American Road Trip: English Pronunciation

Today, we're going on a road trip. In this video we're going to look a little bit at the

American landscape, and of course we will study some English pronunciation. So, 'road

So, 'road trip' begins with the R consonant sound. And one of the benefits to seeing it in profile,

when I must look forward because I'm driving, is you get to see -- road -- how much the

lips come away from the face when they round to make that initial R. Road trip. So the

R opens into the 'oh' as in 'no' diphthong, ro-, which means they must come together again

for the second half of that diphthong. Ro-, ro-. Now, the D here is a stop consonant.

It's not released before going into the TR consonant cluster. Road trip, trip. So the

TR consonant cluster. You may think, that sounds like a CHR to me. Trip, trip. And of

course there is a technical reason for that, and I have made a video on that, based on

the position of the lips and tongue. Road trip. So the next sound is the 'ih' as in

'sit' vowel, and finally, the P consonant sound. Road trip. On this trip, we passed

through several states. Including West Virginia, Maryland, "Maryland welcomes you," and Pennsylvania.

We passed lost of beautiful countryside, including many farms.

However, we did run into one small problem.

-- So Rachel, why is the traffic zooming by and we're stuck here on the highway?

-- Yeah. -- Because we ran out of gas. -- And why did, wait, what happened? -- Because I

didn't pay attention. I've never run out of gas before in my life. -- How does that make

you feel? -- Like an idiot. -- But we're going to get out of this one. -- He's a Triple-A

member. -- Kevin's saving the day for us. -- What?

Luckily some friends were able to stop and give us some gas.

This allowed us to get back on the road and enjoy one of the best things about road trips:

going to a drive through to get some good, old-fashioned American junk food.

-- So I'm enjoying some Arby's fries. And I also ate a delicious Arby's roast beef.

With our stomachs full, we hit the road again. Idiom: to hit the road. To leave, to get going.

Here we are at the gas station.

There's no need to make two separate

sounds with any kind of lift in between. Gas station, gas station. You can see there's

just one S sound. So, it starts with the G consonant sound, gg, it goes into the 'aa'

as in 'bat' sound: ga-, gas. There's the S sound, just once. It then goes into the T

sound: gas st-, gas sta-, the 'ay' as in 'say' diphthong. Gas station. Followed by the sh

consonant sound, the schwa, and the N sound. Gas station, gas station.

-- Rachel, what are you doing right now? -- I'm filling up.

-- Filling up, what does that mean? -- I'm putting gas in the car.

Fill 'er up. And the reason why I'm doing that is so I don't run out of gas when I'm on the highway.

-- We don't want that to happen. -- We don't.

Fill 'er up [x4]

-- Alright, I need money for the toll. -- Almost home.

-- Hi. -- How ya doing? -- Good, how are you? -- Fine. $1.60. -- $1.60. Thanks, have a good day.

I wonder how he's going to feel about being on Rachel's English.

Hey, there's a beautiful shot of the Empire State building.