English Conversation - Learn American English with ALLIGATORS!

In this American English pronunciation video, we’ll study pronunciation in real life English

while hanging out at a nature reserve in Florida.

First, we chatted with a ranger.

>> We, we came … he’s never … some of these people have never seen a gator before.

Here’s an example of a dropping the H reduction. Instead of ‘people have’, I said ‘people

uv’, dropping the H and reducing the AA vowel to the schwa. Now ‘have’ just sounds

like a third, unstressed syllable at the end of ‘people’, ‘people ov’. People – luv.

Try that with me. People have, people have. Listen again.

>> We, we came … he’s never … some of these people have never [3x]

… seen a gator before.

Instead of saying ‘alligator’, I’m just saying ‘gator’. I think that’s more

common in my hometown than it is in most other places.

>> Is that right? Yeah. Well, you’ll see some right, you know, right on this side of

the trail. >> Okay. Good. Because we want to give them

a good scare.

Good. We have two O’s here, and sometimes non-native speakers make that sound more like

the OO as in BOO vowel, oo. But this is the UH vowel, like in ‘push’, uh, or ‘should’.

Uh, uh. Listen again.

>> Good. Because we want to give them a good scare.

>> Don’t get too close. >> No, we won’t. Thank you.

Don’t get too close, I won’t. Don’t, won’t. I’ve made a couple of videos on

these n’t contractions. Notice the T is not released. It’s not won’t, but won’t.

With a stopped N sound, won’t, won’t, nt, nt. Don’t. Try it yourself. Don’t,

won’t. Make all of your N’T contractions this way: didn’t, can’t, shouldn’t.

Listen again.

>> Don’t get too close. >> No, we won’t. Thank you.

>> What do you guys think of that?

Whaduhyuh. Here I’m taking ‘what’, ‘do’, ‘you’, and linking them together and smoothing

them out. What do you guys think of that? We use the phrase ‘what do you think?’

a lot. How should you reduce and link these words? Rather than making a T and a D, just

make one sound, a Flap T, which sounds just like the D between vowels. What do, what do,

what do. Just bounce the tongue against the roof of the mouth without stopping the air.

For both ‘do’ and ‘you’, reduce the OO as in BOO vowel to the schwa: it’s faster,

simpler; those are both common reductions. What do you, what do you. Try it, what do

you. Listen again.

>> What do you guys think of that? [3x] >> Whoa.

>> He’s huge. >> Prehistoric.

>> God.

>> Can you see the gators?

Can you. Here I’ve reduced ‘you’ again, yuh, with the schwa. I’ve also reduced ‘can’.

We do this all the time when it’s a helping verb, and it’s almost always a helping verb.

This means it’s not the main verb in the sentence.

>> Can you see the gators?

‘See’ was the main verb, and ‘can’ a helping verb. Since the N is a syllabic

consonant, it overtakes the vowel, the schwa. You don’t need to worry about making it.

So just make a K sound and an N sound, kn, very fast. Can you. Try it, can you, can you.

Listen again.

>> Can you see the gators? [3x] >> Yep.

>> So, it’s February, and winter is the best time to come see the gators.

>> Yes. Especially on a sunny day. >> Yeah.

>> Because they like to come out and soak up the rays on the bank.

>> Mm-hmm. >> We’ll probably pass at least 100 on this

short walk, I would say.

We’ll probably pass. I reduced ‘we will’ to this contraction. This contraction can

be pronounced a couple of different ways. We’ll. Then it sounds like ‘wheel’.

This is the most full and complete pronunciation, so it’s not the most common. Americans like

to reduce function words like this. It can also sound like ‘will’. Or, it can sound

like we’ll, a very quick version of this word, wool. We’ll,

we’ll, we’ll. I said it like ‘will’. Listen again.

>> We’ll probably pass [3x] at least 100 on this short walk, I would say.

Did you notice the ‘probably’ reduction to two syllables? Probly. Try it. Probly. [2x]

Listen again.

>> We’ll probably pass [3x] at least 100 on this short walk, I would say.

>> I would not be surprised. >> Yeah. Well, let’s keep walking and see

what all we see. >> Okay.

Keep walkin’. I changed the NG sound to an N sound. Walkin’ instead of walking.

In general, this reduction is not part of the standard accent,. It’s a stronger habit

in certain regional dialects, for example the south, which is where I am in this video,

and where I grew up. Normally I tell my students not to do it, because if you do it too much,

it does start to sound like a regional dialect and not the standard accent. Listen again.

