Speaking with Confidence? [Unlock the Power of Helping Verbs!]

What is a helping verb and how  does it factor into your accents  

when you're speaking American English? Today I'm going to make sure you know  

what to do with helping verbs so you  can have the most natural easiest to  

understand American accent possible. 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. How does a helping verb fit into the rhythm of  

American English? In English we have long  stressed syllables and short unstressed  

syllables and usually verbs are stressed. In  fact, we recently made a video on the best  

clearest way to stress verbs. Link for  that will be in the video description. 

Verbs, they're stressed they're longer but not  helping verbs. Have you ever heard of a helping  

verb before? Maybe you've heard the more fancy  name, auxiliary, pronounced with a G and a Z,  

auxiliary. This word means additional. The airplane has auxiliary fuel tanks so  

the main tanks and then additional auxiliary  tanks and yes, I find that word pretty hard to  

pronounce so let's just stick with helping verbs. A helping verb is not the main verb. For example,  

I can hear you. Hear is my main  verb, it's stressed, I can hear you,  

hear you. Can is our helping verb. It's not  stressed. In fact it's reduced, it’s said very,  

very quickly. I can hear you. Can, can. Very  different from hear, can hear, can. Short. Hear,  

long. You want that different quality of stressed  and unstressed syllables when speaking English.  

It might feel strange to make the word can, can  but that is natural spoken English. So is can  

a helping verb? Yes, but not always. Sometimes,  it's the only verb so it can't be a helping verb. 

Who can come early to help set  up? I can. Can. Fully pronounced,  

it's the only verb. I can-not, I can. There are several types of helping verbs. Today,  

we'll focus on modal verbs. We'll study lots of  real life examples so that you get the stress  

pattern perfectly every time. Modal verbs  show possibility, like might or may. Intent  

like will. Ability like can, the word we've  already studied. Necessity, should or must. 

For example, I read a novel every week. I can  read a novel every week the first sentence is  

something I do. every week I read a novel.  the second sentence is about my ability. I  

have the ability to read a novel every week.  I have that much free time. I have that much  

of a love for novels. I might not read one  every week but I can. I could if I wanted  

to. Let's use a voice analysis software  to see what's going on with the voice. 

First let's play the sentence with  can then the sentence without can. 

I can read a novel every week. I read a novel every week. 

They look pretty much the same length because  can is [kən]. Now, to try to hear it better,  

reductions are so hard to isolate by themselves  because of how fast they are. Let's go ahead  

and listen in slow motion. I can read a novel every week. 

So even in slow motion, we don't hear can. We hear  can, I can read, very, very fast at regular pace. 

I can read a novel every week. No ae vowel like in can but [kən], slowed down. 

I can read a— [kən] 

So this reduction, you can think of it as having  no vowel. Just the k sound and the n sound, it's  

very fast, it's so different from I can, can, can. Now let's compare this when can is not reduced,  

when it's the only verb in the sentence. I can 

I, I can

Back here, when we compared two sentences, one  with the can reduction couldn't really see the  

difference. Let's listen to I can in slow motion. I can. 

I can. Very different from I can,  I [kən] versus kaen, the reduction. 

Now let's look at this word in some other videos.  Today we'll study can, could, and should this way. 

They are there in my house they're on my  library. They can be in your library too. 

They can, [kən]. So fast, nice reduction,  that's because be is our stressed verb so  

can is very short. They can be.

They can be in your library too. 

It's not my place to criticize, all I can do  is try and draw attention to the choices that  

we're making that aren't serving us well. All I can do. Do is our main verb there,  

it has the up down shape of stress. Can, [kən],  no up down shape of stress no length, I can do. 

All I can do--

To look at a CEO on television say,  

“I can be like her” or “He looks like me.” I can be like her. Again, be is our main  

verb I can be, it has the up down shape  of stress, the length and can is so short. 

I can be like her.

Okay, and I've been practicing  

and I'm as close to perfect as I can get. can As I can get. As I can, [kən], reduced. The  

word get is our main verb here, it has the  length, the up down shape of stress. Now  

he does change his vowel a little bit  from E like in bed to I like can sit,  

get. But the official pronunciation here is the  e as in bed vowel and that is our main verb. 

And I'm as close to perfect as I can get.

And I just can't wait to spend more time  

in the galleries. I feel so lucky to have  five almost six months to have your work  

on view so I can kind of take it in. Take is our main verb here. He's put  

kind of between our helping verb and our  main verb. But can, there is no question  

there it's reduced, I can, I [kən].

Have you noticed before that can comes  

out [kən] in native speakers? If so,  good ear. Let me know in the comments. 

[kən]. So short. A helping verb that shows  ability. Usually, unstressed in a sentence but  

sometimes, every once in while it's stressed. This  is usually used in connection with can't, I can't  

come tomorrow but I can come on Thursday. Showing  contrast. Let's look at an example like this: 

I can't do that. But I can do this! 

And we need that immediately.  And I say to them well I can't  

get that for you. But what I can do is make— But what I can do. Okay, so here is an exception:  

He is stressing the word can. I can't do  this but I can do that. So now we hear  

the full pronunciation. Most of the time however,  

can is reduced as a helping verb. But what I can do— 

But what I can do is make the current situation  better for American workers and American  

businesses that are trying to export there. I can  open up more markets than we have open right now. 

