
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That's it guys, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.
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About this website

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