>> Well, let’s keep walking and see what all we see. [3x]

What all. Earlier, we used a Flap T to link ‘what do’, whaduh. Here I used one to

link ‘what’ and ‘all’. When a word ends in a T (not part of a cluster), and the

next word begins with a vowel or diphthong, make a Flap T to link the words. Instead of

‘what all’, it becomes ‘wha-dall’. The tongue just flaps once against the roof

of the mouth, what all, what all, and it connects those two words. Linking with a Flap T is

a great way to smooth out your speech. Listen again.

>> Well, let’s keep walking and see what all we see. [3x]

>> Okay.

>> Yeah. You’re supposed to—I’ve heard different theories about what you’re supposed to do.

You’re supposed to. What am I saying here? You are supposed to. You are, contracted,

reduces to you’re, you’re. Very fast. You’re, you’re. Try it. You’re.

Supposed to. I changed a couple of things here. I dropped the schwa to squeeze the first

and second syllables together into just one syllable, supposed to, that begins with the

SP cluster, sp. It’s not uncommon to drop the T and D sounds when they come between

two other consonant sounds. So I didn’t say zdt , z-d-t. I dropped the D. Then, because

the next sound is unvoiced, I made the Z unvoiced. That makes it an S. Supposed to, supposed

to. The final part of the reduction is changing the ‘oo’ vowel to the schwa in ‘to’.

Very common. It’s okay if you don’t understand all the reasons why I made every reduction.

Just know that this is a common way to reduce ‘supposed to’. Supposed to. Try it with

me. Supposed to. Listen again.

>> Yeah. You’re supposed to—I’ve heard different theories about what you’re supposed to do. [3x]

In the next section of conversation, listen for contractions with ‘they’. How many

are there? Then you’ll see the section again with the answers on-screen.

>> …If one starts going after you. I’ve heard, run in a zig-zag, because they’ll

try to follow your zig-zag pattern and they’re not good at running in zig-zag.

>> I don’t know. That sounds reasonable to me.

>> But why would they follow your zig-zag pattern?

>> Because they’re stupid. These are small-brained animals.

>> So, they’re very similar to snakes, right? >> I have no idea.

>> Evolutionarily? They’re reptiles? >> Yeah.

>> Yeah. I think they’re pretty primitive.

>> …If one starts going after you. I’ve heard, run in a zig-zag, because they’ll

try to follow your zig-zag pattern and they’re not good at running in zig-zag.

>> I don’t know. That sounds reasonable to me.

>> But why would they follow your zig-zag pattern?

>> Because they’re stupid. These are small-brained animals.

>> So, they’re very similar to snakes, right? >> I have no idea.

>> Evolutionarily? They’re reptiles? >> Yeah.

>> Yeah. I think they’re pretty primitive.

>> What do you see up there, Dad?

Another ‘what do you’ reduction. What do you see? This time was even more sloppy.

Whuh-du-see, not even a clear ‘you’ reduction. Listen again.

>> What do you see up there, Dad? [3x] >> Well, I was hoping to spot cranes

Hopin’ to (duh). My dad also dropped the G in ING to make –in’ instead. Hoping

to. The word ‘to’ was reduced to the Flap T and schwa. Here, the tongue is already at

the roof of the mouth for the N. So you don’t actually have to flap your tongue. Think of

it as a quick D as you release the N. Hopin’ to. Hopin’ to. Listen again.

>> Well, I was hoping to [3x]

…spot cranes. But I do not see any.

>> Uh-huh. >> From miles away.

>> Oh yeah? >> You can hear them before you can see them.

Dad did two ‘them’ reductions, where we drop the TH and change the vowel to the schwa.

Hear them, see them. Notice notice how ‘them’ links to the word before so it just sounds

like an unstressed syllable on the end of that word. It doesn’t feel like a separate

word. That’s what you want, words linked together. Hear them, see them. Try it with

me. Hear them. See them. Listen again.

>> hear them before you can see them. [3x] >> Oh yeah?

>> They’re really noisy.

>> Hey David? >> Yeah?

>> What do you think of my home city so far?

Another ‘whaduhyuh’. Not ‘what do you’, but ‘whaduhyuh’, ‘whaduhyuh’. Much

smoother.

>> What do you think of my [3x] home city so far?

>> It’s pretty great. >> I like it!

I hope you enjoyed this real English study. Look in the description below for links to

related videos, for example, the ‘Dropping the H’ video. Don’t forget to sign up

for my mailing list here to keep on top of everything that’s happening at Rachel’s

English.

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