I can open up. Now here, he hasn't stressed  can. I can open, [kən]. Open is our main verb,  

it has the up down shape of stress and the  word can is said very quickly, can. I can open. 

I can open up more markets—

than we have open right now,  

uh so that American farmers can sell their  goods there. Another time, can is the helping  

verb and it is reduced. Sell is our main verb.  Can sell, can sell. It's not can sell, can sell. 

American farmers can sell their goods there.  American farmers can sell their goods there. 

Let's look at the helping word  could. Again, this shows ability  

or possibility, I could, I may, I might. What I'll do is I'll find one person I  

thought this was so genius, it turned out to not  be so smart. But I'd find one person who had all  

the answers. So I wrote a letter. The smartest  person I could think of was my grandfather. 

I could think of, could think, think,  our up down shape of stress, more length,  

could our helping verb much faster, the  pitch is flat, much shorter, I could think. 

The smartest person I could  think of was my grandfather. 

The smartest person I could think of—

And it had been privilege that had kept  

it invisible to me for so long. Now I  wish I could tell you the story ends 30  

years years ago in that little discussion group, I could tell you. I wish I could tell you. Tell,  

that's our main verb could, could, could,  could, this little helping verb so short. 

Now I wish I could tell you the story ends— Now I wish I could tell you— 

It took me years to figure out what actually  happened and I couldn't not figure out how he  

did that. It sounded like magic you know? Here, could is a little bit longer,  

but it's still flat, I could not figure out.  Figure out is a two-part verb, a phrasal verb  

and that is the main verb here with the stress.  Out, it has the up down shape of stress. Could,  

flat. That's our helping verb.

I could not figure out— 

I could be sitting on my couch in— I could be sitting be sitting is our verb there,  

our main verb, could is our helping verb and  it's much faster. I could, I could, I could. 

I could be sitting on my— And all of a sudden I didn't  

have to be the expert anymore, I could  now simply plug people into Sourcelinks— 

He can plug people in. Plug is our main verb  there. Could the helping verb. I could, I could,  

I could, uh, flat unstressed helping verb.

I could now simply plug people in— 

I wish I could say this is the only way our  species is hurting the deep reefs but it's not. 

I wish I could say. Say. Our main verb  could, our helping verb, I could, could,  

could. Flat and fast.  

I wish I could say—

Who taught me how to work with big brushes, big,  big kind of spray machines that I could actually  

work with larger scale.

Work is our main verb  here. That I could actually work with. Work,  

could, could, I could, could, could, that flat  helping verb, our unstressed helping verb. In  

some cases as you've noticed, I'll drop the D  in the could reduction but not when the next  

word begins with a vowel or diphthong  like it does here. Could actually. The  

D makes a light flap against the roof of the  mouth. Could actually [flap], could actually. 

That I could actually work with—

In these cases, we don't have the  

length we don't have the up down shape of  stress. These are helping verbs and they're  

unstressed in the sentence.

And finally, should.  You should. I actually hate this phrase. I'm like  

don't tell me what I should do. Should is a  suggestion, it's advice. You should exercise  

more. He should be more organized. It's just making up the dash of my  

life. Do you know the poem The Dash? If  you haven't read it you should Google it. 

You should Google it. You should, should,  should. The word should said very quickly here,  

you should Google. Google is our main verb,  should is the helping verb. It's unstressed,  

it doesn't have its own up down shape of  stress, it doesn't have length, you should,  

you should. Sometimes we even drop that  D. Should Google it, should Google it. 

If you haven't read it you should  Google it, you should Google it. 

And then build your house right on top of it and  don't budge from it. And if you should someday,  

somehow get vaulted out of your home. Get vaulted. That is our main verb there,  

the should is a helping verb and it said  quickly. You should, should, should, should,  

and if you should, and if you should someday.

And if you should someday somehow 

Just own it. You should be proud of it. You should be proud of it. To be proud,  

this is our main verb here. Should is  just the helping verb and I do hear that  

the D is dropped. You should, should,  should, should be, should be proud. 

You should be proud of it.

We all know you should take  

a sick day or a mental health day or— You should take. Take, our main verb.  

Should, helping verb, so fast.

You should take a sick day, 

But I thought you know, telling a monk you're  against empathy but he said, “Oh, empathy,  

of course you should be against empathy.”  And he began to tell me about his research. 

To be, this is our main verb. To be against  something, but he's adding the helping verb,  

should, but it's not should be against, but it's  should, should, you should, you should, you should  

be against. That helping verb unstressed quality.

Of course you should be against empathy. 

Log base 2 of seven, I mean it looks a lot like  what we were doing before and you should try to  

rearrange it the same way. You should try.  

Try is our main verb with the length, with the up  down shape of stress and should doesn't have that,  

should, you should you, should. It has  that unstressed quality of a helping verb. 

And you should try—

And right around this time,  

a good friend of mine said, “Sheena you should  read the success principles by Jack Canfield.” 

You should read. You should, should, should.  Hear how that's flat? Read has the up down  

shape of stress. Read is our main verb and  should just a little helping verb here. 

You should read—

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 subscribe with notifications on, I  

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